Orun Energy Co-Founded by Kwabenah Smith is a pioneer indigenous low-cost base station fabricator.Russell Southwood of Balancing Act discusses their cost savings strategy with company partner Joe Jackson who stated that:
The design for the original GSM base station originated in Scandinavia and not much has changed since then. The equipment has to be kept at 22 degrees and as a result there is a...
Founded by Todoe komla Olivier and Gozo Karley, Kamit Communications offers the:
YINN, a multifunction prepaid phone card which combines international telecommunication services and prepaid phone card payment method, allowing for online payment of small amounts, for instance by using a single prepaid phone card as an alternative online payment method.This way underserved consumers and...
Founded by Nathan Eagle Txteagle makes it possible for anyone to earn small amounts of money while completing tasks that just take a few seconds, whether while waiting in line or resting at home...they have also developed a system that enables mobile phone subscribers to accumulate savings by completing tasks for companies who pay them with mPesa (mobile money), airtime, or other currency...
ICTUpdate reports:
Over the last few years Fantsuam has developed a wireless internet system, broadcasting their internet signal to communities up to 15 km away from their base, and covering a population of more than 100,000 people. Customers on the network, called ZittNet, now includes local education institutions, banks, hotels and guest houses. A nearby hospital and several clinics are also...
Inc. magazine profiles TED speaker, Herman Chinery-Hesse's latest company BSL, covered earlier:
When BSL launches this fall, it will let African entrepreneurs easily sell their products online and accept payments via mobile phone. Such transactions are extremely difficult in a country in which computers are rare and in which PayPal doesn't operate. If Chinery-Hesse can sign up enough merchants...
Naijagal highlights the debut of Etisalat Nigeria a mobile phone service provider:
Etisalat Nigeria witnessed an influx of visitors to its web site as Nigerians sought to reserve special numbers on Etisalat’s network. The website apparently had over 8 million hits in less than one week with thousands already reserving their special numbers on Etisalat’s network. It is now in the the top 100...
Vanguard Nigeria reports:
Determined to take communications to the unreached, pressured to find a working solution to the energy crisis hitting most developing countries, the GSMA, global body for mobile operators last week, launched the Green Power for Mobile programme with the goal of helping the mobile industry use renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, or sustainable biofuels, to...
White African reports on student ingenuity in Kenya:
My good friend Josiah Mugambi in Nairobi was at the Kenya chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) exhibition in Nairobi last weekend. This is where students showcase their innovation in engineering, ICT, mobile application and renewable energy. He did me a great favor by sharing some pictures and research that he...
Om Malik writes:
Google is one of the many investors who have invested $60 million in O3b Networks, a St. John, Jersey, Channel Islands-based start-up that is looking to offer Internet services in the emerging world, especially area that are far away from the sub-sea networks and major backbones...I am intrigued by this start-up because it does make sense to offer connectivity in remote areas....
In an interview with the Cheetah Index, founder of Accents Telecom Douglas Kimani, outlines services offered by the company:
Accents uses technology for the customers' convenience. An example is their pin less calling cards whereby the Accents system recognizes their customers telephone numbers whenever they call from the number on their profile and automatically knows which account to make...
"...MapNTL is an online mapping and location-based services that delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more businesses and consumers than any other supplier in Nigeria..."-Company...
NaijaBlog profiles ecommerce in Nigeria:
E-commerce development has been painfully slow in Nigeria, given the lack of epayments infrastructure. ReLoadNG is already proving popular - you can use your local bank Interswitch card to buy PHCN and phone credit. Given there is no real-time reconciliation with the telcos apparently available, the system works by the company having sufficient scratch...
From ICTUpdate:
Using the internet and mobile phones, farmers in East Africa learn to work more efficiently with the traders who buy their goods. The Linking Local Learners method of learning explores how farmers can access market information and get a fairer deal...[continue...
Ghana Chronicle profiles the growth of Atwima Rural Bank
Gambia's first investment bank BSIC Gambia is launched-GambiaNow
Simphani brings to our attention a video on village phones in Uganda.
Naija Blog proffers a simple power solution for Nigeria.
Makezine profiles "a proven, commercialized technology" for generating power from manure.
West Africa Sustainable Economic Initiative shares are...
African Renewal reports:
Ann Wanjiku walks up to a green-and-white booth with an “M-Pesa agent” sign on it. There she shows the agent her identity card and her cell phone, which displays a PIN number provided by a client. Using the PIN number, the M-Pesa agent takes just a minute to verify that the client has transferred payment for 1,000 traditional carvings into Ms. Wanjiku’s mobile money...
Led by Karanja Macharia, Mobile Planet "...develops voice and data applications for mobile devices. Their applications enable networks and corporate clients entertain, interact and transact via SMS, MMS and WAP with the growing mobile market in Africa..."In a related story White African discusses an equity stock investment in the company by Google, and wonders whether this is the start of a...
White African reports:
The appeal of wireless meshes is especially high in very remote and unconnected areas of Africa, primarily because it allows simple (though limited) connectivity where it wasn’t available before...[continue...
Nigeria,hot bed for mobile banking?
SAGE 2008 world cup won by Nigerian team.
Umbele, A variation of the Kiva model?
Acits exits Nigerian telecoms...
Watch VNL’s CEO Anil Raj talk about the rural opportunity, the challenges associated with bringing connectivity to rural areas, WorldGSM™ – VNL’s solar GSM system,microtelecom, and the future of rural telecom.
A related report from Russell Southwood of Balancing Act states :
VNL’s business strategy is to tackle the cost base of Africa’s mobile operators in a number of different ways. It will...
The Economist reports on Dabba:
Digital technology may seem unpredictable, but it follows some basic patterns. Innovations quickly become commodities, enable arbitrage and lead to more distributed systems. Combining all three is the recipe for Dabba, a South African wireless start-up, which has pioneered an idea called the “village telco”. It could make phone calls much more affordable for many...
Image via WikipediaNewsweek reports:
Safaricom, Kenya's largest mobile phone provider and the most profitable company in East Africa, began trading Monday morning on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The public offering of a 25 percent government stake in Safaricom has raised more than $800 million, in what's projected to be the largest IPO ever completed in sub-Saharan Africa, exceeding those of...
From the Dimagi project page:
We are developing the process that would facilitate the use of mobile device to transport images taken by nurses at health care centers (point-of-care) in rural Zambia to a server in Lusaka where doctors can access the images in order to provide expert advice on cervical lesions. We would like to explore the use of this approach to facilitate a scalable national...
"...Emperion designs, deploys, operates and maintains broadband IP communication solutions and services based on digital satellite (VSAT) and fixed wireless access (FWA) networks. The solutions are targeted at enterprise class customers and are deployed to a rapidly growing client portfolio in more than 30 countries in Europe , Middle East and Africa (EMEA)..." The company "...has focused on...
Mobile Africa reports:
Mi-Pay’s portfolio of mobile payments services is available to African operators to help them further monetise their existing prepaid networks. Mi-Pay also provides a service that enables third parties to buy pre-paid airtime and send that airtime to subscribers in Africa enabling them to make calls, and extend the value of their mobile phones. This service provides added...
Uchuuzi is an ecommerce company that sources and delivers goods to their clients offices and homes.Orders can made via cellphone and or internet. Methods of payment include paypal and major credit...
Joel Selanikio refers to Datadyne's EpiSurveyor application in a BBC article on 'Invisible Computing',where he contends that "an international network of wirelessly-connected computers" already exists--the mobile phone network--His companies application:
EpiSurveyor allows anyone to very easily create a handheld data entry form, collect data, and then transfer the data back to a desktop or...
International Trade Centre reports:
Issa Bagayoko is a mango exporter from Mali. During the high season,between March and July, mangos are picked, gathered and transported to Bamako on day one. By 5:00 pm on day two, they have to be ready to ship." I export the fruits by airfreight. There is no room for delays on that supply chain, because if you are late, you miss the plane! "When the...
NextBillion profilesTapan Parikh's Ekagon Technology which:
Developed Cam, a toolkit to use the capability of phones to capture images and scan documents, enter and process data, and run interactive audio and video. Parikh built a software system on top of Cam to assist self-help groups in managing their information and their operations. Without requiring the users to change their style of...
Tree Hugger reports on the Solio Hybrid 1000™ solar charger:
It can be much more than that for citizens of countries where electricity is scarce. As this video shows, by providing cheap, emission free, reliable power, Solio can help support entrepreneurs and sure up insecure communications networks.
"...The Hybrid 1000 accepts power from either the wall socket or sun storing this energy within...