Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Meet Peter Mbiria, an amazing Kenyan innovator.

As far as innovation goes, most Kenyans wouldn't praise their own. They look up to amazing discoveries in the West, or in China and japan and other Asian nations. However, a number of Kenyans are already changing that perception, with new innovations everyday. Meet PeterMbiria, who is developing a robotics car, assembled from scratch matrials bought from Ngara and other scrap electroncis sites.

Amazingly, Peter got a C+ in KCSE, but he says that he would have gotten an A+ if the exams were

China beats US, UK, as new source of inspiration for Kenyans.

China has beaten the US and UK as Kenya’s new source of inspiration. According to a survey carried out by Consumer Insight, many Kenyans now look up to the world’s second largest economy for business, political, and social inspiration. China has grown by double digits in the last 30 years or so, a growth that has seen the country lift over 300 million people from extreme poverty. The new Chinese President, Xi Ping, has coined a new term, ‘The Chinese dream’, in a bid to lift China to the next level of growth. Goldman Sachs, a leading Global investment bank, predicts that China will

Konza Techno City- Does it have what it takes to succeed?

Unless you have landed from space, then you might have heard about Konza techno- city, which will be located in Machakos, about 50 km from the Nairobi city centre. However, here are the ingredients to make the technology succeed. But question is, are they there?

1. Right Talent.
Talent is abundant in Kenya, as there are many talented Kenyan IT specialists and programmers. Kenyan Universities continue to churn thousands of graduates, so, this talent will always be there.

2. Access to Capital.
Are there enough sources of capital to fund promising ventures? This is where things go wrong. The

Safaricom to move MPESA servers from Germany.

Safaricom will move MPESA servers from Germany to Kenya, in a bid to increase the capacity of the service. Safaricom seeks to upgrade MPESA to a new platform that will enable consumers make many more payments instantly. Currently, the servers handle about 200 to 300 transactions per second. Huawei technologies of China has been contracted to carry out the upgrade. Safaricom is moving rapidly to generate new revenue streams, away from the traditional voice services, which is stagnating. It will also be a vendor of the Samsung galaxy 4, to tap into the growing market of middle class Kenyans who want sophisticated smartphones.

Vast majority of Job candidates lie in interviews- New study shows.

81 percent of people lie in about themselves in job interviews, a new study by the University of Massachusetts shows. The more extroverted candidates were more apt t tell lies and untruths. When the job requirements were more technical, deception decreased, because applicants ere trying to compensate for their lack of job required skills. On average, job candidates tell about 2 lies per a 15 minute interview.

OLX moves to increase market share in Classifieds industry.

Olx is moving fast to gain the lucrative share of the online classifieds market. The website has presence in 94 countries, and is available in 42 languages. It gets over 100 million unique visitors a month. The nascent online classifieds industry is shared by among others, N-Soko of Nation Media Group, Buy rent Kenya, cheki.co.ke. The classifieds websites make money from online adverts, and by charging premium amounts for special listings of featured products.

Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Why Ihub is still Kenya's best incubation center.

The bug of entrepreneurship has caught on in Kenya, and incubation centers are the next big cliche. Kenyatta University is inviting applications from interested entrepreneurs to launch their businesses. They will be provided with access to mentorship, capital, and marketing. However, Ihub still remains kenya's best known incubation center.

The center is a meeting point of geeks, ideaentrepreneurs, and thoselooking to fund promising ideas. The foudners of Ihub also have a great streak of success behind them.

For example, Eric Hersman was involved in founding Ushahidi, a disaster monitoring site that was

Microsoft to provide laptops for Kenyan schools.

Microsoft Inc will partner with the Kenyan government in the implementation of the laptops for schools project. Microsoft will train teachers, and also help in the creation of at least five digital villages in every county. It is likely that Microsoft will also be involved heavily in the Government's

3 Great Incubators to launch your business in Kenya.

Incubators are the craze these days. An incubator takes your idea, and then helps you start a business from it, and when the business has reached maturity, it lets go of you. Incubators are new thing in Kenya, but here are three of the most well known.
1. Ihub.
Ihub is the most known incubator in east and central Africa. You get office space, internet, and an opportunity to interact with potential investors. By its very nature, most the ventures supported are IT related.

2. M-Lab.
This is an incubator at the University of Nairobi, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of

Protecting your idea from being stolen?- How to go about it.

Many people have brilliant ideas, but the failure to implement or protect their ideas has seen them continue to live a life of poverty. How do you protect your idea from being stolen?

1. Engage with a lawyer.
You don’t have to hire an expensive lawyer, but at last seek out someone who understands the basics of business law. Seek out someone knowledgeable on copyrights, and the idea of patenting.

2. Patent your idea.
Some are of the school of thought that there is nothing new under the sun. However, if you genuinely believe that your idea is original, then have some means to ensure it is protected. Seek to patent the

Kenyatta University Incubation teams up with Business Daily.

Kenyatta University will team up with Business daily, to train the successful applicants of the ‘Next Big Thing’. The Next Big Thing was launched by Business daily, to nurture young and

Japan switches from aid to trade in its new African policy.

At the end of the Africa- Japan conference on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, said that his country would shift its focus on Africa from ‘aid’ to ‘trade and investment.’ As China’s engagement in Africa has soared, Japan has been relegated to the sidelines. However, many in Africa

Tuskys family feud- Brother Directors fight again.

It’s a well known fact that many Kenyan businesses rarely survive the handing of a family wealth from one generation to the other. The current squabbling over management of the Tuskys supermarket by the brother directors shows once more that Kenyan family businesses must learn to separate the ownership from management.

BRCK- The next big invention from Kenya.

A new invention is in town, and it’s known as BRCK. It is a gadget that helps solve the constant power interruptions that many Kenyans are already accustomed to. The gadget can supply power and internet for up to eight hours, helping programmers and coders continue with their work even when

Kenyatta University Incubation Center looking for entrepreneurs.

Kenyatta University is looking for budding entrepreneurs to enroll in its incubator. The university’s Manu Chandaria incubator will train entrepreneurs on everything they need in order to set up thriving businesses. They will be trained on starting a business, scaling up the business, looking for capital, marketing, sales, and all the components needed to make a business successful.

Some of the mentors include Manu Chandaria- a noted Industrialist, SK Macharia, Chairman of

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