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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday.  ISSUE NO 106 AFRICA’S ENTREPRENEURIAL ICT OPPORTUNITIES - IDEAS WAITING TO HAPPEN
The growth of the use of ICT across the continent has lead to literally hundreds of new businesses and has probably (mainly through telecoms) been responsible for one of the strongest streams of external investment. Whole new categories of jobs have been created. There are now several thousand people working in cyber-cafes whose jobs have been part of this growth across the ICT sector. With the perfect vision of hindsight, some of these opportunities were more obvious than others. Nonethless it is worth reviewing the successes and failures of the first wave and looking at the type of ideas entrepreneurs in the field are coming up with. The growth of mobile telephony has been one of the continent’s staggering successes. It provided the entrance point for many new businesses: some - like Strive Masiwya’s Econet - are regionally based but are already aiming at wider horizons. Once the appeal of mobile telephony was established, it became a relatively easy investment proposition. The key numbers - likely subscribers in a population size, cost of delivery, etc - are if not predictable, at least relatively easy to "guesstimate". Another similar field - although much less profitable - has been ISPs and cyber-cafes. With the exception of Africa Online, few of these businesses have been able to "roll-out" a local success in one market into others. The barriers to business operating across the continent are still too great. The lack of a capable operational management cadre is still too limiting. But without business entrepreneurs who can learn lessons across more than one market, the horizon of those involved will remain parochial. Although what happened in the developed world is not a good guide to finding opportunities, it does provide a useful starting point. Businesses in Europe and the USA were looking for ways of reducing business costs by experimenting with ICT technologies. At a consumer level they created internet banks and budget airlines that only sold over the internet. In the back office, they installed server based systems that aimed to make business processes cheaper. These changes have relevance for those businesses in Africa that are either part of a multinational supply chain (eg flowers, high-margin vegetables) or whose operations differ little from those in the developed world (eg banks). At this level Africa has been a slow adapter. Why? There are a number of factors. Many of these innovations were capital-intensive and high-risk. In a sector like banking (even in somewhere like Kenya), there was not enough competition to force these innovations into being. Often the markets are not big enough to generate the returns from the scale of capital investment required. One of the continent’s software pioneers - Jyoti Mukherjee of Software Technologies - recalled the incredulity of many potential customers when she first started talking about server-based software. Nonetheless she proved to be ahead of the wave and has steadily built a business based on its adoption by both the public and private sectors. With the exception of South Africa, the continent does not possess the well developed consumer service markets that fed the dot-com boom: the idea of an internet pizza and video home delivery service would be absurd in Bamako. But South Africa has spawned a considerable number of internet-based businesses that almost direct replicas of their US or European counterparts, particularly in the field of e-shopping. So what are the new ICT ideas waiting to happen? Perhaps it is helpful to try and put the possible contenders into three broad categories: 1. Those that come from a close engagement with an existing market. The type of idea that flows from "people keep asking me for X (X being some kind of better service) and I think we can provide it". 2. Ideas stolen from elsewhere, either on the continent or the developing world. The adoption of internet booking by Kenya’s Flamingo Airlines (see Web News below) owes much to the UK operation EasyJet but if they can make it work, it will be a first outside South Africa. The B2B site e-Sokoni (covered in issue 105) was a straight lift of ideas from the developing world but specified in a way that reflects the realities of the African business environment. 3. Visionary "mind-leaps" by the kind of people who are good at "seeing round the corner" to the future. These are the kind of ideas that Africa needs but finds hardest to take a risk on. There’s little tradition of this kind of entrepreneur: most make money from trading (often importing) or farming opportunities. The entrepreneurship workshops run by Balancing Act asked participants to come up with ICT ideas that could be made into businesses: these provide a useful "sounding board" for ideas in the making. Several common ideas emerged. The idea of a cyber-cafe or ICT services centre in a rural town came up time and again in different forms. The idea of rolling out the kinds of services currently only available in large towns or cities reflects the coming second wave of internet implementation: it has already begun to happen in some places and we know of several people working on it. The second common set of ideas was a company supplying connectivity and related services to schools. This relied on Government creating a market by putting money into equipping schools. This seems a much less likely proposition as successful networks of wired schools (for example in Namibia) have tended to rely on public-private partnerships with companies supplying in kind. But perhaps it may be possible with a combination of donor money and government commitment and resources. The two most promising ideas were a franchise operation offering existing cyber-cafes commonly sourced services and a GPS tracking system for trucks (particularly those carrying petrol). The first idea came from people in the Cyber Cafe Owners of Kenya and reflects the lack of core business skills amongst some of those who have chosen to become cyber-cafe owners. It provides a way of getting strong business systems, a form of common branding and offering jointly negotiated bandwidth. Doesn’t it sound a bit like Africa Online’s e-Touch operation? Well, yes but a bit of competition is never a bad thing. The GPS tracking system for trucks allows owners to know where there trucks are and make sure errant drivers are not siphoning off part of their load. It works with easily obtainable technology and the benefits to the customer are are very clear. This need to focus on how the product or service might benefit the customer is all too often forgotten. No-one can afford technology for its own sake in Africa. Nevertheless as Victor Senye of the Botswana Development Corporation found, all too often ICT entrepreneurs start by selling you the "features of the technology involved" rather than the potential benefits to the customer. An entrepreneurial idea using ICT has to (in the jargon) to "leverage" the advantage of technologies. It has to make a business process cheaper or offer a new or improved service to the consumer. So what will be the ideas of the future? Well let’s roll the dice and see a few: - The most widely distributed device in Africa will be the mobile phone in all its variants. This has to be the basis of a range of products and services that make it work harder and respond to people’s needs. There are already a range of ideas in play in terms of content: market information for farmers, traffic jam information for city dwellers (see In Search of The Business Model below) and sports information for the football-mad. - Related to the above. Wireless technologies offer endless opportunities that respond to the difficult geography of the continent. - There’s already several attempts across the continent (most notably Afripa) to create a Smart Card. There are already several cards (for mobiles and the internet) that users can recharge at ATMs and by phone. How great is the distance between this and a card that can make the continent’s time- consuming transactions (for example paying utility bills) easier? Isn’t this the core of an African "pay-as-you-go" version of the credit card? - Leveraging technology in business processes. Large parts of the multinational private sector are 3-5 years behind in this respect and there are interesting "catch-up" opportunities. - Offering e-transactions via agents: the user goes to the local cyber-cafe to order something. The cyber-cafe owner is the agent for the credit transaction and guarantees it. In reverse, a member of the African diaspora can order goods for a relative. There remain obstacles but who said new business ideas are easy? - Cyber-marketing tourism opportunities to the independent traveler. The smallest guest house and tour guide can offer their services to the relatively wealthy American or Dutch traveler not interested in package holidays. Africa lacks people who are prepared to think creatively about using technology: they exist but they are too few in number. It needs to find ways of encouraging this next wave of ICT entrepreneurs to make a difference to how business is done and in so doing also begin to change how life is lived on the continent.
NOT YET MADE IN BENIN Your article titled "MADE IN BENIN - PROMOTING PRODUCTS ON THE INTERNET" contains incorrect information about the project. The URL is incorrect, and actually is not registered to anyone. You may want to check and correct this information. Lawrence Anireju. Wilbert Response: Apologies. The story came from the Beninese ICT e-letter Orita (more of which in a forthcoming issue) and it seems that the site may go online in the future but is not as yet operational. We’ll have to wait until the future catches up with the present...
IP Planet ­ The Planet’s IP Connection Through its wide range of IP services, IP Planet is able to offer direct US connection to multiple POPs from 64Kbps to multiple satellite transponders and provide backbone services to ISP, PTTs, corporate customers and Cyber-Cafes connected to local ISPs. If you are in need for professional and cost-effective Internet connectivity services anywhere in Africa, you can reach the IP Planet team, 24 hours a day, through any of the following options: - Web Site: www.ipplanet.com ECONET SATELLITE SERVICES SIGNS US$50M SATELLITE CONTRACTS Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless Holdings has signed contracts valued at US$50 million to provide international carrier and satellite services to its customers in the next five years, it was learnt this week. The contracts were signed by Econet Satellite Services (ESS), a London-based company established two years ago to pursue Econet’s satellite communications strategy that is aimed at positioning the telecoms giant as the communication bridge between Africa and the rest of the world. Jose Gaie, senior manager at ESS in charge of international carrier business for Africa, said international operators had already shown interest in signing contracts with the company."So far we have signed up contracts with a number of clients worth US$50 million over the next five years and we are quite pleased with the progress we have made since the company was established," Gaie said. ESS is a 100 percent subsidiary of United Kingdom (UK)-registered Econet Wireless Limited, the investment arm being used by Econet to pursue its global expansion project focusing on the core business of satellite, Internet, mobile and fixed phone services.ESS says it intends to develop a voice and Internet satellite infrastructure between Europe and Africa and has long-term plans to build a local mobile and terrestrial infrastructure in and across Africa. Gaie said ESS’ strategy was to expand Econet’s share of African international traffic while giving Econet a European presence by operating a satellite teleport in the UK, as well as provide Internet access, bandwidth and content via satellite.Meanwhile Econet Wireless Group chief executive Strive Masiyiwa says ESS is now one of the fastest growing companies in the group and will soon be its biggest contributor of cash. "ESS is a real cash cow for us and is going to contribute greatly to growth in the future," he said this week. (Financial Gazette via http://www.allafrica.com) MOROCCO PUTS SECOND FIXED LINE LICENCE OUT TO TENDER Morocco will launch on June 11 an international tender for the sale of a second fixed phone licence, telecoms watchdog ANRT said on last week.The licence is aimed at expanding the limited network and is part of ongoing liberalisation of the sector. ANRT said in a statement the deadline for submission of offers is October 8.Consultations with operators interested in the operation will continue throughout the month of May to ensure the best chances of success to this major operation," it said.The first fixed phone licence, held by state-controlled Maroc Telecom, covers 1.5 million subscribers. Morocco’s population stands at some 30 million. (source: Reuters via DigAfrica) THIRD CELLULAR PROVIDER TO GET LICENCE IN BLANTYRE Malawi is abuzz at the news that another cell phone operator will add its ring to the country’s mobile phone industry. Cell phones are relatively new to the small region but Malawians are already complaining that charges from the existing two operators are too high.Following a public call for the introduction of competitors the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) said it would issue a licence to cell phone operator Malawi Mobile by the end of May. "Once we issue this cell phone licence we hope that the third cellular operator will start by the end of this year," said Macra director general Evans Namanja.The decision has caused consternation amongst the existing operators who claim that Macra has reneged on an agreement.Cell phone operator Celtel’s managing director Steve Torode said the government had promised not to issue a licence to a third operator within five years. Macra however argues that it is protecting consumers from exploitation.The Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) welcomes the decision to issue the third license, as does the information minister Clement Stambuli. (source: Africa Eye News service via http://www.allafrica.com) NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHES DIGITAL BOOK FACTORY The Federal Government approved the establishment of a Digital Book Factory in Abuja for the production of course materials for the newly approved Open and Distance Learning Programme.The factory to be constructed by Zerox H.S. Limited at the cost of $4.86 million (N450 million) will provide textbooks, and other instructional materials for the Open and Distance Learning Programme slated to take off in October this year. (source: http://www.allafrica.com) ZAMBIA: TELECOMS NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE South Africa’s largest cellphone operator, Vodacom, says that it is still negotiating the terms of a cellular licence with the Zambia Communications Authority. Industry sources attribute the delay to the fact that Vodacom has not been offered access to the 900 MHz frequency spectrum, which has already been exhausted by the three existing cellphone operators in the country. Instead, Vodacom’s licence covers the high-capacity 1800 MHz frequency spectrum, which would prove very costly to extend to sparsely populated rural areas. Zambia has 80,000 fixed telephone lines and an estimated 100,000 cellphone connections—largely restricted to the capital, Lusaka, and the mining towns on the Copperbelt—for its 11m-strong population. Vodacom recently invested US$39m in Congolese Wireless in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (source: Business Africa via DigAfrica) IN BRIEF - After building up its business in several Arab countries over the past two years, Internet Security Solutions Egypt (ISS) is planning to expand into North Africa and other parts of the continent. - Telkom has moved to reassure most of its existing customers that they will not be affected by the new usage indicators credit management system as this applies only to new residential customers. - Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company has signed a roaming agreement with MTN Nigeria Communications.
SA TELECOMS INVESTMENTS GROW STRONGLY IN 2001, SURVEY FINDS While there was a marginal decline in percentage terms in information technology investments in 2001 by private equity firms, the telecommunications sector saw a large jump.According to the latest private equity survey by KPMG and the SA Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA), telecoms accounted for 15% of new investments in 2001, from 6% in 2000. IT investments fell to 16% from 18%. The survey finds that total funds under management came in at R35.3 billion, up marginally from R34.7 billion in 2000. And the 2001 figure is inflated to the tune of R1.4 billion, due to the depreciation in the rand’s effect on the foreign investor portion of the funds, says Nick Matthews, KPMG’s senior manager of corporate finance. Of the funds committed, R26.9 billion is already invested, leaving R8.4 billion in undrawn commitments. Matthews says the industry faced a tough year ­ in line with international experience ­ with only R1.1 billion being raised during the year, down from R3.2 billion in 1999, which was the "year of raising private equity funding" for many. ³Many funds were capitalised in 1999, with a five to seven year horizon, so many of those with uncommitted funds will need to find investments soon,² he says.New investments (including follow-on investments) were sharply down in the period, with R2.3 billion invested, from R3.2 billion in 2000, although the number of investments rose slightly from 251 companies to 259 companies. KPMG says the increase in telecoms was largely due to the conclusion of the second largest private equity deal of the year, Ucingo’s R600 million investment in Telkom. There was also a R120 million expansion capital deal for Mobile Cellular, the sixth largest transaction in the year.Matthews says the IT sector remains an important component of the private equity industry. "More SA private equity funds focus on or include IT in their mandates than any other specific sector. This depicts the private equity industry’s commitment to IT and the potential for growth that it envisages in IT," he says. Funds focused on IT include: Absa Corporate Bank (early stage fund), Argil; Gensec Bank & IDC (Archway), Horizon Techventures, Vantage Capital Fund, Argil/IDC VC Fund and RockIT. Looking at the stages of investments, seed capital investments fell to 1% of the whole, from 10% in 2000; start-up and early stage fell from 15% to 11%; expansion and development from 20% to 17%; while replacement and buyout rose from 55% to 71%. Total exits in 2001 rose from R674 million to R699 million. The trade sale percentage rose sharply from 34% to 61%, but sales to other private equity firms jumped from 2% to 20%. The initial public offering component fell from 22% to zero.Matthews says in relative terms, the SA private equity industry is still quite large, although rand weakness has set it back. ³At $2.9 billion, it is smaller than Sweden’s, but at 3.6% of GDP, compares well with 4% in the US, 2.5% in the UK and 1.9% in the Netherlands,² he says.Matthews says the growth of black economic empowerment (BEE) funding was an encouraging development. R8.1 billion, or 23% of funds under management, have mandates that include BEE. A large portion of these funds has been targeted at telecoms. (source: http://www.itweb.co.za) IN BRIEF - Food manufacturer Cevital has doubled its investment in the Algerian subsidiary of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom to 6.8%, and plans to boost this further to 10% as part of its diversification efforts. The US$12.5m investment follows the March launch of Orascom’s Global System for Mobile Communications network in Algeria. - According to South Africa’s
Business Day, the IT sector saw a decline in merger activity
reflecting the current depression.IT sector merger activity plunged
90% last year against the previous year’s figures. The industry
saw 91 mergers and acquisitions last year with a total value
of R9,1bn, compared with 124 deals worth R90,3bn in 2000, according
to Ernst & Young’s annual mergers and acquisitions report. - Failed information technology group Brainware is poised to make a comeback, with corporate turnaround artists clinching a deal for the reverse listing of a Namibian electricity distributor. - JSE-listed Datatec says subsidiary Westcon has entered an agreement that will see it assume the employees, fixed assets, supplier contracts and customer lists of the networking distribution division of troubled Dutch-based Landis Group.
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KENYA’S FLAMINGO AIRLINES TO SELL TICKETS THROUGH THE INTERNET According to The Nation, a Kenya Airways’ domestic subsidiary is scrapping the payment of commissions to booking agents. Flamingo Airlines yesterday said it would scrap commission starting July 1, 2002.The airline, at the same time, is adopting electronic booking, which will cut out the paperwork and staff involved.Booking agents may now have to charge passengers a service fee, Reservations Manager Liz Getata told the press last week. Initially, agents were enjoying a seven per cent commission in line with International Air Travel Association (IATA) stipulations.Flamingo e-ticketing involves reservations on the airline’s website, where a client is given a reference number. A passenger then visits a sales office with the number, pays and collects a ticket. They must, however, produce a photo identification. A passenger who does not pay for the ticket within 12 hours would have their booking cancelled.Managing Director Johan Borstlap said this was aimed at cutting costs in line will low budget aviation. EstatSA ONLINE RESPONSIVENESS INDEX EstatSA has run its second annual study of SAs top 100 companies website and email responsiveness, published in the Financial Mail. http://www.mediatoolbox.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=3027&p=39 AUCTIONING OFF AD SPACE Local online auction website http://www.bidorbuy.co.za has put a selection of it’s own advertising space up for auction with the bidding starting at one rand and no reserve price. http://www.mediatoolbox.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=3026&p=39 FRAGMENTS DU MONDE OFFERS YOUNG PEOPLE A SPACE TO EXCHANGE IDEAS Fragments du Monde is a cultural exchange internet project put together by VECAM (Veille Européenne et Citoyenne sur les Autoroutes de l’information et le Multimédia) and INJEP (Institut de la Jeunesse et de l’Education Populaire) and seven Francophone countries through the NGO ORIDEV (www.oridev.org) in Benin with funding from UNESCO. It is space created for young people across the world to use new technologies to express themselves in ways that suit each country. The other aim of the project is to allow participants to exchange their visions of what the world might be like in the future. http://www.fragmentsdumonde.org/2001/groupes2001/ INTERNATIONAL TELECENTRE HELPDESK AND CLEARINGHOUSE TO BE DISCUSSED AT UNESCO HQ The establishment of a global Telecentre Helpdesk in support of the telecentre movement in developing countries has been for some time on the agenda of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). As part of this process, a consultative workshop will be convened in Paris April 22-24, 2002. http://www.unesco.org/webworld/news/2002/020419_helpdesk.shtml (Francais: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/fr/news/2002/020419_helpdesk.shtml)
HOW FAR IS THE ROLL OUT OF ICT IN AFRICA ACTUALLY ABOUT TECHNOLOGY? In a new monthly column News Update’s Technology Editor John West asks some fundamental questions about what ICT can and can’t do in the African context. This may seem like a funny question to pose. From one point of view, after all, how can it be about anything else? In fact, there’s a lot more subtlety here than meets the eye. Technology is only ever as good as the people who deploy and use it. To assume that technology is always a good, that more is better, and that the best technology will always win is naïve, to put it mildly. Within industrialised countries, economists and computer scientists still argue over what role, if any, computerisation has had in increasing productivity and creating and sharing wealth. You only need to think of that broken ATM machine, the queue in the supermarket paralysed because a barcode isn’t on one of the items in someone’s basket, or simply the day you spent trying to make your new computer see your old printer, to realise ICT’s limitations. Issues of cost, benefit and useability are more critical in Africa. Since the whole history of development has been full of fad prestige projects, you could be forgiven for thinking that IT, the Internet and computers are just the latest white elephant. Is the Internet really relevant in countries like Mozambique or Rwanda, where a computer can cost more than a year’s support for a family? Ethan Zuckerman, the founder of Geekcorps, an NGO which seeks to place experienced IT professionals with partner companies in developing countries, has the best answer to this I’ve ever heard. Asked if there was one particular line of bullshit he encountered in the area of ICT and developing countries, he said: "Actually I often find two distinct pieces of bull. The first is to say that the computers and the Internet are a panacaea and will solve world poverty. The second is to say that people don’t need computers they need shoes and drinking water. What if, in this day and age, computers are needed to get them shoes or drinking water?" Of course, many people in the seemingly endless debate on the Digital Divide are right when they say most of the questions surrounding the deployment of IT in developing countries are political, or human resource, or social, rather than purely technical. Most. But not all. Some issues which can make a world of difference are purely technical. I’ve recently been working on a project called the Open Knowledge Network, which seeks to create a filesharing model similar to Napster and Morpheus which is suitable for the Third World. How? Because it uses batching, compression, and a model of users subscribing to channel to minimise actual time online, so that one computer serving perhaps 200 people could meaningfully take part in the network with five minutes online time a day. Online time is a huge technical barrier to the relevance of the Internet in developing countries, particularly in rural areas. Think of the evolution of the motor car. Cars were found in Africa as early as 1900 ­ imported by colonialists, or local rulers under their sway, and largely used as prestige carriages in the main streets of a few main towns on the continent. The human- or social- centered argument suggests that motorisation could not take hold until there was a large "installed base", as the jargon has it, of drivers and mechanics, and petrol stations. This is correct. But it is also correct to say that it was not until the car began to adapt technically to African realities ­ with the off road vehicle and four wheel drive ­ that motor transport began to be a serious part of economic life. Similarly, if initiatives like the Indian Simputer can deliver a computer at a per user cost of under US$10, that changes ICT’s place in the overall landscape. This alone, in fact, would take computing beyond cars as far as Africa is concerned into serious local machine production. If researchers can create meaningful voice synthesis in 200 African languages so that computers can deliver speech instead of inaccessible text, that also changes everything (two very big ifs by the way). Lastly, consider that IT operates both at the end consumer and the business-to-business level. Those who put the "shoes not computers" line loudest are attacking a straw man - the idea that African villagers should happily be sitting in their villages configuring their FTP servers instead of doing something more relevant to them. The roll out of ICT in developing countries has already shown a different trajectory to the path it followed in the north, and the relative insignificance of individual computing is one major aspect of this. Within the business to business sphere, IT is already an irrevocable reality. The only question is how to graduate it down the ladder from foreign transnational, to local big company, to local small and medium enterprises. Over the next few issues of Tech Corner, we’ll be examining the following technical aspects of IT: the Open Source movement and whether it has any relevance to ICT in Africa; distributed versus centralised information systems for environments where computers or telephones go down all the time; a review of current attempts to optimise hardware for developing country conditions; and the trend towards outsourcing development of software applications for the north to developing countries. I’d welcome any suggestions, queries, or criticisms: johnwest@aduni.org. Also, visit my computing page at www.variorum.org/cs.cfm May 26th: Open Source June 30th: Distributed versus centralised systems July 28th: Optimised hardware ­ Simputer, Volkscomputer August 25th: Outsourcing northern software to the south.
BANK WINDHOEK TAKES ITS IT INFRASTRUCTURE BACK IN-HOUSE IN FINANCIAL SERVICES DRIVE Following its migration from an outsourced legacy IT system to a multi-million Namibian dollar in-house infrastructure Bank Windhoek is reporting a marked increase in its ability to deliver services to personal and corporate banking customers. The bank initially took the decision to migrate from a system that was outsourced to South Africa-based corporate bank, BOE, late in 1999; the request for proposal (RFP) called for the total replacement of the infrastructure that ran Bank Windhoek’s core retail and corporate banking, treasury, and human resource systems, among others. "The RFP was issued for two reasons: BOE was shifting its focus away from outsourcing; and we wanted greater development and management control over our systems," explains Andre Barnard, the general manager of technology at Bank Windhoek. "As a service provider to the rest of the bank, the IT department believed it was best placed to do this if the systems were maintained internally. Clearly, we were looking for an infrastructure that was reliable, scalable, powerful and easy to manage." The deal was clinched by HP and business partner, Cornastone Enterprise Systems, with a combination of HP 9000 N-class Unix enterprise servers and a mid-range HP FC-60 storage subsystem. In terms of the services Bank Windhoek sought to offer using the new infrastructure, Internet banking and in-house credit card production were high priorities. Of course, Barnard points out, enhancing the bank’s overall levels of customer service was an underlying factor. "The Namibian financial services market is highly-competitive - if we don’t provide our customers with the right answers to their questions in the shortest possible time, another organisation may seize the opportunity. The new systems enable us to access the information we need in order to provide that level of customer service," he says. In terms of the online business, Bank Windhoek has become the first financial services provider in Namibia to offer Internet banking based on locally-developed technology; "We developed the electronic payments and collection (EPAC) component of our solution ourselves ... that allows us to easily adapt or change it in order to respond to changing customer and market conditions," explains Barnard. The bank is also the only Namibian organisation to boast its own in-house ATM and debit card production facility - a major customer service boon. "Producing the cards ourselves means there’s less risk than if they were transported to Namibia from South Africa. In addition, it means that customers experience little or no delay in receiving cards - again, a situation that would be far different if we imported them from a neighbouring territory." In terms of the project challenges, Barnard believes that one of the main problems is not simply migrating data to the new system but simulating the volumes of a full production environment. "There’s very little you can do [prior to going live] to test how the system will perform under that sort of pressure. However, the cutover was almost fault-free ... we are now eight months down the line, most of the issues have been resolved and the system is performing well," says Barnard. Bank Windhoek’s primary goal is to deliver more innovative services to its customers, quickly and cost-effectively. Barnard is confident that the bank will deliver on those goals in the near future - and will then look for new ones to meet. "We are exploring the potential to expand the use of our mainline financial system to manage debt control. We’ll also look to leverage the IT infrastructure for other business processes - all of which will help us deliver even more services to customers," he concludes. For more information on HP’s solutions and activities in Africa, surf to http://www.hp.com/country/aa/eng/welcome.htm> WIRELESS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES IS A NICHE WITH POTENTIAL While wireless applications for financial services are gaining ground in Europe and Asia, Americans aren’t likely to embrace the technology anytime soon, according to industry experts and IT managers at a MIT forum yesterday. http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaakYvaaRSUra9nmx3b/ INDIAN POLICE FORCE OFFER SMS UPDATE MESSAGE SERVICE ON TRAFFIC JAMS The Calcutta Police, in collaboration with COMMAND cell phone services, launched a traffic update service last Thursday. Subscribers of Command will get regular updates on traffic jams and road distruptions by sending an SMS to 123 with the word traffic. The deliver on demand service is the first to be launched by the cellular operator in collaboration with city police force. http://www.mobilecommerceworld.com/Tmpl/article.asp?CID=1&AID=12948&TC ode=NW&T1=16/4/2002
* Aldrine Nsubuga of Uganda’s UTL told The Monitor last week that Alcatel had completed the expansion of the switch to handle up to 170,000 network subscribers, up from 85,000."We are now ready with our roll-out schedule countrywide. The main work here is complete," Nsubuga, said. * African internet expert Mike Jensen has just completed a report on the state of connectivity on the continent. Jensen’s report indicates that there are over 1.3 million dial-up Internet subscribers on the continent, up from around one million at the end of 2000. North Africa accounts for 280 000 of these users and SA for 750,000. However, he points out: "Increasingly, dial-up connection is becoming a redundant measure of connectivity with the rapid increase in leased-lines on the continent." He says the growth in satellite and fibre optic technology is also increasing the bandwidth to the continent, currently standing at around 1.5Gb incoming, up from less than 1Gb last year. * Kabissa’s Tobias Eigen finds his story among the finalists for the best ICT stories: see http://www.iicd.org/base/story_read_y?id=4963 It now has 310 African NGOs as member organisations in 32 countries across the continent, including Ugandan womens’ network WOUGNET, Nigeria’s Fantsuam Foundation, Bisharat! and the African Youth Federation. Its Pambazuka e-letter (produced jointly with Fahamu and Sangonet) is read by over 7500 subscribers. * The National Communications Secretariat secretary, Dr James A. Kulubi, said the contracts of Safaricom and Kencell gave them an unchallenged duopoly until June next year. He added that the applications of other interested firms could only be considered after the contracts expire.The secretariat is a sister organ to the Communications Commission of Kenya [a government agency]. It is a policy formulating body while the commission is of issuance of licences to players in the communications industry.Dr Kulubi was responding to questions at the ongoing 10th Annual Computer Society of Kenya Congress at Lake Bogoria Lodge in Baringo.
GHANA’S MOST PROMISING DEVELOPER COMPETITION WILL RUN IN MAY 2003 The next Most Promising Developer Competition will bein May 2003 and the result will be out October 1 2003. Winner of the Competition will take over from incumbent Nigeria’s IT Youth Ambassador Gbenga Sesan. More information in future editions of CYBERSCHUULNEWS: http:// www.cyberschuul.com
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