Known as Intel EASY STEPS, the training will be conducted on a ‘Train-the-Trainer’ basis is part of Intel’s educational content designed to improve quality of lives through extensive use of digital technology.

Intel’s West Africa Corporate Affairs Manager, Osagie Ogunbor, said the initiative would enhance the ability of the women to run more efficient businesses; adding that the training which will be provided free of charge, is part of Intel’s “women friendly” corporate social responsibility initiatives.

According to Ogunbor, digital literacy is pivotal to the improvement of the quality of lives of any individual in today’s contemporary world.

“You cannot be effective and efficient in the running of any enterprise without digital literacy. This has become a necessity in this digital age and we are proud to lead in global efforts at digital literacy,” he said.

President of AWEP Nigeria, Yemisi Iranloye said she was delighted that Intel was providing the free training for its members and promised that those who receive the training will in turn ensure that they train others.

She added that despite the large number of women running very small informal businesses in Ghana, “a number of them are unable to expand the scope and profile of their businesses because they are unable to take advantage of the opportunities that abound in this digital world.”

AWEP is an initiative launched by the United States (US) Department of State in July 2010 that identifies and builds networks of women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa with the purpose of transforming their societies by owning, running, and operating small and medium businesses, and by becoming voices for social advocacy in their communities.

The post Intel Partners Women Entrepreneurs On Digital Literacy appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Yookos, a social network site which focuses on providing users the platform to connect, share and interact unveiled the new app at the recently concluded World Mobile Web West Africa 2013 Conference in Lagos.

“We are particularly pleased that as a company, we have reached yet another momentous milestone in the development of our platform. What makes this remarkable is that it facilitates the ‘crowd-sourcing’ of innovative ideas and solutions that will not only expand the functionality of the platform but also make its usage an exhilarating experience,” Group Chief Executive Officer for Yookos, Tomisin Fashina, said.

Yookos will also be hosting a free Developer’s Workshop in Lagos today to reinforce the company’s commitment to the empowerment of developers in the region while using it as a platform to launch its newly released APIs to the global developer community.

“ Our focus is not just about getting something from developers but we also plan to give back through our multifaceted approach that will see the launch of programmes focused on university students, community engagement sessions aimed at attracting young people to the profession, as well as educational peer engagement sessions just to mention a few,” said Mr Fashina in conclusion.

Launched in Nigeria in 2011, Yookos currently boasts over 13 million registered users worldwide with Nigeria accounting for more than 60 percent of that base.

The post Yookos Unveil New API For Africa developers And Techpreneurs appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The Lagos-based company said in an official statement it “is set to fill the vacuum that currently exists in the country’s angel investment ($30,000 to 75,000 funding level) eco-system.”

Managing Partner of SPARK, Jason Njoku says: “In Africa, we’re witnessing an exciting metamorphosis, from a tech ‘scene’ to a tech ‘revolution’, where Lagos is very much the gateway for the entire continent. The creativity, talent, the spirit of entrepreneurship is here but Nigeria’s business eco system isn’t set up to adequately support start-ups in their earliest days. Our intention with SPARK is to act as the catalyst to a period of aggressive and exciting growth in Africa’s Internet sector.”

The move comes amidst significant disruption in the Nigerian Internet scene; fast becoming one of the country’s most prolific and exciting sectors, many entrepreneurs struggle to make the transition from idea to business, due to prohibitive start-up costs, a lack of on-the-ground angel investment opportunities, a lack of access to trusted mentorship and business bureaucracy.

SPARK-funded companies, managed by Jason Njoku, Bastian Gotter and Mary Remmy-Njoku, share the same administrative infrastructure, legal teams, mentors and marketing support, making the companies capital-efficient.

SPARK concentrates on well defined and scalable revenue models and has, to-date, seed funded or created 13 start-ups to the sum of $35-75,000 each.

These companies include a hotel room booking site, a Christian dating site and a property-letting site. Companies in the SPARK network currently employ 80 people and by the close of 2013, SPARK expects to have created or funded 20 companies in total.

Economic growth is currently 7% per annum in Nigeria. The current value of the Nigerian Internet sector today is estimated at $250m and by 2016 it will be close to $1bn. Nigeria is a seen as a ‘frontier market’ with a population keen to access new consumer items, both in stores and, increasingly, online. However there are few Internet companies that have the backing or ability to supply the ever-increasing demand.

Bastian Gotter, Managing Partner of SPARK says: “The incubation period for any start-up is critical and we found that this is where Nigeria’s business infrastructure struggles most. We fund our companies, provide them with the back room assistance they need to get started and advise them on all aspects of their business. SPARK is the financial, intellectual and pragmatic engine that will propel Nigeria’s Internet entrepreneurs from start-ups to dynamic businesses that generate jobs and income for the region.”

The post iROKO Partners’ Jason Njoku & Bastian Gotter Invest $1m In Nigerian Tech Companies appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

VENTURES AFRICA – By breaking down the demographics and behaviour of its users, a survey by an African social network, 2go, has declared Nigerians are more social than South Africans.

Marc Herson, director at 2go, revealed this while speaking at the Focus Day at Mobile Web West Africa 2013 holding in Lagos.

Herson said in Nigeria 36 percent of respondents to the 2go survey do not have a bank account, 17 per cent spend at least four hours travelling between work or study, 39 percent watch video on their phone and around 60 per cent spend a minimum of two hours a day on their mobile.

He added that more Nigerian users of 2go (90 percent) use feature phones than South Africans (75 percent).

In terms of gender distribution, he said more males in Nigeria (65 percent) use the chat app than in South Africa where only 51 percent of its users are males.

He also disclosed that Nigerian users of 2go are more social than their counterparts from South Africa.

This he said could be deduced from the relative ease with which more Nigerian social media users share personal information such as phone numbers with people they have never seen before.

Furthermore, he added that Nigerians use colours to express themselves on the app, and they easily and freely use the slang “Naija”.

Concerning commercialisation of 2go, he said in addition to the sale of credits, it has introduced goEngage brand platforms, carries out research polls for companies, and is now offering advertisers full screen splash adverts that currently have an average engagement rate of 30 per cent.

He said brands such as Amstel Malta and Supersports are some of the popular brands that have made use of the full screen advert that is displayed for five seconds each time a 2go user opens the app.

2go is a mobile social network targeting users in emerging markets, particularly in Africa. The company has over 21 million registered users with more than 10 million active users in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. The network is also due for an Android launch later this month.

The post Nigerians Are More Social Than South Africans – 2go appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Huawei’s innovative and trusted manufacturing capacities and TD’s massive distribution network in West Africa will be pooled together to provide a wide range of ICT solutions and services to enterprise customers of all sizes, TD Managing Director, Chioma Ekeh said.

According to Ekeh, the partnership comes at a time when the government is embarking on a transformation program across all sectors of the economy, as huge investments are being made in the transportation, energy, education, health, aviation among others and Huawei enterprise solutions, deployed already in 140 countries, should be a part of the choices that TD offers its clientele.

Besides, she added, 2015, the date set for the attainment of the MDGs was just a stone throw away and industry analysts were expecting that Governments and NGOs would make further heavy investments in ICT infrastructure.

Ekeh assured resellers and the market that, characteristically, TD stocks large quantities of Huawei Enterprise Servers, Enterprise Switches, Enterprise Routers, E-sight, WLAN Solutions, Firewall Solutions, Tele-presence Solutions and UPS. She also reaffirmed TD’s commitment to immediate delivery anywhere in West Africa.

Huawei’ partnership is line with its five-year business strategy in the enterprise domain announced during the Huawei Global Analyst Summit on April 23, 2013.

Huawei has said it will strengthen its role in the enterprise market by focusing on enterprise ICT solutions and being integrated with the global enterprise ecosystem, bringing faster, better and more Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) saving ICT products and solutions to customers in a better way.

“With significant growth capacity, the enterprise market is a core element of Huawei’s overall strategic development plans. The Convergence of ICT has brought about great opportunities for Huawei to contribute to the evolution of this market,” said William Xu, CEO of Huawei Enterprise Business Group.

He added that, “With the industry’s most comprehensive product line and Huawei’s ongoing strategic investment in the enterprise domain, we expect Huawei Enterprise’s sales revenue to reach $2.7 billion in 2013, achieving a sales revenue target of $10 billion by 2017.”

The post Huawei, TD Eye Enterprise Market Development In West Africa appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The Chief Operating Officer of NIRA, Mr. Ope Odusan, told THISDAY that Nigerians preferred the .ng top-level domain name, to the .com.ng domain name but complained that the 200, 000 naira ($1,259) per year charge was exorbitant.

“From our statistics, only 32 .ng domain names were sold in three years, and 30 out of the 32, were bought by foreigners doing business outside Nigeria, while only two were bought by Nigerian residents, THISDAY Newspapers and MTN Nigeria,” Odusan said.

He explained that after the price was slashed, NIRA registered over 300 .ng domain names within five days.

“This is a major shift and the number of purchase is on the increase,” he said.

“We are creating awareness to let people know that .ng is faster and cheaper, and that it is affordable. It takes extra time for information generated in Nigeria to go outside the shores of the country to places like US and UK, to hit the servers that are hosted there, before returning to Nigeria to deliver the message. But if the server is hosted in Nigeria, and contents are hosted in Nigeria, information does not need to travel long distances before they are eventually delivered in Nigeria, and this reduces time of transaction to a great extent.”

He further explained that though the .ng is called a second level domain name, it is actually a country code Top Level Domain name.

“We are taking the campaign to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), big corporations, churches, mosques, and market places to make people have better ideas of .ng domain name,” the COO stated.

The post Over 30,000 .ng Domain Names Sold So Far appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Speaking on the partnership, Group Operating Officer (GCOO) of Glo, Mohameed Jameel said the contract, which will run for a four-month period, will help the service provider expand and mordernise its operational capacity in line with the ever-changing technology in the telecoms sector.

“The entire network is being modernised to carry data services more efficiently because it would have been increased manyfolds. Every inch of the network will be modernised,” the GCOO said.

He added that “The asset of any network is the quality of services it provides its customers.”

The expansion project will involve network upgrade and overhaul of infrastructure across the country; as well as expansion and densification projects that will help cater for existing and potential subscribers.

Globacom’s partnership with ZTE, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, is set to position the company favourably in Nigeria’s vibrant telecoms market, which has about 113 million mobile phone subscribers, and is regarded one of the largest mobile markets in Africa .

Owned by Nigerian billionaire businessman Mike Adenuga, the company also boasts over 20.8 million subscribers in Nigeria.

The post Globacom Signs $500m Network Upgrade Deal With ZTE appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The South African Social Media Landscape 2012 study by World Wide Worx and Fuseware, reveals that 95 percent of major brands surveyed have some form of social media strategy aimed at consumers. However, only 51 percent rate their efforts on Facebook as effective – and only 33 percent believe they are effective on Twitter.

‘Still trying to figure out how to use it’

“The survey shows that corporate South Africa has woken up to social media, but it hasn’t yet figured out how to dress for the role,” World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck said in a statement. “Most large companies are still neutral on the impact of social media, and are still feeling their way.”

The report includes analysis of South African consumers’ use of Facebook, Twitter, Mxit, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Foursquare, as well as a survey conducted among corporate brand owners.

“We interviewed representatives of 61 major brands, and found that corporate use of social networks tended to be a case of responding to media hype,” said Fuseware managing director Mike Wronski. “The most popular social media platform in South Africa, Mxit, is used as a marketing tool by only one out of five large brands. This compares to Facebook, with nine out 10 using it, and Youtube, with two out of three.”

First National Bank

First National Bank (FNB) has taken cognisance of Mxit’s value, announcing a partnership between its eWallet solution and the social network’s MXit Money offering. Dubbed FNB Moola+, the new service will allow Mxit users to buy moola, Mxit’s online currency, at discounted rates.

Banking has always been a popular activity for South Africans online. FNB offers its online clients first rate online banking (although every bank has a pretty decent Internet banking service) and the big plus (which caused me to change my banking to FNB) was the iPhone app and easy connection to PayPal. FNB has done a fantastic job at identifying the needs of South Africans and offering services that appeal to them. FNB has 357,552 likes on its face book page and over 6,245 followers on its twitter account. The social network between FBN and its customers on its social media platform is superb.

Standard Bank

In 2010, Standard Bank Group was regarded as the bank of choice but over the last few years FNB has comfortably claimed the first position at the online bank of choice.

Standard bank Group has 14, 523 Twitter followers on its account and 15, 048 likes on its face book, page. Standard bank has a 150-year history in South Africa and started building a franchise in the rest of Africa in the early 1990s. It currently operates in 18 countries in the rest of the African continent, including South Africa, as well as in other selected emerging markets. The bank employs 52,000 people and has about 1,200 branches including loan centres and some 7,945 ATMs on the African continent. The bank updates its customers on these platforms (Facebook & Twitter) on new products and services and responds to their requests as well.

ABSA bank

The Group is listed on the JSE Limited and is one of South Africa’s largest financial services group. It is a subsidiary of Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays) which owns 55.5 percent. It offers a complete range of retail, business, corporate and investment banking insurance and wealth management products and services. ABSA has 6, 520 followers on its twitter account and 100,756 like its face book page.

Nedbank

Is a bank holding company and one of the four largest banking groups in South Africa measured by assets with a strong deposit franchise. Its principal banking subsidiary is Nedbank Limited. The group provides retail banking services, insurance and asset management. Its headquarters are in Sandton and it has a 1,000-strong regional branch network. Nedbank has 17,408 likes on its face book page some of its 10, 998 twitter followers want information on housing. The bank states on its facebook page: “If you’re a first-time home buyer, get a feel for the property costs in the areas you like so you can score a better deal and avoid paying too much. Once you’ve found that dream home, don’t delay, apply online for Nedbank Home Loan.

Vodacom South Africa

Vodacom SA is an African mobile communications company providing voice message, data and converged services to about 50 million active customers. From its roots in South Africa, the company has grown its operations to include networks in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho. It is owned by Vodafone and has its headquarters in Johannesburg. Vodacom South Africa 274,835 likes, 6,512 are talking about the telecommunications giant and 58 379 followers on it twitter account.

MTN South Africa

MTN has topped the list as the Most Valuable South African Brand with a global value of R43.3 billion ($4.7 billion) and is also the only South African brand in the Brand Finance Global 500. MTN South Africa is part of MTN group, a multi-national telecommunications that boasts over 152 million subscribers across its company with operations in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Launched in South Africa in 1994, and provides voice data and telemetry offerings and solutions to its 20 million customers. The company is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and has the largest primary listing on the exchange. The company enjoys 37 percent of market share in South Africa and continues to expand its presence and brand across the African continent and now has a firm footing in the Middle East.

President and CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said: “Our key focus areas are improving our market position and enhancing our customer experience by driving innovation and efficiency.”

With 115,595 likes, 5,116 talking about this and 16 893 twitter followers, was named Africa’s biggest brand, MTNuses a proactive model to identify high performers within the company, called ‘Leadership Talent Management’ to ensure achievement is recognised. It also offers MyMTN Emergency – home medical and roadside emergency assistance for workers to its has

Netcare

The group provides innovative, quality healthcare in South Africa and the UK. Netcare has presence on social media. It has paltry 1,700 likes on Facebook and over 14 436 followers on Twitter.

It operates the largest private hospital group, primary care network and emergency service in South Africa. It is also the biggest private trainer of emergency medical personnel and healthcare workers.

Investec

Investec is a distinctive Specialist Bank and Asset Manager providing a diverse range of financial products and services to its niche client base. The company also has a good social media presence. It has over 33,612 likes on Facebook and over 5, 611 followers on Twitter.

It operates in three principal markets, South Africa, the UK and Australia as well as certain other countries. In July 2002, the Investec group implemented a dual listed company with listings on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges.

SASOL

Sasol has over 5,800 likes and over 868 followers on Twitter. Based in South Africa, Sasol is an international integrated energy and chemical company that leverages the talent and expertise of its more than 34,000 people working in 38 countries. It develops and commercialises technologies, and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of product streams including liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity.

According to SocialBakers, (a social analytics website aimed at marketers, hosts lists of the most “liked” Facebook pages, dividing them into four categories: pages, brands, media, and services) the number of South African Facebook users was at 4,858,280 in April 2012, ranking SA as the 31st largest population in the world on the social network.

Based on estimates of South Africa’s population and Internet user base, SocialBakers puts SA Facebook penetration of the overall population at 9.89 percent, while Facebook usage among online South Africans is said to be 91.67 percent.

The table below shows the top 10 South African Facebook pages, along with the number of fans (or “likes”) the page had at the time of writing.

Another study titled “South African Social Media Landscape 2011” by World Wide Worx, one of South Africa’s technology research companies showed the following:

• MXit is South Africa’s most popular social network with 10 million users

• Twitter has 1.1 million

• Facebook has 3.2 million

• LinkedIn has 1.1 million.

The post Top Social Media Savvy Companies In Africa’s Biggest Economy appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

It is understood that General Electric (GE), the US firm, has now connected 48 such batteries at the mobile network operator’s base stations in Kenya. Safaricom has about 1,700 base stations in Kenya.

According to Business Daily, these batteries are not connected to a back-up diesel generator. But they are positioned mainly on rooftops around the Nairobi metropolis area.

Safaricom has been forced to look for new solutions to make certain there is an uninterrupted supply of power in Kenya as black outs take their toll.

Outages in this East African country are often caused by natural causes such as falling trees during rainy weather and vandalism.

Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s CEO, told Business Daily that the company’s cell sites connected to the national grid experience up to four hours of electricity blackouts daily.

This often leads to network glitches, loss of business and high operations costs.

“The introduction of using this technology will ensure that our customers receive uninterrupted usage of our mobile services,” said Collymore. “Energy costs make up the biggest component in running a cell tower.”

Safaricom has turned to solar energy to power some of its cell towers located in regions that receive abundant sunlight.

The post Safaricom Acquires Back-Up Batteries Worth $1.1m For Cell Towers appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Headline EPS, the main measure of profit in South Africa, excludes certain one-time items.

Basic earnings per share (EPS) are also expected to be between 25 percent and 30 percent – higher than the prior year reported EPS of 694 cents per share.

“Both headline earnings per share and basic earnings per share were favorably impacted by strong underlying core operating performance and the replacement of secondary tax on companies with dividend withholding tax,” Vodacom said in a trading statement on Wednesday.

While the full-year earnings statement will be published around May 20, the Johannesburg-based company said a strong performance in its mobile business and a favourable deferred tax asset in Mozambique, compared to the net derecognizing of deferred tax assets in the prior year are major factor to the growth.

Basic EPS in the prior year was affected by impairment charges of R199 million ($21million) in relations to Gateway. The group concluded the disposal of Gateway Carrier Services on 31 August 2012, with the profit on disposal of $30 million (R223 million) having a favourable impact on EPS for the period, it said.

The tax expense in the prior year included an STC charge of R806 million ($87 million).

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