Month: November 2019

December 1, 2019

Postal services in the country started to go under when the internet began to make a mark. This happened more ...

Compilation of the Best Memes When Facebook and Instagram Went Down

by George Kamau

November 29, 2019

Facebook's most popular platforms, Facebook and Instagram went down last evening and the memes that followed took centre stage. Facebook's ...

DuckDuckGo Gets a Huge Endorsement from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

by George Kamau

Privacy. This topic has been the taken centre stage this year as companies rushed to introduce features that ensure users ...

Lipa Na MPESA Black Friday Offer Has 5% Cash Back but There Is a Catch

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Safaricom has a Black Friday Offer this month where you get cash back when you pay via Lipa na MPESA. ...

Copia Global Raises KES 2.6 Billion in Series B Funding, Appoints Former Safaricom Executive to Board

Mobile e-commerce platform Copia Global has raised $26 million in a Series B funding led by LGT Lightstone alongside Goodwell ...

Jumia Exits Tanzania Market After Axing Operations in Cameroun

E-commerce site Jumia is no longer in Tanzania. According to Techawk, Africa’s ‘Amazon’ closed shop in the country in order ...

Ghana’s Central Bank Could Issue Digital Currency in the Future

Ghana is exploring the possibility of having digital currency in the future which is quite an unprecedented move by their ...

Twitter Partly Suspends Inactive Accounts Deletion, Has Plans to Memorialize Accounts

Twitter has suspended account deletion that was slated to happen next month, but that doesn't apply to everyone

Here are Phones Samsung are Planning to Update to Android 10 Next Year

Samsung Israel published the Android 10 roadmap and it includes a bunch of phones that they plan to update to ...

Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey is Cruising Through Africa, But He’s Not Stopping in Kenya

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of social media platform, Twitter, has been traversing Africa for the better part of November 2019. ...

Visa Kenya Country Manager Victor Ndlovu (left) and Standard Chartered B...

Standard Chartered Launches Visa Infinite Credit Card for Kenya’s Wealthiest People

The highest-tier visa credit card named Visa Infinite is in Kenya courtesy of Standard Chartered Bank. The card, which complements ...

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.

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

January 28, 2020

Global tech corporations hold a series of conferences across the globe, and they target a broad scope of their customers ...

Twitter Will Take Action on Dormant Accounts Next Month

Twitter will take action on the numerous dormant accounts in its platform next month

Compilation of the Best Flight Attendant: Is There a Doctor Onboard? Memes

by George Kamau

Move aside OK Boomer memes at least for now as the flight attendant meme takes over. In some rare instances, ...

Why there is still a market for tablets

by Bonny Gwendo

November 16, 2021

Spend too much time surfing the net on the topic of tablets and you could easily be convinced that they ...

OPPO Reno 2F Specifications and Price in Kenya

by Techweez

November 26, 2019

OPPO has finally launched the OPPO Reno 2F in Kenya in an event hosted at the Emara, Ole Sereni last ...

Huawei Mobile Officially Kicks Off Y9s Pre-order in Kenya

November 26, 2019

Huawei launches a weeklong preorder campaign for their latest smartphone in the Kenyan market, the Y9s

OPPO Reno 2F Launched in Kenya, Goes For Under Kshs 40,000

November 26, 2019

OPPO, the Chinese electronics manufacturer, launched a new smartphone to the Kenyan market and it wants that upper midrange crown

What is AI Transcription and how is it changing the industry?

by James Ndirangu

March 6, 2023

What is AI Transcription and How Is It Changing the Industry With so much audio and video content readily available, ...

MultiChoice Planning to Launch DStv Now as a Standalone Service Next Year

MultiChoice is well known for their DStv satellite service and they have a huge presence in Kenya and other parts in the ...

London Transport Regulator Cancels Uber’s Operating License

Uber had one of the worst years in 2017 that saw the departure of its co-founder and then CEO, Travis ...

Safaricom communications authority of kenya

Communications Authority of Kenya to Probe Safaricom over Network Outage

The regulator is probing Safaricom the network outage it experienced over the weekend.

Eazzy App Processed 231 Million Transactions in Q3 2019 as Equity Disbursed Record-Breaking Mobile Loans

Lender Equity Bank has released its Q3 2019 performance report, which, as it has been the case in previous quarters, ...

Why Laravel Framework getting so much popular?

by Samuel K Itotia

November 16, 2021

PHP is a very popular programming language and more than 80% of the websites are developed based on this language. ...

How to optimize your laptop and equipment for online casino gaming

NetENT launches Ozzy Osbourne-themed slot game

by Bonny Gwendo

November 16, 2021

Stockholm-based software supplier NetENT has recently expanded their offering with the launch of an Ozzy Osbourne-inspired slots game. It’s the ...

10 Facts About Data Security

by Techweez

April 18, 2022

In this digital age, data plays a pivotal role in our lives. Every passing second, we are unwittingly giving information ...

Safaricom Acknowledges They are Experiencing Network Issues

November 24, 2019

Safaricom, Kenya's biggest telecommunications operator has tonight confirmed that they are experiencing network challenges that are affecting some of their ...

South Africa Will Begin Testing E-Visa Access for Kenyans from This Month

November 22, 2019

South Africa will begin testing e-Visa access for Kenyans who would want to visit the country for a short period ...

Goby is the New Platform That Aims to Make E-Commerce Easier for Merchants

Goby ecommerce app targets small merchants and sellers to provide an easy to use platform to manage online sales from ...

Showmax Launches Cheaper Showmax Mobile and Revised User Interface Design

November 22, 2019

Showmax has today announced developments regarding their products and they are geared for a better user interface and for better ...

Huduma Number Bizarrely Makes an Appearance at NCBA Accounts Application Form

November 22, 2019

I have been a CBA (now NCBA) Loop user for a while now. The product, which targets young people, and ...

Netflix is Down Globally and They are Displaying Odd Error Codes

Netflix, the popular streaming service is down today for many users around the world. If you check Down Detector, many ...

Safaricom Pushes the Internet of Things Agenda with Smart Coolers for Kenya Breweries

November 21, 2019

Safaricom’s innovation arm has always tried to solve a lot of local issues, and has, for the most part, met ...

4 Things You Need To Know About The New Data Protection Law

by June Okal

November 21, 2019