Author: Kaluka wanjala

Absa Bank Kenya has unveiled plans to invest Ksh 2 Billion to implement some technological upgrades that the banking giant hopes will improve the experiences of its customers.  The bank has revealed that it will use some of the money to launch an online account opening platform. This platform will make it much easier for customers to open Absa accounts from anywhere they are at any time. There will be no need of visiting a branch to do this as has been the case for ages.  According to the bank’s Kenya Managing Director Jeremy Awori, online account opening platform shows…

Airtel Money has announced the appointment of Rose Mambo as its chairperson. This appointment comes after Airtel Kenya announced that Airtel Money will start operating as a separate entity. “We wish to congratulate Rose Mambo on her new appointment and wish her all the best in this assignment. Her expertise from across the public and private sectors will add tremendous value to Airtel Money as we work towards deepening financial inclusion in the country,” the company said in a statement. Rose holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Strathmore Business School, Master of Law degree from American University, a…

Equity Bank has announced a new partnership with NALA to allow Kenyans in the diaspora to send money back home. This partnership was announced last week and will make it possible for Kenyans in the UK and US to send money directly from their banks, through the NALA app to Equity Bank Kenya accounts and other mobile wallets. “NALA’s mission is to increase economic opportunities globally and partnering with Equity Bank is a foundational step for us. Combining NALA’s technology with Equity Bank’s reach allows us to build a stronger financial infrastructure for Kenyans worldwide. Payments in Africa are 1%…

Airtel Kenya has today announced that it has acquired 60 MHz of additional spectrum in the 2600 MHz band from the Communications Authority of Kenya. The company has acquired this additional spectrum for $40 million.  This licence will be valid for 15 years from July 2022. This is one of the key significant acquisitions by the telco that has been aggressively expanding its connectivity across the region.  With the acquired spectrum, Airtel Kenya will be able to expand its 4G coverage in the market for both mobile data and fixed wireless home broadband capability. This should also allow for the…

Airtel Kenya has announced the split of its mobile money business into a separate entity. The separate entity will be known as Airtel Money Kenya Limited and comes alive after the entry of a minority shareholder into the venture.  The new entity took over the first mobile money services yesterday according to Business Daily.  “We wish to inform … the general public that to better serve our customers, we have separated and transferred the Airtel Money Business from Airtel Networks Kenya Limited to Airtel Money Kenya Limited,” the company said in a notice. “Following this business separation, Airtel Money Kenya…

HMD Global is expanding its tablet portfolio with the unveiling of the Nokia T10. This is the successor to the Nokia T20 from last year. I am still not sure about the naming convention HMD is using as I would have expected the Nokia T10 to come before the Nokia T20 tablet. The naming aside, the Nokia T10 tablet was unveiled last week together with the new feature phones from the company. You can read more about those phones here. These three phones will be available in Kenya this September.  The Nokia T10 is an Android Enterprise Recommended tablet that…

For a number of years, Safaricom has invested in its internet infrastructure and it has worked well for the telco. The company was the first to roll out 4G LTE in Kenya and has plans to be the first to roll out 5G in the country soon.  In the latest report published by Ookla, Safaricom has the fastest average download speeds in Kenya at 22.74 Mbps. These are the results for Q2 2022. Coming in second is Airtel with median download speeds of 15.71 Mbps and Faiba settles for third with speeds of 14.08 Mbps. Telkom is fourth with 4.71…

We have been waiting for this implementation for a while and it is finally here. From today, Telkom T-Kash and Airtel Money users can make payments to any M-Pesa paybill number without any restrictions. This is good news for the end users and even some of the merchants.  The objective of the interoperability of Kenya’s mobile money service platforms is to allow Kenyans to make direct mobile money payments to any M-PESA merchant Pay Bill Number and Merchant Tills, from any network. With this system, Airtel and Telkom subscribers in Kenya will have no issues paying their bills through Safaricom…

For those looking for smartphones between Ksh 19,000 and 21,000, the Tecno Spark 9 Pro and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11  are some of the two devices on your list. The Spark 9 Pro is the most recent one to launch in Kenya and is available in stores for Ksh 20,500 for the 4GB variant with 128GB of storage. The Redmi Note 11 was launched a few months back and is available starting from Ksh 20,500 for the 4GB variant with 128GB of storage. I have been using the Tecno Spark 9 Pro for a few weeks now and I…

In a world full of smart devices, there is still demand for feature phones. HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, has been very active in this market segment with new devices every so often. The company has quite a number of feature phones on the market even in Kenya and today has announced the expansion of this portfolio.  The three feature phones the company has unveiled are the Nokia 2660 Flip, Nokia 8210 4G and the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio.  The Nokia 2660 Flip phone as the name suggests has a clamshell-style device. This phone has basic features with some…