Author: Kaluka wanjala

Google today announced the launch of its second Launchpad Accelerator Africa class as part of its ongoing efforts to support entrepreneurship on the continent. The accelerator, which is housed in Lagos, Nigeria, has already demonstrated its value. The first Launchpad Accelerator Africa class saw 12 startups graduate, with more than 20 teams from Google and 40 mentors from nine countries supporting them. The startups have directly created 132 jobs and, between them, have raised over US$7 million in funding. Their products are being used by approximately 4.5 million people. “The growth of entrepreneurship in Africa is critical to the survival…

If you have been searching for a budget smartphone to buy in Kenya, you may have seen some manufacturers saying their smartphones are powered by Android Oreo (Go Edition). What does this mean and should you care about it? Some devices such as the Nokia 1, Nokia 2.1, Tecno Spark 2 are referred to as Android Go smartphones that you can get in Kenya. So, what does Android Go means and should you care about it? I will try and answer these two questions in this post. I will also use the words Android Oreo (Go Edition) and Android Go…

Towards the end of every year, we normally get a new flagship smartphone from Tecno. This device normally falls under the Tecno Phantom series and is usually the most expensive device from the company. Last year we had the Tecno Phantom 8 that was available for Ksh 37,000 and you can read all about it here. This year, we may not be seeing a Phantom 9 or any Phantom device according to insider sources. It is not clear why this is so but I am told there are no plans to bring a new Phantom device to the market just…

Songa by Safaricom is a music streaming service that has been available in kenya for a few months now. The streaming service has a significant selection of Kenyan and African titles but I can’t say it is popular just yet. I have been using Songa but I just don’t use it consistently and most of the times I forget I have it on my phone. The platform does not have most of the recent songs from popular artistes and this may be the reason why I just don’t use it as I would love to. Songa is a subscription-based service…

Google Search has now made it possible for Swahili users to get more intelligent and contextualized results of people, things and entities that Google already knows about. Swahili is one of the most spoken African languages and Google has now made it much easier for the over 100 million Swahili speakers to search for things they care about. The information is presented to users in an infobox next to the regular strings of search results. “When someone conducts a search, they want answers as quickly as possible. To help Swahili speakers discover new information more easily, we’re now making the…

HMD Global has just brought it yet another affordable Android smartphone to the Kenyan market. This new smartphone, the Nokia 2.1, is now available in the country for Ksh 11,500. The Nokia 2.1 lands in the country less than two weeks after the company announced that the Nokia 5.1 is available in retail stores in Kenya. Unlike the Nokia 5.1 which is an Android One phone, the Nokia 2.1 is an Android Go phone and this basically means that it comes with a tweaked version of Android that is optimized to run smoothly on entry level smartphones. The Nokia 2.1…

Earlier this year, I told you that Skype had plans to introduce end-to-end encryption to its platform. At the moment, the feature was only available to Skype Insiders but is now expanding to all users. Skype announced the availability of end-to-end encryption for texts chats and messages thus enabling its Private Conversations feature after months of testing. Skype seems to be one of the biggest messaging platforms out there that has been slow to enable end-to-end encryption. The platform has been losing ground to more progressive instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and the likes. The absence of…

Infinix is set to launch yet another smartphone in Kenya before the end of this month (August). This new smartphone, the Infinix Note 5 Stylus, comes with a Stylus Pen as you probably could tell from its name and comes with most of the features we have already seen on the standard Infinix Note 5. The company has confirmed that the phone is coming to Kenya and should be available for Ksh 25,000, a bit expensive for an Infinix phone. Just to give you some perspective, the Infinix Note 5 that we have in Kenya is available for Ksh 17,939.…

Equity Group Holdings has today launched its fintech subsidiary, Finserve, signaling a future defined by disruptive innovation beyond the Group’s current financial services. Finserve will operate as an autonomous commercial enterprise, delivering solutions not just for Equity Group, but to the entire economy. Finserve has been the technology arm of Equity Group and has been behind innovations such as Equitel, the Group’s Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). Customers using the Equitel SIM card can manage their bank accounts from their mobile phones – sending money to any bank and any mobile network, paying for goods and services using EazzyPay, applying…

Last week, Safaricom unveiled the most affordable Android Go smartphone in Kenya, the Neon Kicka 4, as part of the “Maisha Ni Digital” campaign to increase smartphone uptake among Kenya’s feature phone users. This three-month campaign will see the company offer affordable 3G devices, convenient payment terms and personalized data offers. Safaricom hopes to give at least 10 million Kenyans Access to internet through their mobile devices through the “Maisha Ni Digital” campaign. One of the devices the company is offering is the Neon Kicka 4 which is an Android Go smartphone that will retail at Ksh 3,499. This makes…