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Communication / ICT in East Africa

  • African press review 21 May 2016

    AFRICA, 2016/05/22 Nigerians opt for bicycles as new fuel price increases come into force. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says he is "staying in power because the West continues to meddle in African politics". And panic has reportedly gripped officials at Kenya's examinaions board as government orders a revetting of its staff. We start in Nigeria where workers, hit by recent fuel price hikes, are reportedly changing their lifestles. The Federal Government this week set 145 Naira per litre as the maximum price of fuel at pumping station (up from 86 Naira per litre) next its decision to end the subsidization of petrol products.
  • Tigo Pesa, now the largest Mobile Financial Service eco-system in Tanzania

    TANZANIA, 2016/02/22 Tigo Tanzania (Tigo.co.tz) announced today that customers of its Tigo Pesa mobile money service will presently be able to move funds between any of the country’s mobile money operators, as Vodacom’s M-Pesa joins an interoperable network by presently set up by Tigo, Zantel and Airtel. Tigo becomes the only operator in Tanzania to offer interoperability with Airtel, Vodacom and Zantel. Vodacom’s participation means that additional than 16 million mobile money users in Tanzania will be able to conduct transactions with one-an extra regardless of which mobile operator they use. With Tigo Pesa, customers will presently benefit from faster, cheaper and safer cashless transactions with anyone across the country
  • Africa,Protect Refugees With Mobile Banking

    BOTSWANA, 2016/02/08 "Mean spirited", "inhumane" and desecrating the spirit of the Refugee Convention are some of the milder criticisms levelled at Denmark's harsh new asylum laws, passed last week. Part new measures is a decision to strip new arrivals of any cash and valuables worth additional than 10,000 kroner (US$1,450), purportedly to pay for their upkeep. Switzerland and some southern German states have introduced similar policies. It's a move that reflects the fragmenting world of European migration policy, lacking in solidarity, empathy and basic human decency. But what of the financial implications for asylum seekers?
  • Africa: How to Avoid Getting Hooked By a Festive Season Phishing Scam

    AFRICA, 2015/12/15 Email phishing attacks are particularly popular over the festive season, half because there's an increase in email marketing and appropriate offers linked to the holidays. During the fourth quarter of 2014, for instance, the number of incomparable phishing attacks globally went up by 18% compared with the third quarter that year, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. A total of 437 brands were targeted and 46,824 incomparable phishing websites were reported, the majority of them hosted in the US. The majority-targeted industries for phishing attacks are retail/service, financial services and payment services.
  • How to Secure Africa's Data Revolution

    AFRICA, 2015/12/08 Africa needs to embrace the data revolution — the exponential increase in the volume and types of data available, which is creating unprecedented opportunities to inform and transform societies. To take one small example of the potential price: telecom companies can track people's movements using data that identify the mobile phone towers through which their calls are routed. Tracking where people went next leaving a disease hotspot helped epidemiologists working on the West Africa Ebola epidemic to predict where new outbreaks may occur. The same data — but anonymised, so people can't be identified — can be used to track the movement of goods to markets, allowing economists to capture data on informal economies.
  • How to Secure Africa's Data Revolution

    AFRICA, 2015/12/08 Africa needs to embrace the data revolution — the exponential increase in the volume and types of data available, which is creating unprecedented opportunities to inform and transform societies. To take one small example of the potential price: telecom companies can track people's movements using data that identify the mobile phone towers through which their calls are routed. Tracking where people went next leaving a disease hotspot helped epidemiologists working on the West Africa Ebola epidemic to predict where new outbreaks may occur. The same data — but anonymised, so people can't be identified — can be used to track the movement of goods to markets, allowing economists to capture data on informal economies.
  • Telecommunications operators in Mozambique have to share infrastructure

    MAPUTO CITY, 2015/11/22 Mozambique’s parliament Wednesday gave general approval to a government proposition to amend the Telecommunications Act that requires operators to share infrastructure, the Mozambican press reported. The Minister of Transport and Communications, Carlos Mesquita said on presenting the proposition that technological changes had led to a new paradigm in telecommunications, which was technological convergence. “This convergence,” the minister said, “involves the use of a single infrastructure that is shared, whereas before each operator had to have equipment, communication channels and an independent system.”
  • Customer care via WhatsApp: Kenyan company

    KENYA, 2015/11/20 Africa currently has over 900 million mobile phone subscriptions, according to communication technology company Ericsson. And across the continent, mobile phone subscribers are increasingly using their devices to access the internet. Social networking sites and instant messaging platforms have become popular communication tools. Kenyan start-up Ongair is taking on the opportunity to help companies better communicate with their customers through instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat. Ongair offers businesses a desktop interface through which they can easily send messages to individuals and groups. They can as well tag and track complaints and other issues raised by customers.
  • Facebook Ready to Beam Free Internet to Remote Regions in Kenya

    UNITED STATES, 2015/10/09 Facebook has begun taking steps to beam free high-speed internet to the remote parts of Kenya in a move likely to scare local telecommunications firms. Together with French based satellite provider Eutelsat, the two firms will accelerate data connectivity in Sub Sahara Africa with a focus on Kenya and Nigeria. "I am excited to announce our initial project to deliver Internet from space as part of our internet.org programme to connect the world," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement Tuesday. INTERNET.ORG
  • EAC moves to tame mobile money fraud

    KENYA, 2015/09/26 Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan are working to reach a common SIM card registration framework to help tame crime that is perpetrated using mobile phones. Officials from the four nations met in Nairobi yesterday, where they discussed harmonisation of their legal frameworks to develop a common SIM card registration system. “SIM card registration has been primarily necessitated by the need to ensure that ICT networks, particularly mobile telecom services, are secured from misuse for criminal activities,” said Kenya’s Communications Authority director general Francis Wangusi. “The new framework will help transaction with fraud as the region strives to realise financial inclusion for the citizens,” said Joseph Tiampati, the ICT Principal Secretary.