Author: Kaluka wanjala

The future is definitely electric, and this will be the case for all vehicles including the public transport sector. One company that is trying to achieve this is BasiGo. They refer to themselves as an electric vehicle technology and financing company that seeks to bring electric bus services to sub-Saharan Africa. The company has so far brought two 25-seat electric buses to Kenya which are currently undergoing performance and reliability testing in Nairobi. The buses will enter pilot operation with select bus operators in Nairobi beginning in March 2022. BasiGo sources electric buses from BYD Automotive, the largest electric bus…

Showmax has today announced a new partnership with Safaricom that will see subscribers get a 2-month subscription to the video streaming platform and 1GB of data. According to Showmax, this should make it easier for subscribers to pay and watch for content on the platform. The company says that its customers have been asking for one data and subscription package and this should address that. This 2-month bundle is 1-month extra from what is currently being offered and should help get people to start using the platform. Through this new partnership, customers will be able to choose from two main…

Leading African economies that have struggled to improve their infrastructure, business conditions and overall competitiveness are generally performing better against other emerging markets in areas that measure their digital skills and sustainability. That’s one of the findings of the 2022 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index, a ranking of the world’s 50 leading emerging markets. Kenya ranks No. 28 in the overall Index but is 17th in digital readiness. South Africa, No. 24 overall, is 21st in digital readiness. Likewise, Ghana is 32nd overall and 23rd in digital readiness. The Index, now in its 13th year, ranks countries for overall competitiveness…

Mdundo has announced that it saw impressive growth in Q4 of 2021.The Pan-African music streaming service saw its user base grow by 22% in the last quarter of 2021 reaching 20 million users. The company says that growth has been fuelled by strong partnerships with telecommunications firms and leading consumer brands such as MTN Nigeria, Vodacom Tanzania, Guinness, Standard Chartered Bank and Safaricom that has seen the service increase its audience in the mass, mid-income market especially among the 18-24 age bracket. “We have noted increased demand for music served online mainly among the youthful consumer segment, an audience that…

Equity bank has today announced that their USSD service (*247#) can now be accessed by all customers on all mobile networks. The USSD service gives users access to a seamless banking experience. With the revamped USSD service, customers on Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom and Equitel can easily access Equity bank services. This announcement comes a few weeks after Equity introduced one till number that will allow merchants to receive digital payments efficiently. Through this till number, merchants will be able to receive payments from different channels or mobile wallets from the single till number. Some of the new features on the…

Showmax has released the first-look trailer for the highly-anticipated second season of the hit Kenyan procedural and legal drama Crime and Justice.

Brand Finance has named Huawei one of the top 10 most valuable brands for 2022 in its recently published Brand Finance Global 500 2022 report. The report showed staggering year-on-year growth of 29% in Huawei’s brand value to US$71.2 billion, allowing the company to rise more than twofold from its previous position of 21 in Brand Finance’s 500 ranking last year, to 9th this year. Every year, Brand Finance puts 5,000 of the biggest brands to the test, and publish nearly 100 reports, ranking brands across all sectors and countries. The world’s top 500 most valuable and strongest brands are…

In 2021, the global smartphone market grew by 5.7% compared to 2020. This is according to data released by market research firm, IDC. In total, over 1.35 billion smartphones were shipped in 2021. Q4 of 2021 saw a decline in shipments with 362.4 million phones shipped in that quarter. This represents a 3.2% decline from the same period in 2020. During the last quarter of 2021, Apple led the pack with 84.9 million shipped. This was a decline of 2.9% compared to the same period in 2020. This is right around after the release of the latest iPhones and sales…

In a move aimed at enticing people to use its platform, Jumia has announced that it will offer free delivery on all orders above Ksh 1,000 to customers in Nairobi.

Safaricom introduced the M-Pesa Super App back in 2020. This app is meant to complement the existing mySafaricom app and is for those who just want to conduct M-Pesa transactions. The app has grown in numbers really fast and according to the company, total downloads have reached 5 million. This is impressive and makes the M-Pesa Super App the most downloaded and the most used Kenyan app ever. The app was buggy at some point and even though it is still not perfect, it has really improved over the months. Through the M-Pesa app, users can send money, request money,…