By RALF HECKNER, DHIREN CHANDARIA and SIDDHARTH CHATTERJEE, The Star About two decades ago, big banks in Kenya could gladly cherry-pick and retain only the high-end customers, leaving the majority unbanked and dependent on exploitative money-lenders or informal savings clubs. How times have changed! Today, Kenyans now can not only choose from a wide range...
By Liban Ahmad A friend of mine who went to the former College of Political Science and Journalism in Somalia had told me in 1990, that Somalia did not allow its citizens to have dual citizenship. The Somali government of the day would not permit someone with citizenship from another country to retain his/her Somali...
Written By Joshua Masinde, qz At the time of M-Pesa’s launch in 2007, few could have conceived the mobile money service would be as ubiquitous and deeply entrenched in the lives of millions of Kenyans as it is today. A sizable portion of Kenya’s economy is now deeply ingrained in the platform to levels that...
Nairobi (Reuters) The World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed worry about the impact of food rations for refugees in Kenya. Rations to more than 400,000 refugees have been halved due to severe funding shortages, and existing supplies will run out completely at the end of February, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Kenya hosts 434,000...
Written by Abdi Latif Dahir, Quartz Africa After living and studying in several Asian countries for 7 years, Mohamed Abdilahi Dahir came back to Somalia without a plan on what to do next. When he started asking around for information about start-ups and investment, he couldn’t find anyone to guide him. To better understand the...
Written by Jake Bright As Africa transitions from the margins to the mainstream of the global economy, technology is playing an increasingly significant role. Bolstering regional trends in business, investment and modernization is the emergence of an IT ecosystem – a growing patchwork of entrepreneurs, tech ventures and innovation centres coalescing from country to country....
LONDON, United Kingdom- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is visiting Kenya this week on his first trip to Africa, using his time in the country to visit the iHub technology hub in Nairobi, meet with developers and partners, and explore how the country’s pioneering mobile money ecosystem is evolving. is in Kenya to see how technology...
By KEVIN OMOLO AND DALTON NYABUNDI National Police Service Commission (NPSC) Chairman Johnston Kavuludi (Right) flanked by Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett during a press briefing. Photo by WILLIS AWANDU/STANDARD Are police officers some of the richest public servants in Kenya today? This was the question on the lips of many as vetting of...
Somali traders at markets like this one in Mogadishu are increasingly more likely to do business using cellphones instead of cash.(Reuters/Feisal Omarr By Tony Onyulo Mogadishu, Somalia, Ahmed Farah Hassan no longer carries the tattered Somali shilling notes that were the currency of his war-torn country’s economy for years. At a gas station in Mogadishu recently,...
By Collins Mwai The inaugural Transform Africa Summit in 2013 saw participating countries launch a smart Africa manifesto that sought to put information and communication technology (ICT) at the centre of their socio-economic transformation. Nine African states represented at the summit and ICT partners such as International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and AU Commission began implementing...