Google plans SMS service for Africa

Google has unveiled a new service designed to provide information via SMS to cell phone users in Africa.

"At Google we seek to serve a broad base of people -- not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workplace or with a computer at home," the Mountain View, California, company said in a blog post.

"It’s important to reach users wherever they are, with the information they need, in areas with the greatest information poverty," Google said.

The Internet search and advertising giant noted that Africa has the world’s highest mobile phone growth rate and that mobile use on the continent is six times higher than Internet penetration.

"Most mobile devices in Africa only have voice and SMS capabilities, and so we are focusing our technological efforts in that continent on SMS," it said.

Google said Google SMS, which will be available first in Uganda, would provide information, via SMS, on a number of topics including health and agriculture tips, news, local weather and sports.

Google also said that it is also launching a service called Google Trader, an SMS-based application that helps bring together buyers and sellers of product or services, from used cars to livestock to jobs.

3G services lift Nigeria's telecom sector

Nigeria is experiencing a steady growth in the penetration of telecommunications services despite obvious glitches and network congestion.

The Nigerian Communications Commission recently announced that the installed capacity of telecommunications operators in Nigeria has reached 70 million lines, the number of connected lines has reached 51.9 million, with GSM firms accounting for 49 million of the lines and CDMA accounting for 2.4 million of the lines.
However of the connected lines, only 39 million are active, meaning about 10 million lines are dormant.

HANA's Jonah Iboma reported that another reason for the increase in network capacity is the entry of 3G mobile services into the economy.

MTN Nigeria, consequent upon getting the loan facility of $2billion (about N240billion) for the purpose of expanding its fast growing network., has commenced commercial 3G mobile telephony services in the country. Chief Executive Officer, Ahmad Farroukh said that MTN's third generation telephony would run on a High Speed Packet Access platform (HSPA) - which is technically mid-way between Third Generation and Fourth Generation mobile telephony and is technically referred to as 3.5G and represents an advanced form of Third Generation mobile telephony.

Speaking at the inauguration of the service last week, Corporate Services Executive of MTN Nigeria, Mrs. Amina oyagbola, said the company had been engaged in a lot of capacity increase to meet the requirements of the new service as well as "continue to build and consolidate additional capacity on our pre-existing 2.5 G platform".

Globacom Nigeria also inaugurated its 3G services christened as the 3G Plus last week to three cities (Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja) and to the local airports and international airports. Similar to the rollout of GSM services, 3G Plus services coverage will be at a selected places in the three cities of launch. In Lagos, services are in Victoria Island, Ajah, Lekki, ikoyi, marina, Apapa, Third Mainland bridge, Yaba, Ikeja, Surulere, Oota and the local and international airports.

Globacom promised to extend services to other parts of the country as soon as market conditions become clearer. Globacom obtained a license to operate the 3G services alongside three other firms, Alheri Engineering Limited, Celtel Nigeria, and MTN Nigeria after paying $150mn for the license in March this year.

AthleticsAFRICA: Bayo Adio - the season opener

AthleticsAFRICA: Bayo Adio - the season opener

Africa ranked 4th in world's broadband penetration

Broadband internet services uptake in Africa is still well below expectactions, however, Africa was still rated fourth in broadband penetration among six continents that were sampled by the Economist Intelligence in the year 2007, according to Remy Nweke, HANA Correspondent in Lagos - Nigeria. (pictured right)

The study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rated Africa as fourth in its uptake of broadband services within the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region scoring 7.4 behind North America 10, Western Europe 9.9, Central and Eastern Europe 7.6. After MEA came Latin America with 7.3 and Asia Pacific 7.1 within the six regions under review.was

"Scores are on scale of 1-10, with 10 representing the highest level of affordability," EIU stated.

Africa's positive but slow response to broadband is attributed to Africa's gradual liberalisation of the telecommunications market.

EIU precisely cited South Africa as an example of where broadband deployment progress has made broadband access much more affordable in recent years if online retails sales are anything to go by, said the report.

"South African e-commerce consultancy World Wide Worx reports that online sales of consumer goods grew by 25 per cent in 2006 to the tune of R688 million (about $94 million), and expects it to expand by another 35 per cent in 2007," EIU added.

South African enterprises, the study indicated have in turn leveraged online services to manage growth more efficiently, particularly in newly competitive industries: low-cost airlines have burgeoned in South Africa in the post-apartheid era, in large part owing to online bookings.

EIU explained this phenomenon by citing four primary airlines who sell online tickets and have made a fortune of R1.8 billion in 2005, with Kulul.com accounting for 60 per cent of that trade, thus becoming the country's largest online commerce site.

The study further noted that as broadband goes increasingly wireless, consumer familiarity with mobile devices such as phones and handheld computers would help individuals make the most out of the Internet.

UNICEF teams up with corporate Nigeria for OLPC

The United Nations Children and Education Fund and Corporate Nigeria have agreed to adopt the worldwide 'One Laptop Per Child' strategy as part of their corporate social responsibility projects in education, according to HANA's Jonah Iboma (pictured right).

According to details made available to HANA by the 'One Laptop Per Nigerian Child' OLPNC, the organisations promoting the OLPNC initiative, together with UNICEF will help attract leading corporate bodies for the scheme designed to give laptops to children in Primary schools.

OLPC was initiated by Prof.Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to help developing countries in the third world mainly to catch up with the global digital revolution.

A member of OLPNC, Mr. Tomi Davies, said that the US-led non-profit initiative was building an all inclusive and broad-based organisation that would promote and propagate the OLPC idea in Nigeria .

He said, "We have opened discussions with some corporate organizations and some are already helping us.The aim is to start a national debate on digital literacy for Nigerian children so the country can be an active participant in the emerging global knowledge economy for which the use of computers is taken for granted much like access to television and telephones have become fundamentals of today's information age."

He revealed that the Director of Information Technology, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. M.K Ibrahim, Director of Strategy at the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mrs. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, are some of the people that have joined the OLPNC team.

He added that the organizations have also initiated discussions with UBEC, NERDC and other primary and secondary school stakeholders.

"The vision is for the Nigeria of the future to be a leader in the contribution of digitally based intellectual property as a means of capital value creation and competitive advantage in the world. Our children are the future and they are here now. We cannot wait until everything from the past
( i.e. Classrooms, Teachers, Books, Pens etc) is in place and available to all before we start addressing the future (i.e. Laptops, Connectivity, Content, Security etc). Otherwise, the digital divide may become a digital chasm that is too wide for the next generation of Nigerians to bridge," he said.

Davies said initiatives supported by OLPNC include the recently concluded testing of the OLPC XO machines which were distributed to primary school children at Galadima School in Gwarimpa and the proof of concept of the Intel Classmate PCs at the Jabi Junior Secondary School both in Abuja .

The Legal Counsel to OLPC in Nigeria , Mr. Ayo Kusamotu said that Alteq.ict, an IT Consultancy, provided the management for the project at the Galadima School, while the Growing Business Foundation led by Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien financed power generation so that the pupils will have constant power to use their OLPC XO machines.

Kusamotu explained that other members of the increasing OLPNC volunteer team headed by Tomi Davies include Khalifa Galadanchi of IBM.

"The OLPC project in Nigeria is becoming a reality through a not for profit company being formed to take over the role of Team Nigeria and implement the OLPNC project in Nigeria. Discussions are on going about structure, form and membership. The guiding philosophy of OLPC (Nigeria) is digital literacy for Nigerian Children" Kusamotu explained.

Nigeria company ties B2B deal with Tejari.com

Nigeria has become the first nation in sub-Saharan Africa to join Tejari.com, the leading business to business (B2B) online marketplace in the emerging markets, through an agreement signed between Tejari.com and MIS Nigeria Limited, a leading Nigerian systems integrator.

Tejari Nigeria provides a platform for businesses across the country to do business online, significantly improving commercial opportunities and trade leads for sellers while helping large, enterprise organizations improve procurement efficiencies and extensively reduce procurement costs.

"I am pleased to announce this partnership with MIS to launch Tejari Nigeria, a move that will bring stronger commercial ties and opportunities between Nigerian organizations and others on the 100,000-strong Tejari network," said Omar Hijazi, CEO of Tejari.com.

"Tejari Nigeria will enable public and private sector organizations to come together in safe, secure and transparent business environment where buyers and sellers have the opportunity to transact locally and across Tejari.com's international network.

Today, Nigeria enjoys approximately US$ 250 Million in trade between North Africa and the Gulf, and we believe Tejari Nigeria will undoubtedly boost commercial activity for Nigerian goods and services abroad."

Tejari.com operates the largest online B2B marketplace in the emerging markets, with over 100,000 member companies across 14 countries in the Middle East, Asia and now Africa. MIS has over 25 years experience in technology solutions and services and is the distributor and authorized service center for HP.

Its customers include the Central Bank of Nigeria, Shell, Nigeria International Bank, Nigerian Telecommunications (Nitel), State Water Board, Proctor & Gamble and National Power Authority.

With the launch of Tejari Nigeria, MIS now provides an online platform for eProcurement, tender, bid and trade lead publishing as well as business across Nigeria.

"MIS works with some of the largest organizations in the public and private sector in Nigeria, and there is a growing demand among them, enabled by advanced telecommunications infrastructure, to harness the power of e-business," said Etim Amana, CEO of MIS.

"Tejari's e-procurement solutions allow companies to move their purchasing processes online, creating cost savings and making processes faster, more efficient and more transparent."

"Supplier companies are able to offer their products to a wider range of customers in new markets, while buyers are able to leverage better pricing and to source products from many new suppliers.

Tejari Nigeria intends to bring all of these benefits to our members, and to build new and profitable trading relations between Nigeria, Africa, the Middle East and emerging markets around the world," he added.

Tejari.com, part of Dubai World holding company, has been in operation since 2000, and now has direct operations in 14 countries in the region. With over 7 years experience and over US$ 4 Billion in online transactions, Tejari.com serves as the online eBusiness platform for numerous government organizations, blue-chip multinational organizations and global Non-Government Organizations.

Tejari.com trading partners in both the public and private sectors have realized direct procurement savings of 15-20 percent plus indirect savings of more than 40 percent. Tejari.com offers numerous other services and solutions for diverse trading communities around the world.

Source: Fourth Dimension Public Relations

Mobile reporters launch in Africa

Voices of Africa launches a project aimed at training, paying and providing state-of-the-art mobile phones to African journalists in South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, and Kenya to enhance their reporting capabilities allowing them to capture stories on the handheld devices and upload them to a designated news site.

This mobile journalism project is backed by the Africa Interactive Media Foundation and Dutch citizen journalism website Skoeps.

AfricaNews - Mobile reporters in Africa - Videos

Any benefit for the poor African child?

It's good to see recently Khaled Hassounah, director of Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme in Africa and the Middle East, unveiling the laptops in a local school in Abuja, Nigeria.

About a month ago, when the war of words between the OLPC's Nicholas Negroponte and chip making giants Intel first blew up, my first question then was, who will benefit from this impasse?

The enthusism that greeted the launch of the $100 One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, a scheme aimed at building low-cost computers for education in developing countries, at the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in 2005, has now been eroded by the reality of the spiralling cost of the project.

While the OLPC's machine, the XO-1, is currently priced at $175 (£88), the Classmate is priced at $285 (£143). However, Negroponte says this can be reduced to around $100 as more are manufactured and Intel hope theirs could eventually go below $200.

The OLPC has a cutting-edge long-distance wireless networking capabilities and runs the open source Linux operating system, Intel's Classmate has a faster processor and can run Linux or Windows XP Embedded, a stripped-down version of the Microsoft operating system.

Watch the video below to see how a Brazilian website compared the OLPC with the Classmate (in spanish).


While the fights goes on, a lot of early adopters who have signed on with the OLPC, such as Brazil, Nigeria and Pakistan, starts questioning the project.

Intel chairman, Craig Barrett, told reporters in 2005: "Mr Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop - I think a more realistic title should be the $100 gadget," to which Negroponte responded: "The concept has received a lot of criticism and yet after that criticism they are either copying it or doing things perfectly in line with the concept."

Luis Ramirez wrote a well thought out comparison between the OLPC and classmate and why the technical specifications leans favorably towards the classmate, the obvious selling point will be in the ruggedness and cost. In this case, i think the OLPC just shaves it.

As far as African governments are concerned, all the technical jargons are all well and good, but anything above $100 really is of no benefit to the poor African child.