Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Wednesday September 23rd, 2015

BRCK Kio may just be the handiest technology solution to come out of Africa

The BRCK Kio tablets just launched in Kenya and the technology is as transformative as can be. The BRCK Kio tablets however are an interesting build off of BRCK’s existing technology which it is launching under its latest division honing in on school-focused solutions, BRCK Education. The company launched the division last month appointing Nivi Mukherjee as the lead. Nivi still leads her edtech startup, e-Limu, that is digitizing Kenyan curriculums.

CTO: Double honours as Nigeria occupies Chairmanship, Sec. Gen. positions

The 54-member nations of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) rose from its yearly Forum and Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, last week to announce Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta as the new Chairman. Danbatta is the Acting Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Chairmanship of the CTO by its rules is usually country specific and the position is held by that country’s Chief telecoms regulator. Nigeria won the position in 2014 and by this election, the first tenure ended and another began.

DP Ruto urges County governments to embrace technology

Deputy President William Ruto has urged county governments to embrace technology to increase their revenue base and improve service delivery. Mr. Ruto said there is need for counties to automate their systems of revenue collection to ensure efficiency and prudent management of resources. The Deputy President said counties should make a clean break with the past and come up with an efficient and cost -effective system that could maximize on the counties potential to transform the lives of the people.

Here are the 11 startups to pitch at Seedstars World Nairobi

Startups pitching competition Seedstars World has announced the 11 startups selected to compete at the Nairobi leg of the contest, to win a place in the global finals and up to US $500,000 prize money. Seedstars World sees the competition visit 50 countries worldwide, with 13 African cities hosting competition legs. The winner of each local event will progress to pitch head-to-head against finalists from around the world in Switzerland in February 2016, for the chance to win up to US$500,000 in investment.

Uganda is currently the leading source of Kenya’s mobile roaming traffic

Data released by the Communication Authority of Kenya has revealed that Uganda is currently the Leading Source of Kenya’s Mobile Roaming Traffic. The report is for the fourth quarter statistics report  for the period between April and June 2015 on the mobile telephony sector. Under roaming, the CA has divided the traffic into roaming in and roaming out.

Airtel mobile broadband subscribers to enjoy faster Internet access

Bharti Airtel’s will now use Liquid Telecom’s terrestrial fibre network to connect its mobile base stations and enterprises. The use of this fibre network translates to Airtel mobile broadband subscribers enjoying faster Internet access speeds on its 3G and 4G networks. The framework agreement enables Airtel operations to leverage Liquid Telecom’s existing 20,000km-long fibre network across East, Central and Southern Africa, as well as enjoy new purpose-built fibre infrastructure, to connect Airtel’s mobile base stations and enterprise customers with fibre.