A tech pioneer shares her favorite spots in Nairobi

Juliana Rotich didn’t grow up in Nairobi, but the Kenyan capital has been her official full-time home since 2011. Now, she describes the city as “another node in my network.” It’s a suitable metaphor for a woman who’s immersed in the technology business, from her work at the nonprofit data and mapping collective, Ushahidi, to her development of the Internet-enabling device, BRCK. Here, she shares some of the places she loves about her current home town, including a good place to pick up chapati and the best spot to admire baby elephants. MORE: ideas.ted.com

Nairobi hackathon to develop World Service chat app

BBC Connected Studio is holding a hackathon in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi next month as it looks to develop a chat app to extend the reach of the BBC World Service to young audiences in Africa.

The Nairobi hackathon  – which will be based around social platforms, specifically the use of chat apps, to reach young audiences – takes place on February 3-4, with a short evening briefing on January 29.

Winning innovative ideas will be eligible for a funded pilot of up to GBP25,000 (US$38,000).
read more: disrupt-africa.com
Developers interested in applying can do so here.

The Do-Good Startups of Nairobi

Stephanie Koczela arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, when everyone was moving fast and breaking things. She had been working for the microlender Kiva in Nairobi, Kenya, and transferred to the company’s South of Market headquarters to build its global field operations. For an ambitious twentysomething with an interest in development issues, it seemed like a dream job. The work was engaging, but Koczela was miserable. She longed to be back in Nairobi, where expat entrepreneurs were launching startups of their own.

In Africa, “you are surrounded by people that are living a very fun, very hard life,” Koczela says. “You are working from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at least. Most people are working to 1 a.m. to make phone calls back to the U.S. If you text someone at 10 and say, ‘Do you know how to do this Excel calculation?’ they will call you right back.” Koczela expected that same camaraderie in San Francisco but found it had been more vibrant in Nairobi. read more: www.businessweek.com

Keepod: a $7 stick computer

Now it's being eyed as a possible solution to bridging the digital divide, by two colourful entrepreneurs behind the start-up Keepod.

Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi aim to combat the lack of access to computers by providing what amounts to an operating-system-on-a-stick.

In six weeks, their idea managed to raise more than $40,000 (£23,750) on fundraising site Indiegogo, providing the cash to begin a campaign to offer low-cost computing to the two-thirds of the globe's population that currently has little or no access. read more: www.bbc.com/news/technology

Safaricom Outfits City Buses, Rural Markets to Get Consumers Hooked on Mobile Internet

As young pitchmen shout to potential passengers over blaring music, a graffiti-covered private minibus fills up more quickly than the other dozen in the scrum. It has free Wi-Fi.

The specially outfitted matatu, as the minibuses are known in Swahili, is part of an experiment by Safaricom Ltd. to connect Africa's unconnected, offering a glimpse of what it takes to bring some of the world's most price-sensitive users online.

Once on board, Mwenda Kanyange updates his Facebook status and browses the Web for his hourlong trip home through Nairobi's traffic-clogged streets.

"It gets kind of boring," the 23-year-old college student says, "Wi-Fi is good for that."
read mroe: online.wsj.com/news/articles

Most Innovative Companies In Africa

African startups, nonprofits, and big businesses are tackling a range of challenges, from shopping to social good.



1. iHUB
For connecting, amplifying, and accelerating Africa’s tech community. Erik Hersman's iHub has become an important resource for Kenya’s tech community. The not-for-profit is a hybrid coworking space and university commons, which has grown to more than 10,000 members in just three years and has led to the launching of 150 companies--many of which are dedicated to finding technological solutions to Africa-specific problems.


2. SANERGY
For bringing sustainable sanitation to Sub-Saharan Africa. More than 12,000 people living in Kenya's slums are now receiving daily portable toilets containing toilet paper, sawdust, soap, and water thanks to Sanergy's sustainability model--local residents purchase and manage the sanitation facilities, allowing them to become micro-entrepreneurs. Every day, the waste is collected and transported to a management center where it’s treated according to the governmental standards and turned into fertilizer for use by East African farmers who can’t afford the otherwise high prices.



3. ONE ACRE FUND
For fostering a new generation of farmers in Africa. The model is simple, but the impact is huge. One Acre Fund estimates it will represent Africa’s largest network of small farms in just a few years. The company provides farmers seed and fertilizer on credit, delivers the materials nearby for pickup, trains the farmers to use them, and helps them sell the harvests. Since launching in Kenya in 2006, One Acre Fund has expanded to surrounding Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, reaching more than 180,000 farmers and aiming to hit 200,000 by the end of 2014.

See more: www.fastcompany.com

Philips picks Nairobi for innovation centre

image source: www.newscenter.philips.com

Philips on Friday  announced the establishment of its Africa innovation hub in Nairobi, Kenya, which underlines the company’s commitment to invest in Africa.

The hub will work both on the creation of new inventions as well as marketing. The hub will be located at the Philips East African Headquarters in Nairobi.

It will do application-focused scientific and user studies to address key challenges like improving access to lighting and affordable healthcare as well as developing innovations to meet the aspirational needs of the rising middle class in Africa. Source: www.the-star.co.ke

Research hub lifts Kenya's tech status
The facility will be tasked with developing and deploying application-focused scientific and user studies that will aid in improving access to lighting, affordable healthcare, as well as creating new inventions to meet needs of Africa's growing middle class.

The Philips Africa Innovation Hub will be located at the Philips East African headquarters in Nairobi, and will kick-off with ventures that are under development as well as those in pilot phase.

The Amsterdam-based firm says international researchers together with African talent will operate on the concept of “open innovation” and will work in close collaboration with the R&D ecosystem of Kenya and Africa. Read more: www.businessdailyafrica.com

About Philips Research: www.research.philips.com/about

90 years of Philips Research: www.research.philips.com

Safaricom to deploy NFC countrywide.

Kenya’s Safaricom is reportedly working on NFC-enabled SIM cards which will see Kenyans use their phones to pay for just anything, from public transport, restaurants, shopping at supermarket tills, drug storers, cinema’s, concerts, fuel service stations and just about everything. Still undergoing the tendering process, the NFC SIM cards ware expected to be rolled out to its subscribers for mobile contactless payments and transactions making Safaricom the first mobile operator in the region to mass deploy SIM-based NFC for contactless transactions. - See more: techmoran.com

Juliana Rotich: Meet BRCK, Internet access built for Africa

Tech communities are booming all over Africa, says Nairobi-based Juliana Rotich, cofounder of the open-source software Ushahidi. But it remains challenging to get and stay connected in a region with frequent blackouts and spotty Internet hookups. So Rotich and friends developed BRCK, offering resilient connectivity for the developing world.
Watch : www.ted.com/talks/

SA losing to Kenya in tech race

South Africa appears to be losing its status as the preferred investment destination on the continent for international technology companies. That honour, increasingly, is going to Kenya, which may be on the cusp of a technology-fuelled era of economic growth.When apartheid ended in 1994, there was a flood of investment into South Africa by international technology companies. Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard: they all poured millions into establishing local offices to serve not only South Africa but often markets across Southern Africa and even sub-Saharan Africa. The view was that South Africa was the gateway to the continent.Twenty years later, and perceptions are shifting.
Read on: www.techcentral.co.za