[New post] Mobile Money Big fish M-Pesa new target in the industry.

Winfred Kuria posted: "Leading mobile operator Safaricom gave Kenya an outfit to forever thank them for--- M-Pesa. 2007 saw the birth of the now popular transaction platform. Since then, life has never been the same again for Safaricom subscribers. The mobile industry has sinc" New post on Kachwanya.com Mobile Money Big fish M-Pesa new target in the industry. by Winfred Kuria Leading mobile operator Safaricom gave Kenya an outfit to forever thank them for--- M-Pesa. 2007 saw the birth of the now popular transaction platform. Since then, life has never been the same again for Safaricom subscribers. The mobile industry has since seen the birth of many other similar products that have either been outdone by the big fish and fallen in the option category or those that have seen their death trying to compete M-Pesa. Just like a coackroach hard to die, telcos have since not given up on the battle. This time round its for real. Equity's partnership with mobile company Airtel seems a huge deal in the industry. The deals given by the MVNO to roll out in July is just what subscribers needed for a change. Now MOBIKASH has rolled out Lipa sasa Na MobiKash to beat Lipa na M-Pesa. The platform launched by MobiKash Afrika will be available across all networks in a bid to make cashless transactions a reality for all Kenyans in all the 47 counties countrywide having the transactions delivered in real time. The system will cater for genuineness to reduce risks of handling fake currency and theft as well as enhance efficiency in records management. Subscribers will access the service by dialing *365# and following instructions on the pay Now option. Winfred Kuria | May 30, 2014 at 8:23 pm | Tags: m-pesa, MobiKash, MVNOs, safaricom | Categories: Mobile Money | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fTj Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/mobile-money-big-fish-m-pesa-new-target-industry/

Real-Time Advertising Summit - Early-Booker Deadline Approaching!

Dear Sirs, Don't miss the chance to register for one of the biggest events in programmatic media trading this year at the discounted early-booker rate – making great savings on both group bookings and individual tickets! Take your media buying strategies to the next level by gaining key insights from the industry's very best through interactive sessions, case study presentations, panel discussions and round table discussions. But hurry - to secure your early bird discount (£300 off standard price), you must book by tomorrow, Friday, 30th May. Full details and online booking is available here. If you have any questions please contact me using the details below. And if you haven't seen this year's fantastic speaker line up which includes speakers from IAB UK, Google, Yahoo!, Time Out, News UK, Time Inc. GlaxoSmithKline, sanofi-aventis,  Boehringer Ingelheim and more  - you can do so on the website by clicking here. See you on 19th of November. Best regards, Mohammad Mohammad Ahsan ACI (Europe) T. + 44 20 3141 0606 F. + 44 20 7593 0071

Copyright © 2014 ACI EUROPE Our address is 5/13 Great Suffolk Street, London, SE1 0NS, UK   If you do not wish to receive future email, click here. (You can also send your request to Customer Care at the street address above.)

[New post] Google makes Subtle changes on its logo.

Winfred Kuria posted: "You have been Googling like usual getting your answers like you want them but have you noticed any difference on the web portal? You definitely haven't… If you are a design nerd or typography you obviously got this. Well, with the rest of us, this is so " New post on Kachwanya.com Google makes Subtle changes on its logo. by Winfred Kuria You have been Googling like usual getting your answers like you want them but have you noticed any difference on the web portal? You definitely haven't… If you are a design nerd or typography you obviously got this. Well, with the rest of us, this is so rocket science. Now you know! The change was done skillfully, the space between two letters of the "g" and "I", "I" one pixel to the right and the "I" one pixel down and to the right. Redditors noticed the change a few days ago and a Google representative confirmed this subtle change to a reliable source saying "Great to see people noticed and appreciate even single pixel changes." The change was to make it look sharp regardless of the users screen resolution. Any Kenyans who noticed this? They probably did not care any way…#BabaWhileYouWereAway was what we all cared when Google was busy making the serious changes on its logo. Winfred Kuria | May 29, 2014 at 4:45 pm | Tags: Google | Categories: Google | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fTg Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/google-makes-subtle-changes-logo/

[New post] 25 Exceptional Startups to Compete in PIVOT East 2014 Competition

Winfred Kuria posted: "PIVOT East 2014 pitching conference to be held 24th-25th June in Nairobi Kenya will have 25 exceptional mobile startups from across the region that will compete to win market recognition and investor interest. The shortlisted startups were unveiled after" New post on Kachwanya.com 25 Exceptional Startups to Compete in PIVOT East 2014 Competition by Winfred Kuria PIVOT East 2014 pitching conference to be held 24th-25th June in Nairobi Kenya will have 25 exceptional mobile startups from across the region that will compete to win market recognition and investor interest. The shortlisted startups were unveiled after an intense evaluation process by a panel involving over 20 investors which included Somo(society), ParcelSolution (utilities), Epic (Entertainment), RTSOP (Entreprise) and FarmDrive (Finance). The criteria used by the panelists helped evaluate the startups' purpoted customer pain, opportunity and customer segments, the solution and its fit to the problem, the revenue model and analysis of the competitive landscape. The startups that have made it to the finals are; ? Finance category; Valuraha, Chamasoft and Chura from Kenya and Beyonic and Ensibuuko from Uganda . ? Enterprise category; Thinvoid (Uganda), Online Hisab (Ethiopia), Buymore, ASim Mobile and Offers Africa from Kenya. ? Entertainment category; Safari Tales, Muva Studios, Momentum Core and MapJam from Kenya and Ubongo from Tanzanai . ? Utilities category; Maramoja Transport, Gari Sms, Mavazi, Sendy and Mafundi from ? Society category; SokoNect, Totohealth, SokoText from Kenya and Zapmedic and Moquestions from Uganda. Here is the full list of the finalists with a brief description of their product. Chace Bank being part of the innovative initiative as the gold sponsors termed the ideas from this startups as innovative and creative and could transform the socio-economic development of the East African region. Out of the total 25, 18 startups were from Kenya. 5 startups from Uganda and Tanzania and Ethiopia representing one startup each with a 6th startup placed in a waiting list and may pitch at the conference if finalist in the category drops out for any reason. Finalists will receive training, coaching and mentorship in the weeks to come before the pitching conference. The programme aims at nurturing the next wave of high potential mobile innovations into sustainable business, ensuring that mobile innovations are high in the agenda of regional, governments, corporate and development agencies for amplified development impact and to raise the quality of mobile startups in the region. Winfred Kuria | May 28, 2014 at 5:02 pm | Tags: Epic, FarmDrive, ParcelSolution, PIVOT EAST 2014, RTSOP, Somo | Categories: Startups | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fTb Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/25-exceptional-startups-compete-pivot-east-2014-competition/

[New post] Accounting Software Helps SMEs manage their Grants, Donor Funds and Investments

Winfred Kuria posted: "Uhasibu an online accounting system for East Africa has launched a project based accounting module to help SMEs manage all their grants, donor funds and investments to also run their day to day accounting activities of the company. Due to the increased n" New post on Kachwanya.com Accounting Software Helps SMEs manage their Grants, Donor Funds and Investments by Winfred Kuria Uhasibu an online accounting system for East Africa has launched a project based accounting module to help SMEs manage all their grants, donor funds and investments to also run their day to day accounting activities of the company. Due to the increased number of SMEs, the Government and NGOs have ventured into investing in the industry that contributes to employment as well as the annual GDP. Accounting systems in the organizations only report for the entire organization leaving the company with the task of sifting through their books to figure out details. Project based accounting module will help SMEs keep track of income and expenses at the project or grant level. The funded company simply declares in its books a project which would then represent the donor and under this project, they register the exact amount of money they have received from the donor as well as register any expenses that they incur while using the funding. This will help the company generate a report that includes ONLY details of the funding they received from the specific donor without affecting the reporting for the entire company or affecting the reporting for any other funds they have received. Uhasibu reports generated from doing project based accounting will catapult the level of donor fund accountability and hopefully increase the amount of funds going around to fund SMEs. Winfred Kuria | May 28, 2014 at 4:07 pm | Tags: NGOS, SMEs, Uhasibu | Categories: Tech | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fT8 Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/accounting-software-helps-smes-manage-grants-donor-funds-investments/

[New post] 1963 Jinice gives potential investors a run for their money.

Winfred Kuria posted: "JULY 1ST will see the country switch to cashless payment system with commuters expected to use plastic money in public service vehicles. In line with digitalization of services in the country, Some of the fleets have already rolled out the service to Keny" New post on Kachwanya.com 1963 Jinice gives potential investors a run for their money. by Winfred Kuria JULY 1ST will see the country switch to cashless payment system with commuters expected to use plastic money in public service vehicles. In line with digitalization of services in the country, Some of the fleets have already rolled out the service to Kenyans this being a tangible milestone. Matatu Owners Association (MOA) last week launched its own service in the race to lock in the bulk of the sh205 billion generated by the public transport business. The move has taken on banks and technology firms eyeing the piece of the public transport business already having kicked out Beba pay a product ran by Equity and Google in the route that operates Ngong road. This has unleashed a battle with Safaricom (Lipa na M-Pesa), Google and Equity, TaptoPay a HongKong firm operating on the same. Attracting customers will definitely depend on benefits earned by the customer by using the product as well as terms and conditions given to Association. With Safaricom charging one per cent commission in offering credit, Jinice will offer credit at less than one per cent commission offering credit equivalent to 10 per cent of their usage. The move is in a bid to create self- reliance and convenience since being in the industry and having direct contact with the day to day commuter gives them better platform to offer a better service. Pioneer parties of the cashless payment system have been beaten in their own game. This is about to get interesting, the public will have a variety to choose from the set off since Visa and MasterCard have also announced plans to roll out similar cards. At the best of interest to digitize Kenya's matatu industry, the roll out will curb erratic increases of fares based on weather patterns, traffic flow as well as enable Kenya Revenue Authority collect taxes from the industry. Winfred Kuria | May 28, 2014 at 2:16 pm | Tags: Bebapay, cashless payment system, MOA, Taptopay | Categories: Tech | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fT4 Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/1963-jinice-gives-potential-investors-run-money/

[New post] 100 Plus telemarketers blacklisted.

Winfred Kuria posted: "Over 100 telemarketers have been blacklisted for debiting consumers for services they did not provide forcing Payments Association of South Africa to take action on these companies that have been proven guilty of fraudulent transactions where banking deta" New post on Kachwanya.com 100 Plus telemarketers blacklisted. by Winfred Kuria Over 100 telemarketers have been blacklisted for debiting consumers for services they did not provide forcing Payments Association of South Africa to take action on these companies that have been proven guilty of fraudulent transactions where banking details of individuals were obtained illegally. More than 120,000 of the 31 million payment orders processed monthly had been disputed by consumers. Illegal deductions were also made without the consent of customers which resulted in debit orders having to be reversed at some considerable cost to a Payment Systems Company PS and S. Unsophisticated consumers are at greatest risk because they are not aware of how to dispute illegal debit order deductions. CEO Walter Volker asked banks to educate the public to check and verify whether any of the deductions made on their accounts were fraudulent or made without their consent. "By keeping track of address details as well as ID numbers, it makes it easier to spot when they reappear under a different guise." said Mr. Volker.   Winfred Kuria | May 27, 2014 at 8:16 pm | Tags: PASA, Telemarketing, Volker Walker | Categories: Tech | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fT0 Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/100-plus-telemarketers-blacklisted/

[New post] May 26, 2015 It is for Karibu Post Paid service termination.

Winfred Kuria posted: "The date is out, May 26, 2015 will see approximately 140,000 subscribers out of service being the set date to terminate Safaricom's Karibu post-paid tariff established in 2011. This has been due to losses made by the company through the post-paid service" New post on Kachwanya.com May 26, 2015 It is for Karibu Post Paid service termination. by Winfred Kuria The date is out, May 26, 2015 will see approximately 140,000 subscribers out of service being the set date to terminate Safaricom's Karibu post-paid tariff established in 2011. This has been due to losses made by the company through the post-paid service having it termed "A loss making tariff". The halt will however have current subscribers retained with no new registrations of the monthly billing service for the next year till cancellation. The post paid service offers two packages; for ksh1,000 per month, a subscriber gets 900 minutes talk time for on-net calls, 100 minutes for off-net calls, 100 megabytes of data and 100 on-net SMSes. For ksh2500, subscribers get 2,200 minutes for on-net calls, 300 minutes off-net, 250 megabytes of data and 250 on-net text messages. "We would like to notify our customers that the Karibu PostPay bundles (1,000 and 2,500) have been discontinued and shall not be available to new customers with effect Monday, 26 May,2014" read a notice from Safaricom in the Sunday dailies. This comes a week after the telco wrote to CAK requesting approval to terminate the service which had post paid subscribers pay less than one shilling for calls per minute to make calls compared to pre-paid customers who are charged sh4 per minute during peak hours. This won't be too long though. The company plans on coming up with other tariffs that will give options to subscribers with time which could mean more expensive tariffs than the previous. Winfred Kuria | May 27, 2014 at 7:40 pm | Tags: CAK, karibu post-paid service, safaricom | Categories: Telecos | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fSX Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/may-26-2015-karibu-post-paid-service-termination/

[New post] MTN sees double-digit sales revenue growth thanks to Nigerian Unit.

Winfred Kuria posted: "MTN Nigeria has registered a double digit revenue growth in the first four months of this year also increasing its number of subscribers in the country which counts as biggest market to the telecommunication firm. This is thanks to the ban removal on SIM" New post on Kachwanya.com MTN sees double-digit sales revenue growth thanks to Nigerian Unit. by Winfred Kuria MTN Nigeria has registered a double digit revenue growth in the first four months of this year also increasing its number of subscribers in the country which counts as biggest market to the telecommunication firm. This is thanks to the ban removal on SIM-card sales imposed in March therefore adding 1.1 million users in the country during April. The move contributed to a 2% rise in total customers over the four –month period. On the other hand, South Africa sales growth slowed as mobile operators cut prices to add customers in a saturated market while the amount MTN is allowed to charge smaller companies for use of its network was reduced by the communications regulator. MTN Group now looks to grow data services and mobile money making them key areas of focus as voice revenues still remain unstable. Earnings before interest, tax, and depreciation and amortization margin improved against the first four months of 2013 and the 2013 full year margin, mainly due to cost cutting measures by the company. Winfred Kuria | May 27, 2014 at 7:06 pm | Tags: MTN Group | Categories: Telecos | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fSU Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/mtn-sees-double-digit-sales-revenue-growth-thanks-nigerian-unit/

[New post] Any reason for telecommunication’s big fish to get scared ahead of Equity’s MVNOs?

Winfred Kuria posted: "Kenya's leading bank Equity is set to kick-off its mobile telecoms service in the next two months in which it will mirror all its banking services into the mobile phone. This will mean serious business; applying for loans, transaction of money to and from" New post on Kachwanya.com Any reason for telecommunication's big fish to get scared ahead of Equity's MVNOs? by Winfred Kuria Kenya's leading bank Equity is set to kick-off its mobile telecoms service in the next two months in which it will mirror all its banking services into the mobile phone. This will mean serious business; applying for loans, transaction of money to and from bank accounts, pay bills as well as carry out trans-boarder transactions from the customers' phone. Every SIM card will be a debit card enabling customers to pay for goods by tapping their phones on a mobile point of sale terminal with money transfers charged at one per cent of the transaction value compared to the prevailing market charges of 16 per cent. Not sure whether this is an enough package to lure a load of subscribers from other communication firms, what Equity has to offer is definitely a great package if all we care is convenience. With a combination of Voice, Data and SMS  just like other telcos, Equity is set to partner Airtel in this to spread its new service in the country, being a telco which has many a times been named as fastest growing in terms of reach. Equity knows the way to core competition since major rival Safaricom offers almost all services they are about to roll out, only that they are cheaper. Airtel will as well have access to distribute services through Equity Bank's branch and agency banking network. The bank has already put in place a 300 seat customer contact centre fully integrated with voice and social media operational 24/7 not to forget the earlier hinted voice call charges expected to be lower than what today's subscriber parts with for calls a minute. If all this is to be sustained, does it mean "a wake up call" for safaricom? Winfred Kuria | May 26, 2014 at 10:11 pm | Tags: airtel, Equity, MNVOs, safaricom | Categories: Business, Telecos | URL: http://wp.me/p1QX2Y-fSO Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Kachwanya.com. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.kachwanya.com/reason-telecommunications-big-fish-get-scared-ahead-equitys-mvnos/