Monthly Archives: January 2010

Mostly Mobile

The mobile phone story is everywhere now, and it seems it has taken on a life of its own, bringing real life transformations as more applications and uses develop around it.

What’s happening in mobile now here?

Conferences: Conferences have always been there, but tech conferences, especially mobile related ones, are really sexy these days thanks to Ushahidi – (currently working at Haiti earthquake emergency operations and M-Pesa from Vodafone/Safaricom.

February will see Mobile Web East Africa which will have a round-table format and will feature, among others @whiteafrican (Ushaidi), @ VincentMaher (Vodacom) @MosesKemibaro, and @kahenya.

Later in the month will be another Mobile Banking Conference (AITEC’s COMESA Banking & Mobile Money Conference)

Mobile Wallet: With over 8 million users signed up in two years, M-Pesa is all the rage in the media owing to the staggering M-pesa growth rate that continues. @whiteafrican in a recent post showed that mobile transfer volume numbers are actually quite low compared to formal banking systems; however the increasing number of subscribers and organizational partners that M-pesa is drawing indicates a growing disenchantment with traditional banking/payment channels. Partners now include airlines, schools, insurers, media houses (KBC, Nation media group), micro-financiers, banks (CFCStanbic, Family) as well as others such as Chloride Exide (solar equipment), Davis & Shirtlift (water pumps) , spare parts (Ecta-Subaru), Oriflame (beauty products), Gor Mahia etc.

Mobile Investment: Over at the Nairobi Stock Exchange, M-Pesa is represented in the form of Safaricom whose share price has been leading a resurgence of NSE shares by re-attracting foreign and institutional investors

chart from rich.co.ke

Faux Mobile However as simple mobile banking strikes a connection with consumers tired of hidden bank charges, banks are rolling out their own mobile platforms. Kenyans largest bank Barclays has embarked mobile banking and recently announces that mobile banking is free – except at Barclays ‘free’ costs 100 shillings, as this was the tariff increment passed on to its customers at the same time

Know Your Mobile Users: There is a mandatory registration of mobile subscribers is ongoing, a mild shock to the laizze faire pre-paid when anyone with less than $1 could acquire a new phone line . However the exercise in not unique, and SIM registration is also ongoing in Tanzania, Nigeria and other countries. In Kenya the exercise will help reduced instances of crimes related to mobile phones such as extortion.

Mobile Domains: In March, there will another conference in Nairobi – ICANN which concerned with domain names – and in Kenya, embattled domain registrar Kenic has just announced raft of new low priced domains including mobile domains – .mobi.ke for mobile sites, and .me.ke for personal sites.

Mobile Data Costs: Why the high costs of mobile communications? Some argue that Kenya has a skewed regulatory environment that that favours Safaricom and protects it as a government revenue generating machine (Safaricom is Kenya’s largest corporate taxpayer) but hurts the consumer through high communications costs.

Twitter Week: January 7

Here’s a summary of my week on Twitter in a top 5 format covering traffic and restaurant woes

5. Raring for the World Cup in South Africa: – ESPN to broadcast 2010 world cup in 3D http (via Business pundit)
– Thinking of driving to world cup in SA? AA of Kenya offer (i) car passport (ii) international driver license (iii) COMESA insurance; r/t @bugzville58 good idea you should though Kampala bus is also offering a trip for about 800 dollars one way.

4. Traffic in Nairobi was Good and then Bad: – Nairobi should remain like this: no traffic, or queues and faster bandwidth. Lets close Thika & Nakuru roads and #devolve the rest to shags

– Back to 5 day week and a matatu strike in Kenya to kick off 2010; ying yang: Nairobi public transit strike means booming business for taxis (good luck getting one this evening); r/t @tmsruge I was in the CBD today. All streets were a parking lot. No point taking either as you won’t get anywhere. #footing works best! ; Roads not so bad out of town 30min stationary then 10 min cruise home #matatustrike
– R/t @MoSande KE Matatus call off nationwide strike after PM promises to address their grievances. Normal service to resume immediately
– @inexes and i hear someone may be ending Mombasa vacation this evening #nairobitraffic; @karuoro someone just flew in from Mombasa holiday

3. Odds and ends: – From Nairobi Star: statehouse complains about Lucy worst dressed rank, while Atwoli is scandalized–says his peers in 150 wool class are Moi & Kirubi
– The Tamarind Group has taken over the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden Restaurant, which is renamed Tamambo KBCG
– Repeat of ‘House of cards’ showing on CNBC Africa. Documentary should be done on Nairobi or Nigeria shares bull run and bust
– Books first have buy pizza in happy hour, get one free. But also charge Kshs. 100 for take away pizza cartons – why?

2. Safaricom mandatory SIM registration, and costly 3G: – Via @kahenya solutions to improving mobile competition in #Kenya, and break #Safaricom domination of #3G http://tinyurl.com/y8bs9cl
– via @kainvestor #Safaricom forcing new users to register their sim cards, which can’t be activated unless registered with an ID ->safcom=Gok r/t @LarryMadowo Its now a legal requirement for ALL SIM card holders to be registered & #Safaricom move is only the 1st step but @LarryMadowo @kainvestor Safaricom already has 1/2 their subscriber details from m-pesa accounts
– Can’t find a reliable #zain #zap money transfer agent in Kenya? Try the local post office or #posta (via #introverted blog post)
– Consumers getting unhappy about #Safaricom #internet bundle costs http://tinyurl.com/yzxjt25 but they rarely leave @archermishale the word is out, be careful how you use expensive Safaricom data bundles – are they billing on supa ongea tariff?

1 It’s 2010: Happy New Year: Against sound advice, went out and got served a crap lunch. Remember waiters & kitchen staff are working, not celebrating the holidays
– Best food prayer I’ve heard ‘. . Also for the wonderful meal, bless the pockets that may have been depleted by it’
– Looking at the @KenyaBuzz year end calendar – Pole Dancing Competition at Tembo Disco Mombasa http://tinyurl.com/ya786td

Motoring Moment: Spare Parts and Bad Driving

Bad Driving today in Kenya, there is a matatu (public mini-bus) strike protesting at the new crackdown by policemen for bribes, noise pollution etc. Matatu’s get blamed for a lot of the bad & dangerous driving behaviour on Kenya roads. This used to be the case, but the bad driving trend has passed on, and you’re just as likely to see over-lapping and traffic gridlock caused by small cars (especially taxis), buses, ministers & other government VIP’s – who all over-lap traffic and engage in other risky road behaviour.

Shell Quitting BBC reports Shell petroleum will quit operation in 20 African countries disposing of refineries, storage and product sales. In 2008 Shell had already left some 15 African countries, and rumoured suitors for their assets included Oil Libya Morocco Oil in Northern Africa and Engen in southern Africa. Here in Kenya @coldtusker reckons KenolKobil would be interested if they could line up enough funding. Total of France are likely to snap up some stations after taking over Chevron, and the government will likely arm-twist a fraction of the Shell assets to go to parastatal National Oil Corp of Kenya (NOCK)

Read on Cars: also got the latest issue of AUTOnews published by the Automobile Association of Kenya – some gems in it:

In another world cup opportunity pitch, the AA of Kenya (aalicenscing@aakenmya.co.ke) is offering:
– Car Net a.k.a passport eliminates the hassle of lodging log-books or cash duty as you cross border points
– International Driver License that allows Kenyans to drive across borders
– COMESA insurance that covers Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa

Also, (in the issue), did you know there are 9 Kinds of Spare Parts? I thought there were just two genuine and fake, but according to the AA the 9 are:

9. Off cuts – whole chunks of cars from accidents or scrap
8. Imported used parts (also scrap from cars shipped to Kenya in mixed load containers)
7. Stolen parts (from chop shops)
6. Reconditioned parts – salvaged parts which vendors claim to have re-conditioned and tested (likely an impossible task)
5. Salvage parts – taken piece by piece from wrecked cars
4. Counterfeit parts – illegal parts branded as genuine
3. Non-originals – independent brands which copy established brands
2. Original equipment (OE) parts – independent parts approved by manufacturers
1. Genuine parts – made by vehicle manufacturers, brand new & guaranteed with warranty

Cheap Bikes are Good Business: Toyota Kenya sells Yamaha motorbikes including the kazi ngumu which costs Kshs 99,000 (~$1,320) and comes with 1-year warranty, 2 free service schedules, free registration, and a free helmet. Elsewhere in the issue, the Toyota Marketing Manager says the arrival of cheap (Chinese) bikes are boosting their (Yamaha) sales, saying low-cost brands offered an entry point, but as the motorcycle market has become established they can afford higher quality machines and turn to Yamaha for superior reliability, durability and performance…we are not worried about used imports, they are not a bad thing, certainly there are anomalies in standards and much duty evasion, but mitumba is a way for people to get started, and as they flourish they will look for better and newer products

From Twitter – the classic @roomthinker: You can buy a Toyota Vitz in 2 configurations: 128MB and 256MB #AVitzIsNotACar
– @ArcherMishale: Overheard on FB: In addition to #ToyotaFeets #Feetsubishi #Legsus, Kenyans will also be on #KNEEsanPatrol! LOL!!

– @MwaiKibaki: Kenyans should not listen to radio traffic reports. There have been no traffic jams in Nairobi since January 2003

Best of 2009

recapping 2009: 2009 has been another great year, for me in blog world. I was trying to do a year-end post, and decided to adapt from ken banks formula by analyzing the most read blog posts.

the top 10 were
1. Kenya exam results online
2. Safaricom jobs & other business
3. KCSE Results are out
4. Nairobi Kenya Jobs
5. Where to buy Shares
6. Media Bill 2008
7. Jobs with Emirates Airlines
8. Bank’s Need to Embrace MPesa
9. Money Transfer within Kenya
10. Safaricom Success

so what are Kenyans looking for online? Jobs, exam results and money transfer? But many of these posts are a few years old, and ½ the blog traffic is from search engines and just 25% is direct visits. So I put on my Kivuitu hat and refined the searches to look at direct traffic and posts from 2009 alone and the tally was:

1. Media Bill 2008
2. Which Kenyan Bank Has Best Transaction . . .
3. Kenya Infrastructure Bond
4. M Pesa IPO
5. Urban Inflation Index (March 2009)
6. Zain In Kenya
7. Equity Bank 2009 AGM
8. Mostly Equity Laptop Ni Lazima
9. M Pesa As Low Cost Bank Account
10. KCB And Triton
11. Google Launches Local Maps Domain
12. Analyzing Kenya Pipeline
13. Mindspeak With Professor Calestous Juma
14. Money Transfer In Kenya
15. Zuku Slashes Kenya Internet Prices
16. Nairobi Stock Exchange Fiddles
17. Athi River Board Mining Evicts Bamburi
18. Skunkworks Nairobi September 29
19. Best Bank For Netpreneurs
20. Pyramid Schemes In East Africa

so popular reading topics are cheaper banking, financial scandals, money transfer, local tech events, and again money transfer

In terms of blogging there have been positives and negatives in 2009

ayes – Peaceful Kenya: and many ex-diasporans continue to stream back and set up tech & other business ventures
– Pictures: after several years of procrastination, got a camera from a fellow blogger and have tried to incorporate a relevant picture in every post; the best picture I think I’ve taken was during the ‘test’ period before got the camera – (forest in Kericho) – maybe it’s just the beauty of the area and not my skills, and the first one is fireworks from a wedding I attended last week.

– Also thanks to a fellow blogger, I finally got onto twitter, two years late – and if you’re not on it (individual or local company), you’re missing the world.
nays – vitriol and in-fighting in the small local blog community remind one to be careful while networking in the online world
– did not travel outside Kenya. I made many local trips, but I need to breathe kerosene fumes and eat re-heated airline dinners; travel blogs are the most fun and I plan to have some more in 2010, maybe even the world cup in south Africa
– facebook goes mainstream, but the endless tweaks they make take away form the experience