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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday. 
ISSUE NO 149 WASHINGTON LAUNCHES US$2 MILLION PRIVATE-PUBLIC INITIATIVE IN SENEGALAlmost lost amongst the drumbeats for war, the US Government has recently announced a modest initiative aimed at closing the digital divide in Africa: the Digital Freedom Initiative. The aim is to "is to promote economic growth by transferring the benefits of information and communication technology (ICT) to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the developing world". Why did it start in Senegal? According to the scheme’s promoters, Senegal is "a democratic secular country in which the majority of the population is Muslim (94%), and, if successful, could be rolled out to 20 countries in the next five years". The Senegal pilot project will place more than 100 volunteers. The key elements of the DFI include: (1) placing volunteers in small businesses to share business knowledge and technology expertise; (2) promoting pro-growth regulatory and legal structures to enhance business competitiveness; and (3) leveraging existing technology and communications infrastructure in new ways to help entrepreneurs and small businesses better compete in both the regional and global market place. Achieving the objectives of the DFI will require substantial support from the U.S. private sector. President Bush and Secretary Evans will lead the call for U.S. private sector guidance and resources to match the overall US$6.5 million committed to the programme. Companies already have begun joining the project and they include: Hewlett-Packard; Cisco Systems; IBM; Summit Ventures and Voxiva. The initiative sees technology as "the rocket fuel of entrepreneurial performance". It believes Senegal is particularly well suited to be the pilot country for the DFI, as it was among the first Sub-Saharan countries to make significant investments in technology, and is currently benefiting from a relatively high rate of penetration and growth of technology-related services. A submarine cable system, for example, was inaugurated by President Wade in May 2002, connecting Senegal to the world network of high-speed fiber optic cable systems. Moreover, Senegal enjoys one of the strongest domestic backbones in the developing world, with a high-speed IP network linking all of Senegal’s major population centers (see ADSL announcement in Telecom News below. DFI Senegal has identified three specific types of SMEs. First, there are the classic "End User SMEs" such as farmers, artisans, fishermen, manufacturers, transport drivers, small shopkeepers and the like. Many of these participate in the micro-finance industry, as borrowers, savers or both, and most face significant problems in using modern information technology and business practices to strengthen their bottom line. Second, thanks to Senegal’s policy of leveraging the private sector to bring telecommunication to its people, more than 10,000 telephone centers ­ neighborhood telephone shops paid on a unit basis ­ are in operation across the country. Further, almost 200 cyber-cafes have emerged, although cost and training remain a barrier. Both the telephone shop and cyber-cafe operators represent a second group of Information Access SMEs. With the right kind of assistance, these centers have the potential to emerge as sustainable, growth-oriented small businesses. Third, there is a burgeoning community of IT developers and service providers. All of these fit the SME profile ­ energetic, committed owners struggling to build a place for their products and services. In keeping with the DFI partnership philosophy, the main implementing mechanism for the DFI Senegal Pilot will be the DFI Solution Team. A DFI Solution Team joins the stakeholders of a specific group of "End User SMEs", the telephone shop and/or cybercafe owners and the IT industry along with the U.S. volunteers (from Peace Corps, Geekcorps or elsewhere as appropriate) to identify and prioritize the business process problems and potential for IT-based solutions. Based on this priority list, the DFI Solution Team will then begin to develop the IT solution and set about re-engineering the business processes to accomplish the desired outcomes. The DFI Senegal will focus on three broad areas of activities: - Promoting productivity and business process innovation This will focus on improvements in supply chain information, particularly in agricultural sectors. Productivity and Business Process Solutions Teams will be aided by specific U.S. and Senegalese volunteers from the DFI partners (eg- Department of Commerce, USAID, Peace Corps, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Technology and Consulting Practices Partners) - Supporting entrepreneurship through an efficient financial infrastructure The DFI Senegal could contribute in many ways to strengthen the access to capital that is essential to stimulate economic growth. For instance, focused ICT applications could result in clearer credit administration and a "Real Time" credit processing system, more efficient loan monitoring, stronger financial management and reduced loan losses. Designed properly, a system could be envisaged whereby a neighborhood shop owner could visit a neighborhood cyber-cafe, file an application for a new micro-credit loan, make a payment on an existing loan or otherwise conduct her business, thereby extending the reach of critical financial infrastructure and creating an additional line of business for the cyber-cafe, itself a small business. - Building foundations of growth and ownership DFI believes technology can play a critical role in bringing efficiency to the property-ownership architecture in developing countries like Senegal. For example, DFI Solution Teams could design a system capable of delivering land registration and sales through cyber-cafes. Other municipal or state land and building - related functions could be similarly computerized, bringing new business opportunities to cyber-cafes and easing critical elements of the collateral system. - A modern policy and regulatory environment Led by the Department of State and USAID, the DFI staff, and volunteers will support these existing efforts aimed at improving the regulatory framework . Specialized technical assistance will be sourced from several U.S. institutions, including the USG, universities, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and other entities to support the evolution of an enabling regulatory environment. The DFI will ask private sector partners to be part of a Leadership Roundtable that will: - Participate in working group meetings leading to the Senegal launch of the DFI (hosted by the U.S. interagency team) scheduled for June/July 2004 to define projects and deliverables under each of the major DFI objectives. The findings of the round table will be announcement at the Senegal launch event in June, 2003; - Develop a white paper to align the resources of DFI partners, Senegalese collaborators and U.S. Government entities to effectively accomplish the specific projects articulated through the design conference; - Provide resources (e.g., volunteers, software, hardware) to support success on the ground; - Monitor progress throughout the pilot project and contribute to a report on the results of the Senegal project after one year; and - Assist in planning the next phases of the DFI, including future partner countries. Whilst any direct engagement by the American government of this kind must be applauded, the scale of resources committed can only be seen as rather modest. Perhaps looked at optimistically, this will allow the initiative to "find its legs" in a way that a larger launch initiative might struggle to do. However at least one other high-profile project in Senegal has experienced considerable problems and this should perhaps serve as warning. That said, an organisation like Geekcorps has the "on-the-ground" experience that may help it avoid the kinds of problems experienced by others.
MOZAMBIQUE REGULATOR MAY INTERVENE IN VODACOM INTERCONNECT DISPUTEMozambican Transport Minister Tomas Salomao said last week that, if the South African mobile phone company Vodacom is unable to reach agreement on inter-connection charges with the Mozambican public telecommunications company, TDM, then the regulatory body, the Mozambique National Communications Institute (INCM), may be obliged to step in. Last August Vodacom won the tender to become the second mobile phone operator in Mozambique. It is supposed to start its operations in April - but has reached no agreement with TDM on interconnection charges. AIM understands that Vodacom broke off the negotiations with TDM, and that there is no sign of any preparations to meet the April deadline. Press reports last month suggested that Vodacom had put pressure - so far unsuccessfully - on the government to force TDM, and its mobile phone subsidiary M-Cel, to double the prices they charge consumers. Speaking at a Maputo press conference, Salomao recognised that this was a delicate issue, given the money involved. As a last resort, the INCM could step in and determine the inter- connection charges, but Salomao made it clear that the government would much prefer Vodacom and TDM to reach an understanding. (source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique) ANGRY CUSTOMERS BESIEGE GHANA TELECOM CUSTOMER SERVICE POINTA group of angry customers last Wednesday mounted a demonstration against Ghana Telecom for poor services which had worsened over the past few months. Workers at one of its customer service points had to lock themselves up in the offices to avoid the wrath of the angry demonstrators. A spokesman for the customers, Kwame Karikari, told the Chronicle that GT officials had always given excuses without making any effort at addressing their problems.The demonstrators complained that most phone booths in the city were not functioning yet GT kept on selling phone cards to the public even though they could not use. He said it was increasingly becoming difficult for one to get through with a single call without dialing and redialing a number several hours. The regional head of GT, Nana Tannor, has however, attributed the situation to the increase in the number of people who use the telephone. (Source: Ghanaian Chronicle) MTN UGANDA SIGNS WITH GATEWAY COMMUNICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL WHOLESALE SERVICESAs a signal of the growing importance of cellularnetworks within Africa, Gateway Communications, a provider of wholesale international voice and data services throughout Africa and the Middle East, and MTN, the largest telecommunications operator in Uganda have signed an Interconnect agreement. The agreement allows for Gateway to terminate international telephone calls into Uganda and provides MTN with low cost international calling services. Gateway Communications is the largest wholesale carrier focused exclusively on providing international services in Africa and the Middle East. The new service will allow MTN to increase traffic volumes and settlement revenue by working with Gateway to promote the MTN codes through the international telephony markets. Gateway’s existing customers include traditional Tier-1 carriers and non-traditional sources of traffic such as the international calling-card market. The service will also allow MTN to increase subscriber revenue through the provision of cost efficient, high quality international telephony to key international destinations, such as European mobile networks, through Gateway’s targeted Route Management Services. MTN and Gateway Communications will route traffic over a high capacity private network to ensure that Gateway’s customers and MTN’s subscribers are provided with a high quality of service. As a result Gateway is able to deliver the cost-savings of Voice over IP technology with the quality of a traditional telephone network. SONATEL LAUNCHES ADSL AFTER TEST PERIODSonatel has launched a media campaign to explain the benefits of its new ADSL broadband service. After a test period which was followed by a service only open to larger customers, it is now launching consumer options. It is offering two possibilities: the first offers an unlimited connection of 256 kbps downlink and 128 kbps uplink for 42,500 CFAs without tax a month. The second is the professional option which offers 1024 kbps downlink with a 128 kbps uplink for 63, 750 CFAs a month without taxes. This second option allows multiple networked connections. Initially the service will be limited to the following districts in Dakar: Plateau, Mdina, Grand-Dakar, Sicap, Libert, Fann, HLM, VDN, Dieuppeul, Castors et Mermoz. In the second half of the year it will be rolled out in Yoff, Almadies, Ngor, Hann and Sud Foire Sonatel : http://www.sonatel.sn/ NIGERIAN GSM OPERATORS BLAME POOR SERVICE QUALITY ON AREA BOYSGSM operators, have blamed the poor quality of service noticeable on their networks partly on the activities of criminals known as the "Area Boys". Responding to the Nigeria Communications Commission’s (NCC) query on the poor quality of service on GSM networks in the country at a recent parley in Abuja, the two operators, while agreeing that the quality of their service is still below optimum, were unanimous in putting part of the blame on miscreants who harass them in the process of the deployment of their equipment. The operators argued that even though the problem was more rampant in the Niger-Delta, it had now permeated the entire country, making it increasingly difficult for the company to move their equipment easily across the country. The operators said it is an arduous task for the companies to ensure the safety of their equipment even after deployment. They explain that they have to employ the services of crack security operatives to provide 24 hour surveillance on all their base stations and switches all over the country at a great cost. Last year, one of the operators indeed explained how some thieves brought in cranes and other heavy duty equipment to attempt to steal the company’s standby generator in one of the base stations. (source: Vanguard) BAD NEWS CROWDS IN ON KENYA TELKOM WITH UNPAID BILLS AND SYSTEM FAILUREIt proved a particularly bad week for Kenya Telkom whose future has yet to be decided by the new Kenyan government: - It revealed that it is owed a massive Sh11 billion by thousands of local subscribers and foreign missions who have defaulted in payment. Managing Director, Mr Augustine Cheserem, said the corporation has began disconnecting all affected lines in a last ditch effort to recover some of the money. Communication to Government offices and parastatals countrywide, which are some of the biggest defaulters, will be affected by the disconnection. Cheserem said the ministries last cleared their bills in 1998 when Telkom was separated from Kenya Postal Corporation. He said some subscribers on Jambonet, the country’s backbone internet service provider, will also be disconnected for a Sh154 million debt. Also to be cut off are those connected to Kenstream who have failed to pay Sh300 million, bringing the grand total to Sh11.54 billion. - Links between mobile and fixed telephones went down for several days last week, sparking an outcry from consumers. The problem was blamed on a breakdown of Telkom Kenya’s transmission terminals. In statement Telkom said:"Telecommunication services to some destinations outside Nairobi, including mobile networks and to Uganda and Tanzania, have been congested since 2 pm on March 12." It added that the problem was caused by a "software corruption" in an optical fibre transmission terminal connecting Nairobi and other Telkom and mobile phone networks. - A cooperative society is owed Sh90 million in contributions by Telkom Kenya, it was claimed last week. And Telepost Cooperative Society now wants the Cooperative Development minister Njeru Ndwiga to intervene and have the funds paid. The money was deducted from members’ salaries in the last three months, said cooperative members.They complained that they had not received loans in the last three months because Telkom had withheld their contributions from the society, which has some 19,000 members. (source: The Nation) IN BRIEF- The South African Communications Department plans to conduct a study in the coming financial year on the feasibility of introducing a fourth cellphone operator. Communications chief financial officer Harry Mathobathe said the expansion of the number of operators would depend on the economy and the market’s ability to accommodate another player. - Zimbabwe’s leading mobile phone operator, Econet Wireless (EWL), is to issue more contract lines in the near future to boost its market share and quality of service. More than 60 percent of the company’s revenue was generated from contract lines, which constituted 25 percent of its business, with the remainder coming from recharge card services. - Bluefish Technologies has signed a contract to supply SIM cards to Namibia’s GSM network, MTC. - Africell, the only Private GSM company in The Gambia, has released its latest list of new roaming partners, which include: Thuraya Satellite network, Etisalat UAE, MTS Russia, Sonofon Denmark, and Saudi Telecom.
NEW CYBER-CAFÉ IN A BOX FROM REDWINGThe Redwing CyberCity solution is quite literally a cyber café and phone shop in a box. It is housed and wired in a small enclosure that provides connections for up to 8 phone lines and more LAN connections for PC workstations, scanners and printers. The system also includes a billing software package that enables the owner to accurately charge customers spent on the internet, making phone calls and other services like refreshments. According to Chris Bell of Redwing:"To start offering services the owner will need to acquire and outfit premises and locally purchase his PCs. This turnkey tested approach allows the owner to be ‘open for business’ much quicker as it saves significant time and effort that would otherwise need to be spent in sourcing, integrating and configuring and testing the network." For details: http://www.redwingsat.com ALCATEL PLANS FOR LOCAL CELLPHONE NEWSFrench telecoms group Alcatel plans to provide cellphone networks that offer communities useable local news. Alcatel said its goal was not to provide these communities with internet access in the same way that it was viewed in the developing world, but rather to give them the capacity to cater for their own needs. Alcatel manager for Africa and middle east Gérald Farrenc said an announcement would be made next month giving details of the project, which cellphone operator Vodacom was pursuing. He warned that such projects needed support from both the local community and international funders in order to succeed . This was why Alcatel had been in talks with the SA government, nongovernmental organisations and local industry players in two workshops over the past year. (source: Business Day) IN BRIEF- DRC’s local IXP now has three peers and an internet association, ISPA-DRC has just been established. - Kenya’s IXP continues to grow with another peer due to join in the nextr few weeks, bringing total membership to 12. - AfrISPA looks set to receive funding for the 3yr programme of African Exchange point and ISP Association related work sometime in May - at which point there is likely to be a surge in the number of IXs being deployed continentally. For more on this subscribe to AfrISPA’s mailing list at http://www.afrispa.org. - According to an insider, the closure of the Cape Town IXP has come about for two reasons: firstly, a large ISP which has recently tightened up its peering policy and is not keen on peering with much smaller ISPs, at least without charging for it. Secondly a small ISP who doesn’t have money (or want) to pay large ISPs for peering, or which is connected to the Internet via a large ISP with sufficient peering arrangements already in place (private, via JINX or a combination of the two):"It is my opinion that until we have cheap broadband service available in South Africa, there won’t be sufficient traffic moving around in Cape Town to justify a local exchange. Even then, the politics of the industry lead me to believe that private inter-CT connections are more likely than an industry exchange" .
FIRSTRAND SELECTS CHM VUWANI IN SA’S LARGEST CONSUMABLES TENDERIT solutions provider CHM Vuwani has secured a sole contract to supply banking and financial services giant FirstRand Limited with its full requirement for consumables, ranging from specialised paper, to ink toner cartridges and other media. The deal, valued at R7-million, is believed to be one of the biggest tenders for consumables ever in South Africa. CHM Vuwani is the black empowerment initiative of one of SA’s largest, independent IT solutions companies, First Technology. This contract follows CHM Vuwani’s success with the FirstRand Group in winning a contract to supply the company with Microsoft Select Licensing. CITI LOOKS FOR HIGHER INTERNATIONAL PROFILE WITH WEB UPGRADESThe Cape Information Technology Initiative (CITI) said substantial upgrades had been made to its website as part of the drive to forge stronger links to the international ICT market, for the benefit of all ICT players. CITI Marketing Manager, Judith Middleton, said the ultimate objective was to see the CITI portal become the definitive ICT database for South Africa. A Bandwidth Barn tenant, Biz-community.com, was chosen to create an ICT information portal that would serve a truly global ICT community. Biz-community.com manages websites for the advertising and marketing industry. Middleton said: "The overriding purpose of the new portal was to create international exposure for the SA ICT industry though direct linkages to similar initiatives globally. "We have already had numerous enquiries from international Venture Capitalists and other industry players, for access to information on local ICT companies. It is extremely encouraging to see the global community taking such a keen interest in South Africa’s ICT sector." UCS BREAKS NEW GROUND IN RETAIL APPLICATION MARKETIn June last year South Africa’s UCS Group acquired a 93% share in retail software house Ultimate Connection, with the objective of leveraging the local dealer market in order to capitalise on the lucrative software export market. In November Ultimate Connection became known as UCS Software and the Group is making inroads into the retail software solution arena across the globe. Incorporating Ultimate Connection’s business, including its well-established ActiveRetail software application suite for small, medium and large retail organisations, UCS’s installed base rose to more than 10 000 in-store systems at the time of the acquisition. The Group was now in a position to offer a variety of retail solutions including Ultimate Connection’s Microsoft-based offering and Universal’s Linux-based solution. "We increased our local market share by adding five new multi-store retailers to our growing list of customers converting to the Microsoft platform for both head office and in-store applications," says UCS Software managing director Neels van Tonder. "During the five months following the UCS acquisition, ActiveRetail was installed operationally in more than a hundred physical locations throughout South Africa. And we also made significant progress towards our goal of increasing our International market share with ActiveRetail spreading into Africa, Mauritius and the Middle East." ActiveRetail is set to expand its African footprint significantly through the Innscor & Exxon Mobil Alliance. ActiveRetail was chosen to be used in all Innscor Fast Foods outlets (Chicken Inn, Nando’s, Steers, Pizza Inn, Creamy Inn, Sweet Factory, Gold Reef) and ExxonMobil services stations across Africa. The rollout is expected to continue over the next two years with the following African countries already onboard: Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A further 20 alliance sites are planned for the remainder of this year into Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Angola, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia. Innscor foods have relationships with Steers, Nando’s and Mobil. The group is further engaged in a Pan-African initiative involving Coke and Nestle. LOCAL GHANAIAN COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS WANT GOVT BACKINGLocal computer manufacturers have appealed to the government to consider them in the process of national competitive bidding. According to them, anytime they tender in their bidding, the government says their computers are of poor quality and thereby opt for the foreign ones. "We eventually go through this process and are later told that our computers are not of good quality and government goes in for foreign computers. Why then does government have to say that it wants to boost local manufacturing of computers?" argues the manufacturers. The manufacturers made this appeal last week in Accra at a one-day workshop sponsored by AITEC and Busy Internet to create awareness of locally produced computers in the country. Among the companies which took part in the workshop were EC Computers, ILS, IPMC, Franco, Radix, Astra and Y3K. (source: Ghanaian Chronicle) IN BRIEF- Customs and Excise in Djibouti last week held a workshop to help implement their new customs system. As part of this upgrade, it has taken delivery of a vehicle equipped with a scanner to speed up checking documentation on the spot. - Uganda’s Makerere University Institute of Computer Science has been selected to co-ordinate the establishment of a regional centre for graduate studies in computer science.The multi-million dollar programme being supported by the Norwegian Agency for Co-operation (NORAD), and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) will cover Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. - Skills2Learn (Pty) Ltd. last week announced its formal appointment as the exclusive e-learning supplier to Bytes Technology Networks (BTN), a division of Bytes Technology Group Limited (BTG), and to its already extensive customer base. - UNESCO has recently signed a contract with a Jordanian firm for the provision of news processing and archiving software to the Moroccan News Agency (MAP). UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) provided US$70,000 and the French Government, contributed US$100,000. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=8286&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=2 01&reload=1047649380
SOUTH AFRICAN SNO DELAY HURTS ESKOM ENTERPRISESThe delay in appointing the second national fixed-line telephone network operator has had a negative impact on Eskom Enterprises, whose net operating income for the year to December fell 36% to R83 million. This is despite the achievement of a 23% increase in sales, which exceeded by far the targeted 15% mark. The company’s core lines of business are infrastructure development, energy business operations, specialised energy services and IT and telecommunications."Eskom Enterprises also achieved its 40% external sales target, indicating its established commitment as an operating company in Africa," says CEO Enos Banda. "The company has presence in more than 30 African countries and is serious about participating in project activity across the continent. The projects range from seawater intake in Libya, electrification contracts in Zambia, to a mobile telecommunications network company in Lesotho and others." The start of the Lesotho mobile telecommunication operation resulted in a R29 million loss, which Banda says is expected for the first year of operation due to high costs associated with business infrastructure development. Significant revenue and profit are expected for the company in the current year. Banda says Eskom Enterprises made significant investment in telecommunications during the year, although the longer than expected delays in the second national operator (SNO) licensing had a negative effect on profitability. He says the company has shown its ability to grow its current business organically, but massive investment will be required to achieve strategic growth targets. "As a consequence, it is regrettable that Eskom Enterprises’ fibre optic infrastructure cannot be put to early use." (source: http://www.itweb.co.za) BCS-NET BOUGHT OUT BY EMPOWERMENT CONSORTIUMNetwork service provider BCS-Net, which was 82% held by liquidated Finstruct, has been bought by an empowerment consortium. The Finstruct group was placed under voluntary liquidation in December 2001, although BCS-Net continued trading profitably despite the uncertainty in shareholding. BCS-Net, which says it is now the country’s largest black-owned IT infrastructure company, has also taken over the entire networking business of Siemens Business Services. The deal is estimated to be worth R60 million over five years. While there were about five bids for the company, it was ultimately acquired by a consortium made up of Amava Technologies, Zonkizizwe and various individuals. Ismail Sali-Ameen, who worked at BCS-Net for 18 years before leaving in 2000, has been appointed CEO. Sali-Ameen says a major factor in putting the consortium together was to change BCS-Net’s ownership profile. "It was a white-owned company, which closed new government business to us. Even though in management and technology expertise we complied with empowerment requirements, in ownership we did not," he says. "The new ownership structure changes this and makes us the largest black-owned IT infrastructure company in SA. Our assets, our intellectual capital, our infrastructure are all our own, and we also have a name in the industry." He says the Siemens Business Services partnership benefits the company as it brings on board about 180 virtual private network clients. In addition, the two companies provide complementary services. Siemens Business Services had been looking for an appropriate empowerment partner where merit was a key factor. BCS-Net is also actively pursuing other deals. Whereas 90% of revenue is generated in the private sector, it intends to put equal emphasis on the government and public sectors. "There are some interesting deals in the pipeline which we cannot disclose as yet," Sali-Ameen says. (source: http://www.itweb.co.za) IN BRIEF- Debt burdened Vivendi Universal has decided to hold on to its stake in Maroc Telecom in order to avoid losing between 800 million and a billion euros on the value of its stake if it sold it. The troubled French media group has a 35% stake in the Moroccan telecoms operator and an option to buy a futher 16% from 1 September 2003. - A steep decline in heavyweight telecoms shares dragged Egyptian stocks lower on Sunday last week amid a lack of news of promised stake sales by Orascom Telecom and market anxiety over a possible war in Iraq, traders said. Orascom Telecom (OT) was the day’s second biggest percentage decliner, shedding 1.87 Egyptian pounds ($0.33), or 12 percent, to last trade at 13.69 pounds and officially close at 14.12. - Thanks largely to its 13,5% stake in Vodacom, VenFin last week announced a 26% increase in headline earnings for the six months to the end of December.
MALAGASY CULTURAL PORTAL OFFERS MP3 MUSIC DOWNLOADSMora Mora is a Malagasy cultural portal that has been running for four years and attracts 10,000 page views a day, writes Olivia Marsaud of Afrik.com. The site has a range of links to Malagasy organisations, linking the country and its diaspora and is now in its fourth version. It has a photo gallery - Diaporama - which records the hottest evenings held in the community. Under the heading Mozika surfers can dedicate a song and find their favorite artists again. It offers personal sites, links to a CD shop, an MP3 space to faire le plein de bons sons ", a list of radio stations, interviews with musicians as well as music videos. "These are the first video clips on the Malagasy web," claims its webmaster. In addition it offers three chat forums, notices on research and a French-Malagache dictionary. WEB SITES FIRST POINT OF CONTACT WITH COMPANIES FOR INVESTORS, SAYS SA STUDYWeb sites are often the first point of contact for an investor when dealing with big corporations. However, some of the biggest companies on the JSE are still lagging behind in the development of their sites. Gencor, Richemont Securities, Pick ‘n Pay, Johnnic and RMB Holdings all scored in the bottom 10 of the 100 top listed companies surveyed in an annual study conducted by research company BlueRiverstoneStone. BlueRiverStone MD Ian Kruger says the project tested companies’ ability to provide information relevant to the investor via the online channel. "The study looked at the two elements of the online channel, the company’s corporate Web site and its e-mail communications, which make up the majority of the online experience. The Web site contributed 75% and e-mail contributed 25% of the score." The Web sites’ usability was measured by looking at how efficiently they provided six pieces of information as well as the number of clicks taken to do so. The required information included details on corporate governance, the historical share price, profiles of executives in the company as well as news content. The ability of each company’s annual report to reach diverse audiences was also assessed and the "look and feel" of the Web site was taken into account. BlueRiverStone also analysed the best 12 and worst 10 Web sites using software supplied by eValid (e-valid.com), a Web site analysis firm. E-mails were then sent to the companies asking for the name of their transfer secretary, when the company’s financial year ended, whether a copy of the annual report was available in electronic form and information about the company’s policy on corporate governance. Kruger says six of the companies assessed did not have Web sites. "Caxton Publishing and Print, Real Africa Holdings, Sycom Property Fund, African Life, Assurance, Growthpoint Properties and Mvelaphanda Resources did not have Web sites, with only one company ­ Canadian Overseas Packaging ­ being unreachable by either Web site or e-mail." He says of the 100 companies surveyed, 21 companies including Gencor, Richemont Securities, Pick ‘n Pay, Johnnic, Absa, BHP Billiton, Old Mutual and Santam, did not reply to the e-mail, while Investec, Afgri and Remgro e-mails bounced back. There were some star performers on the index as well. Gold Fields moved from ninth to first, keeping out IT firm Comparex, which remained in second place for the second year in a row. Petrochemicals giant Sasol shot from 19th to third, while new entrant Investment Solutions took fourth place. Naspers shot from 58th last year to fifth and last year’s winner, Coronation, fell to eighth place. Kruger says the results of the survey show that while companies are starting to take their Web sites and e-mail communications more seriously, few are using both these communication media well. "Without a more detailed study it is difficult to say for sure, but the scores seem to indicate that the improvements that companies made were more of a technical nature than from providing improved content. This means that companies have a good opportunity to really impress the investor by adding only a little more content and by better understanding the way in which investors use the online channel." He says the analysis of the e-mail scores shows that the majority of companies were quite conservative about providing information via e-mail, providing the barest minimum, while most referred the user to the annual report. "The most likely reason for this is that the people responding to the e-mails are not necessarily equipped to give satisfactory answers to the questions, hence the referral to the annual report. "The corporate governance question was particularly badly answered with only Sanlam providing a comprehensive answer," he says. IN BRIEF- Small horticulture exporters will benefit from a CD-ROM that was launched in Harare last week by a British company involved in horticulture processing. The CD-ROM, launched by Tropical Wholefoods, gives small horticulture exporters an insight into the horticulture food market in the United Kingdom. Products covered include a whole range of horticulture products - honey and fruits like mangoes and apples. It gives information on horticulture products that are on sale in the United Kingdom, prices they are fetching and also goods that are not available on the market. The CD-Rom also contains addresses of contacts that can be used by small horticulture producers in dealing with the British horticulture market and tips on how to add value to the products before they reach the market. - The Mountain Voices web site (www.mountainvoices.org) offers a collection of oral testimonies from Wollo, Ethiopia; the Lesotho Highlands and Mount Elgon in Kenya.
TBM DELIVERS INFORMATION AND AVERTISING THROUGH SA REVENUE SITESJohannesburg-based digital media company, TBM, is developing its concept of using an existing digital highway to deliver tailor-made educational and training content to individually addressable South African Revenue Service (SARS) sites around South Africa. TBM has traditionally focussed on offering clients focused, cost-effective digital advertising but is now capitalising on its capability of affording a broad spectrum of clients the benefits of a powerful communications medium - which essentially functions as their own personalised TV station - to train and educate their staff. "We have successfully run an internal communications network for SARS with 92 plasma screens split between VAT, PAYE and regional offices, as well as border posts, airports and customs countrywide, for the past year. "We, at TBM, are now looking to take the concept a step further by expanding into other local government departments and possibly even other governments in Africa, as well as donor organisations that want to conduct staff training, need to begin interacting with people, or generally want to improve their business," explains TBM CEO, Pierre van der Hoven. He points out that this new visual communication solution is ideally suited to any organisation that has departments, branches or offices which are geographically separated, and can be used whenever and where ever the client chooses. "This not only means greater flexibility for clients, it also has major cost reduction implications," he says. At SARS, the network has two channels - one aimed at SARS staff that is used mainly for staff communication, training and education. The other provides information and education to the general public when they visit SARS offices. Each site runs both generic content and content specific to that site. TBM provides the full service solution - installation, delivery of content via satellite (and changing it if and when necessary), scheduling, and maintenance of the network. Video, animation or static material is narrowcast via satellite facilitating instantaneous changes to content or scheduling on single or multiple screens. Apart from TBM’s vision of using technology to make a major impact in the education arena, there are various other applications including social development, sustainable development, poverty alleviation and specific AIDS awareness programmes. "What is key about the network is that each site runs unique content so it can be used to address issues specific to a specific region. Since it is a visual medium, it overcomes illiteracy, and material can be transmitted in the language of choice or even in multiple languages. "An added benefit is that it runs a ‘repeating pad’ which means that people don’t have to gather at the same time to view the material and it can be repeated at no incremental cost whenever necessary," says van der Hoven. TBM offers clients two other ancillary services: the generation of revenue from advertising (it has a well-established sales team) and creating content on their behalf (it has a content production facility). TBM is a 70% black controlled ICT company that has developed world first technologies for the delivery - via satellite - of large video files to individually controllable display screens. TBM was named a Technology Top 100 Company for its innovative technology. A media owner that sells cost-effective advertising on more than 700 screens around South Africa, TBM was also the official supplier of audio-visual solutions to the World Summit held in Johannesburg in 2002. TBM is a Proudly South African company. ACTIONAIDS AIMED AT RAISING AWARENESS AMONGST PC-USING EMPLOYEESEchoteq, a subsidiary of Ovations Technologies, last year launched ActionAIDS - a solution with a clean, factual look and feel - aimed specifically at creating more awareness of HIV/AIDS among PC-based employees. The company has now signed a deal with a reseller partner Managed Health Care Business (MHCB), which will sell, implement and support ActionAIDS as well as provide consulting and business process engineering services. Conceptualised and spearheaded by Gerhard Smit, MHCB is made up of IT and medical professionals whose expertise lies in the field of health informatics. "Our core focus revolves around service delivery in terms of system development, business process re-engineering, implementing, training and post-implementation support," explains Smit. MHCB supplies and supports a range of products to the medical market, including software packages to clinics, doctors and hospitals and also to the corporate environment, to which it supplies occupational health products as well. "I believe that being able to now also offer ActionAIDS as part of our range, we are increasing the value add to our customer base," Smit adds. "Partnering with MHCB will enable us to extend the reach of ActionAIDS considerably," says Echoteq CEO Yoram Percale. "MHCB plays in a niche area and has representation in the United States as well as in Europe. I believe ActionAIDS is a natural extension to MHCB’s existing offering and the company has the infrastructure to support the product and the customer base." Statistics released by ABT Associates, the South African Society of Actuaries and Harvard Centre for International Health reveal that 4 percent of South Africa’s skilled workforce is) HIV+. "Most of these people, however, believe that they are at a very low risk of contracting the virus and are therefore not interested in learning more about its prevention, treatment, impact and workplace ethics," says Percale. "ActionAIDS was created in consultation with experts in the medical and educational fields. It is a non-invasive Q&A-type programme that, once implemented by a company, educates employees on various HIV/AIDS issues - at their desks via their PCs at times that suit them, through short, meaningful interactions with minimal impact on productivity. The program has been designed to create awareness and empower people to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS," he concludes.
PEOPLE* Mobile phones can help government reach its goal of making its services easily accessible, Andile Ngcaba, director-general of South Africa’s Department of Communications, said last week.Ngcaba was speaking at the ICT in Government Convention, hosted by research house Forge Ahead BMI-T in Midrand yesterday. He said the fact that there are at least 14 million cellphone users in the country should act as an indicator that government could reach its people via SMS, in the same way that business is already utilising the service. "We should put more effort in investigating the possibility of utilising mobile-centric technology in delivering services. Government should exploit the opportunities presented by SMS technology." For instance, forms can be sent via SMS, or government can remind people to collect their ID documents or licences using SMS.Delegates raised concerns about cellphones’ inability to handle large amounts of data, but Ngcaba said SIM cards would soon be upgraded and this should enable cellphones to handle much bigger transactions: "We are not saying that PC technology should not be pursued. We need to pursue both PC and mobile-centric technology with the same vigour. * Djibouti’s President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh last week received members of the National Committee on ICT along with the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Rifki Abdoulkader Bamakhrama. The Committee’s work has two objectives: firstly to extend access to ICTs and secondly to create a body to implement its strategy. The President stressed the importance of ICTs in all walks of life in order to accelerate the modernisation of the country’s infastructure. * Jacob Modise,s currently the Chief Operating Officer of Johnnic Holdings Limited has been appointed independent non-executive director to the Board of Altron.. Before this appointment, he served the group as Finance Director over a period of four years, overseeing three listed companies, Omni Media Corporation Limited (renamed Johnnic Communications Limited), M-Cell Limited (renamed MTN Holdings Limited) and Johnnic Holdings Limited. JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES- The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation is looking for a new Chief Executive. For details click on the banner ad at the top of this page. - Highway Africa are looking for a Conference Director to run this successful conference on African journalism and new media issues in 2003 and beyond. More information about Highway Africa is online at www.highwayafrica.org.za Applications forms, further particulars and salary details are available from http://www.ru.ac.za/jobs or by phoning 046-603 8004/046-603 8115. Completed applications should be returned to the Recruitment & Selection Section at Rhodes University by 31 March 2003. EVENTSSOUTHERN AFRICAN INTERNET FORUM, KWA MARITANE GAME LODGE, PILANESBERG, SOUTH AFRICA (11-13 APRIL 2003) BOOK NOW TO ENSURE A PLACE AND GET A FREE COPY OF BALANCING
ACT’s ICT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP CD-ROM. TO CLAIM INCLUDE THE
WORDS "BA OFFER" AT THE TOP OF YOUR REGISTRATION FORM.
The Southern African Internet Forum has three key objectives: 1. To help create a shared strategic agenda between the private sector, the regulators and civil society that will help each advocate for change that will overcome current obstacles. 2. To offer high-level training through experience-sharing that will enable the private sector and civil society the ability to identify new opportunities and to act boldly in tackling them. 3. To allow participants the opportunity to put in place a Southern African Internet Forum as a way of pursuing these discussions on a regular basis. The South African Internet Forum be a three-day event with a high-level training workshop on the third day (11-13) April 2003, Kwa Maritane Game Lodge, Pilansberg, South Africa). There will be a plenary stream with breakout panels to discuss specific topics. It will precede IDRC’s Acacia event ­ Lessons of Empowerment from Communities enabling participants to attend both events. The plenary stream will cover: DAY 1 Plenary: Setting an agenda for action Regulators, policy makers, civil society and the private
sector: Forging new relationships to make things happen LUNCH Thinking the Unthinkable - African regulatory challenges
for the 21st century (VOIP, the international bandwidth
monopoly, interconnection and rural operators Digital rights - The minefield of censorship, personal privacy
and much more: What users are entitled to DAY 2 Lobbying government and regulators: Getting your voice
heard, influencing others - Lessons to be learnt Universal Service Policy: Putting TRASA’s Universal
Service Policy into action LUNCH Domain names - How can Southern Africa regain control
of this process Plenary: Creating a Southern African Internet Forum The high-level training session will be: Panel discussions will include: Who represents the user? - Finding a role for Internet
user groups E-rate: Why it is needed and what it can do Encouraging active virtual communities: The rural challenge - Getting beyond the cities and towns Telecentres and Cyber-Cafes Finding the best approaches to opening access The Kwa Maritane Bush Lodge is two hours from Johannesburg. Transport arrangements will be confirmed with you upon registration and will cost $40-$80, return from Johannesburg airport, depending on the time of travel. The conference delegate fee for the Forum is R3,800/$480 per person in single accommodation and R2,500/$320 per person in shared accommodation. The fee includes accommodation and all meals from Friday night to Sunday lunch. The forum is being organised by AITEC and Balancing Act, with support from the Southern African Open Society Initiative.
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This page last updated on January 28 2004.
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