Safaricom aims to integrate Wi-Fi on Matatus.

Safaricom is on an all out push to get the matatus plying the Nairobi route to have wireless internet- Wi-Fi. The company sees the endless traffic jams in the city’s road as an opportunity for commuters to surf free as they get distracted from the traffic jam. However, security precautions still remain, as

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Saudi Arabia plans to block WhatsApp within weeks.

Saudi Arabia plans to block Internet-based communication tool WhatsApp within weeks if the U.S.-based firm fails to comply with requirements set by the kingdom's telecom regulator.

The country’s telecom regulatory body argues that it is hard for the state to monitor WhatsApp, and it also deprives telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts.

The kingdom appears to be making a greater push for more control over cyberspace as Internet and smart phone usage soars, in part due to strict laws that limit opportunities for people to mix in person.

WhatsApp has seen an unprecedented expansion since its launch four years ago, and is eating into the

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Safaricom overtakes EABL as the most valuable company in East Africa.

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has lost its place as the NSE’s most valuable firm to Safaricom, following successive weeks of share price decline.

EABL, whose share was trading at Sh351 Thursday having opened at Sh358, now has a market capitalisation of Sh278 billion compared to Safaricom’s Sh294 billion.
Safaricom was trading at Sh7.35 per share Thursday, having remained above the Sh7 per share since the beginning of May.
Analysts say the EABL share has dropped due to a mixture of profit-taking and the adoption of a

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5 Best internships in Kenya.

The Kenyatta administration has said that it will offer tax rebates to companies that offer internships to young Kenyan graduates that are just out of university. So, which are the Kenyan companies to intern at? Here are five of the best.

1. Bamburi

Want to get lots of experience plus a little pocket money on the side? Then Bamburi is no doubt the place to be. It also encourages female interns to apply, especially in the technical and engineering fields.

2. Google.

Google is known to offer generous monthly stipends, plus you get to go to work in jeans and T-shirts,

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Facebook, Microsoft release surveillance data requests from US.

Facebook and Microsoft have struck agreements with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive. The companies aim to avert a fallout from their users as they far their private data could be sold off to US intelligence agencies.

Facebook became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 U.S. requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of

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Google launches cheap internet for Africa, South Asia.

Google has launched internet balloons; a service it hopes would bring internet to the world’s ‘marginalized regions’ in Africa and South Asia. Wrinkled and skinny at first, the translucent, jellyfish-shaped balloons will also provide internet to rural areas in the developed world, where internet service providers shy away from serving because of lack of ‘profit incentives’. 

If successful, the technology might allow countries to leapfrog the expense of laying fibre cable,

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I&M Bank Plans to Fundraise for Regional Expansion.

I&M Bank Ltd., plans to raise money in the next year to fund its regional expansion, Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur said. This comes as I&M Bank is set to being trading at the NSE this month.
The bank plans to begin operations in Uganda in the next 12 months, possibly by acquiring an existing lender, before venturing into South Sudan and Zambia, Executive Director Sarit Raja-Shah said in an interview to Bloomberg news. I&M already operates in Tanzania, Rwanda and Mauritius.

“We are still thinking of how to raise money,” Mathur, 59, said. He said the company has not yet determined how much it plans to raise. “There could be a rights issue, there could be an issue of debt and equity” carried out by July 2014, he said.

Profit increased by 21 percent at Kenyan banks last year to 107.9 billion shillings ($1.26 billion), helped by a surge in interest income after the central bank raised its benchmark rate to a record. Total assets grew 15 percent to 2.33 trillion shillings, according to central bank data. Earnings may grow further

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10 Great Hidden Careers for 2013 and Beyond

Most people limit their career choices to the well-known: doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Here are 10 professions that are not only underappreciated, but that offer advantages over the more traditional careers. Here are ten careers that you might want to re-look again and advise someone to pursue.

1. Kindergarten-ECD- teacher. Parents are forking gazillions for their children to study in top notch private kindergarten schools. Whilst in our generation nursery school wasn’t something our parents thought much about, these days it’s different. The fee for top kindergarten schools easily outstrips the fee for many primary schools, and quality teachers at this stage of a child’s development are hard to

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The Most Overlooked Part of Your Data Security.

Organizations constantly replace outdated computers, servers, laptops, copiers, and countless other types of electronic devices to keep up with technology and enhance worker productivity. This rush to upgrade, however, creates a challenge: large numbers of excess electronics must be managed and disposed of properly.

During a recent IT asset disposal project for a large New York bank, a chain-of-custody audit revealed three computers were untracked. An IT director was suspected of taking them.

Soft Underbelly of Data Security
Without question, most large organizations take data security seriously. Corporations will spend an estimated $68 billion worldwide this year on IT security measures including firewalls, network

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Mombasa port falls behind Durban port in African trade.

Transporting goods by sea remains the most common way to trade globally, but in Africa cargo spends an abnormally long time in ports before it is moved inland, presenting a serious obstacle to the successful integration of sub-Saharan economies in worldwide trade networks. A World Bank study, titled ‘Why does cargo spend weeks in sub-Saharan African ports?’ shows.

Lessons from six countries, found the average cargo waiting time to be 20 days and that more than half of the time needed to transport cargo from ports to ­hinterland cities in landlocked countries in

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Doing Business in Africa, Critical to Global Growth - U.S.

The United States government yesterday stressed the need and importance for foreign investors in the country and across the world to do businesses in the African continent.

Speaking at ongoing African-US Trade Exhibition held at the Baltimore Convention Center, the Governor of Maryland State, Mr. Martin O'Malley, maintained that doing businesses with Africa was

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Talking business with Founder of Steers and Debonairs Pizza, Azam Samanani.

Steers and Debonairs Pizza, two fast food chains, launched in Kenya sixteen years ago. Azam Samanani – managing director of Hoggers Limited, the firm that runs the two franchises – told How we made it in Africa’s Dinfin Mulupi about doing business in Kenya’s restaurant market. Below are excerpts.

Steers launched in Kenya sixteen years ago. What was the inspiration then?
Sixteen years ago, the vision was that there was a market here for people who wanted international quality offerings. We have done pretty well since the beginning. We now run eight Steers and five Debonairs Pizza stores. There has always been a market for excellence and sixteen years ago we were the only ones doing this whereas today there are more people doing it and more people trying to do it.

There are unique business challenges to doing things right in different environments.
Africa has its unique challenges, Kenya has its unique challenges and Nairobi has its unique challenges. Every time someone tries to take an experience that isn’t organic to the environment and tries to

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2 Great Kenyan incubation centers to launch your business.

Kenyan entrepreneurs seeking to start a business usually have a very hard time. Capital for starting is in short supply as banks are unwilling to lend to an untried client that has not made a name in the business circles. Clients are unwilling to commit, and most certainly employees are unwilling to be employed by a company that has yet to show any future growth prospects. 

What’s more, office space and internet are certainly out of reach from many budding entrepreneurs. To address this need, a few incubation centers have come up where one can incubate their ideas, be mentored and nurtured, sometimes be linked up with capital lenders and markets, and eventually see

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5 Career Tips for Women; Lessons from Facebook’s most powerful woman employee.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's No. 2 executive and outspoken voice on the obstacles women face in the corporate world, offers a blueprint for change in her new book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."

1. Sit at the table.
Plagued by self-doubt and "feeling like a fraud," women consistently underestimate themselves and their abilities, Sandberg writes. For a host of reasons, women often hold themselves back by literally not sitting at the table where decisions are made. Instead, they choose to watch from the sidelines. She urges institutions and individuals to encourage and promote women. And she encourages women to sit at the table and raise their hands. Men are already doing it, after all.

2. When negotiating, "Think personally, act communally."
Preface salary negotiations by explaining that you know women often get paid less than men, so you are going to "negotiate rather than accept the original offer," she writes. This way, women can position

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Budget: Interns to be hired in new scheme.

The government will enter into partnerships with private companies so that experienced graduates can be hired to gain skills and experience. In the budget estimates read on Thursday by The cabinet secretary for Treasury, Henry Rotich, private companies that take in fresh university graduates and

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