kenya Archives - tandaabiashara

Aug162019 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

WIPO ranks Kenya second leading innovation hub in sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya has been ranked the second leading innovation hub in sub-Saharan Africa by the World Intellectual Property Organisation in its latest Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019 report. Kenya’s so-called Silicon Savannah only trails upper middle income economy South Africa, with Mauritius coming third. “Kenya has a track record for recording high levels of innovation, outperforming on levels of innovation relative to GDP for the ninth consecutive year, an excellent record at par with other lower-middle-income countries like India, the Republic of Moldova, and Vietnam,” reads the report. Kenya’s innovative strength has been attributed to startups’ easy access to credit and microfinance loans. “As in previous years, Africa shines in terms of innovation relative to level of development. Ou

Jun62019 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

Kenya’s Cooperative Bank to briefly shutdown banking services for weekend IT upgrade

Business, Technology

Cooperative Bank of Kenya will switch off banking services over the weekend for IT upgrade. In a notice published on the dailies on Thursday, the bank notified its customers and the general public that it will be upgrading its IT network to improve system performance and provide faster banking services. “All our banking services will be switched off from 10.00pm Saturday 8th June to 8.00am Sunday 9th June 2019,” the lender said. On the affected days, customers will be unable to use the bank’s ATM, mobile banking, VISA Card, agencies, Saccolink, account to Mpesa, Kenswitch, and all other services.

May272019 by editorNo Comments

Why Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are flocking to Africa

Business, Internet, Technology

Now approaching 226 million, the number of smartphone connections across Africa has doubled over the last two years, according to a report published by GSMA on Africa's mobile economy. This leap coupled with the growing number of technology hubs and companies in major African cities is a boon for tech investors. It's why Microsoft and Google are not the only international technology companies staking their claims on the continent. Thanks to one of Google's many products, TensorFlow, rural farmers on the continent can diagnose diseased plants by taking a photo of it. TensorFlow came with the launch of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) center in Accra, Ghana's capital city earlier this year. The center, one of the multinational tech company's many investments in Africa, is compr...

May62019 by editorNo Comments

Kenya debuts new mobile numbering prefix 01xxx with Machine-to-Machine capabilities

Broadband, Internet, Mobile

The Communications Authority of Kenya released a new mobile numbering prefix 01xxx in addition to the currently existing 07xxx. According to CA Director General Francis Wangusi, the new prefix – which is expected to take effect immediately – was necessitated by increased demand for SIM cards, mobile data and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications. According to the National Numbering Plan developed in 2002 by the authority, each prefix provides for a capacity of 100 million numbers, at the moment the prefix 07xx is exhausted. Mr. Wangusi, in a statement to newsrooms, said leading telecommunication giants Safaricom and Airtel had already been issued with 2 million (0110, 0111) and 3 million (0100, 0101, 0102) numbers respectively under the new prefix. “In view of the emergence of

Apr112019 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

Kenya counts on innovation to boost health, agriculture

Technology

Kenya is exploring the use of technology in health and agriculture to build infrastructure and create sustainability in the two sectors. The government has already begun the adoption of technology in the Universal Health Coverage as well as in the agriculture data centre to be opened by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro). “Technology plays an important role in issues of universal health coverage (UHC), telemedicine, and distribution of drugs using drones,” said Principal Secretary ministry of ICT, Jerome Ochieng. Mr Ochieng, who was speaking during the Dell Technologies Regional ICT Conference, said uptake of the new technology will pave way for precision agriculture, which is key in food sustainability. “Precision agriculture is whe