Features

HMD Global CEO Makes a Stop in Kenya, Lauds Feature phone Sales, Promises Strong Presence at MWC 2020

Kenn Abuya -
0
HMD Global CEO Florian Seiche
Features
It is not always that we get see the CEOs of major phone makers take a detour to Kenya. HMD Global, the exclusive brand...

Branch Revamps Referral Program, Rolls out Flexible Repayments to Entice New and Current Users

George Kamau -
2
Features
Branch, a popular digital finance services app that launched in Kenya in 2015 boasts having over 2 million customers in sub-Saharan Africa. Since launching in...

Future of Manufacturing is Bright as 53 percent Kenya Firms Plan to Automate Services

Kenn Abuya -
0
Mark Wilson SYSPRO
Features
In a market that is striving to bump up the performance of its manufacturing sector, it can safely be concluded that the industry is...

[Video] TekITnGo: Daring to Pursue True Perfection – Vivo Comes to Kenya

George Kamau -
0
Vivo v17 Pro Kenya
Features
Tech companies are always on the race to be first as it carries some sort of pride and that is something Vivo knows very...

Facebook Developer Circles Trains Thousands of Kenya Developers as it Holds iD8 Conference in Nairobi

Kenn Abuya -
0
Global tech corporations hold a series of conferences across the globe, and they target a broad scope of their customers and consumers. However, those meets do not often make their way here, choosing to run in other markets instead. In fact, even when they are staged in continental Africa, the tech summits, understandably, are run in crucial technology hubs found in Nigeria, South Africa or Egypt, and in some instances, Kenya. This characterization, however, changed when Facebook brought its iD8 developer conference in Nairobi this past week. It is worth noting that the social media giant has never conducted the summit in Africa before. The conference has also been running for quite some time now and has visited many parts of the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. To this end, we were quite happy when the corporation announced its plan to meet the Kenyan developer and business circles, and for the most part, the meet was successful – having answered a series of Kenya-based queries, although not all of them, or as comprehensively as many of you expected. Disclosure: Facebook did not pay me (us) for attending the conference, although it staged the event at Trademark Hotel, which was very pretty. The social media company further took us out to a nice lunch, although we could have loved an equally welcoming dinner. Nevertheless, there was an open bar in the evening, with really, really tasty chocolate oatcakes. Lucky folks got to enjoy solid guacamole. I tried to identify local developers on the floor. I lost. Repeatedly. For context, iD8 is Facebook’s platform where it shares new technologies and products for the target audience (developers and businesses affiliated to the social network) to build and toy around with for expanded applications, as well as programs to help them at any stage of their development or business journey. The meeting, as promised, was marked by hands-on demonstrations where executives heading a variety of Facebook products such as Developer Programs directed by Emeka Afigbo presided over discussion with other experts. The Kenya angle and Facebook Developer Circle More than 400 startups and developers attended the conference, including teams from South Africa and Nigeria, as well as several local developer teams and individuals. Kenya was primarily represented by Fatma Ali, a Facebook Developer Circle Lead based in Eldoret. According to Fatma, she got an opportunity to interact with interesting people associated with the social media network and look forward to using the connections she made to build her career while improving her leadership skills to work with the developer community. “Through my Facebook Developer Circle, I have gotten exposure and recognition in the Developer ecosystem. The experience has been enlightening, and I am confident that I will have a successful career in technology,” said Fatma Ali. Back to Emeka Afigbo. The Developer Programs Lead reiterated Facebook’s role in the Developer Circle communities. The groups are run in partnership in Andela (find more about Andela here, including its recent plan to drop upcoming local developers for experienced ones in a move that was prompted by ‘market demands’). So far, the Circles are still in their pilot phase in Kenya (including the aforementioned one at Eldoret) and Somalia. “We want to train about 2500 developers – that is both developers and people who want to be developers so that they can pursue careers in software development,” said Emeka Afigbo. The program received more than 5000 applications for interested people, but only half of them were selected to join the Circle. The members have been receiving training for three months now through online content and in-person meetups. So far, more than 2000 certificates have been issued to successful members. Facebook also reports it started a career fair in Nairobi. A similar platform will also be launched in Lagos, Nigeria, in the next couple of days. The fair serves one main goal: companies that want to hire talent from the Developer Circles can get to meet these people and gauge their expertise for possible job openings. Furthermore, Emeka Afigbo revealed that Facebook has been engaging local startups in terms of partnerships, including Ongair that has been offering customer service and support to a series of clients (that use Facebook products such as the platform itself and its complementary apps such as Instagram and Messenger). By the way, Ongair was represented in the summit and had its founder and CEO Trevor Kimenye as one of the panelists in one of the afternoon sessions. Ongair is one of the three Messenger development partners that exist in Sub-Saharan Africa. These are some of the activities that Facebook hopes to explore, and we hope they will open more developer Circles in the country to tap into reputable talent that exists in the country. WhatsApp Facebook does not release country-specific numbers for WhatsApp. The platform, which has 1.5 billion monthly active users globally, is one of the most popular apps in the country (Twitter does not even come close), and we would have been happier if the company released those numbers to us. For the moment, we are in the dark, but we will apprise you in case new information streams in from the corporation. The app has also been equipped with business tools, and the company has been attempting to use the platform as a financial product (WhatsApp Pay) in some countries, and we are skeptical it can ever make its way here because the Kenyan market has already been disrupted by the market leader, M-PESA. Final Words iD8 was well attended, and for a first attempt in the continent, it did well. We hope they pass through other African technology hubs because the continent is interesting and is marked by talented people who continue to make the technology more accessible and generally better. The goal may be achieved because, according to Emeka Afigbo, they plan to reconnect the ecosystem to share the latest technology, program, and updates with the industry.
Features
Global tech corporations hold a series of conferences across the globe, and they target a broad scope of their customers and consumers. However, those...

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Editorials

Google’s Policing of Rogue Mobile Loan Apps is Hardly Effective and It Shows

Kenn Abuya -
0
Editorial
A couple of days ago, it emerged that many loan apps were running their trade normally, with their tools live in Google Play Store...

Android Smartphone Trends We Expect to See This Year

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New Year. New Decade. We saw smartphones being announced right before and during this years CES - with most of them being concept phones...

What We Know About Safaricom’s 0722000000 Con Game, and What the Operator is Doing About It

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6
M-Pesa shop
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Alright. People have been subjected to a new con game where fraudsters use Safaricom’s 072200000 line to reach out to customers, and lie about...

The State of Android 10 This Year

George Kamau -
0
Samsung Android 10 roadmap
Editorial
Google announced a beta version for its latest mobile operating system, Android 10(at that time it went with Android Q) in March last year....

2019 Year in Review – Law and ICT Policy

June Okal -
1
Editorial
Every year, (2016, 2017, 2018) we look back at the year that has been in terms of progress, big headlines, stories of impact and...

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