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ISSUE NO 164

http://www.mobileplanet.co.ke

SMS TEXT NOTIFICATION CUTS CREDIT CARD FRAUD

Mobile services and content are slowly coming of age. As predicted by Forrester Research - services that combine content with communication are succeeding - and the most successful are actionable and combine timeliness with mobility. These guiding principles are shown to be the common attributes in Grapevine Interactive case studies from two completely different industries in South Africa ­ Banking and Beverage.

The first case study is from a medium sized private bank targeting top tier clients whose accounts combine Internet banking with a credit card account. The Bank was looking for a cost effective, innovative way to reduce the risk of credit card fraud and provide clients with additional peace of mind. Key to preventing fraud is the ability to detect a transaction as fraudulent as it occurs - and the person best qualified to make this judgement is the client himself.

An automated SMS transaction alerts service provided an ideal solution. When a transaction is processed against a particular credit card number, the card’s owner is notified of the transaction via an SMS. The client has the opportunity to phone the bank immediately if the transaction is fraudulent, or the amount incorrect.

This service meets all the requirements of a successful mobile service ­ it needs to be immediate and to reach the client wherever she is - and the alert is immediately actionable by call to the bank. In addition it combines communication (mobile notification of a transaction event) with content (the transaction amount).

Using this service the Bank has significantly reduced the risk of credit card fraud. One client received notification of a fraudulent transaction whilst playing golf. Returning to the car park he found his car broken into and his credit card missing. Due to the alert service he was able to stop the card before further abuse occurred.

One of South Africa’s largest beverage brands wanted to run a promotion that offered consumers the chance of winning an instant prize on purchase of a beverage and a Grand prize at the end of the promotion.

A text Œn win SMS competition service provided the answer. Millions of promotion bottles were put into the market each with a 6-digit number under the bottle top cap. Labels on each bottle and advertisements encouraged purchasers to "SMS and WIN". To enter the competition, purchasers SMSed the 6 digit number to a competition line. Entrants were informed within seconds of purchase as to whether they had won an instant prize or not. All entrants were entered for the main draw.

Again, this service meets the requirements of a successful mobile service ­ clients needed to be able to enter at the point of purchase (any pub), the offer was actionable and the response immediate. The service enabled communication between the promoter and the purchaser for the exchange of content (competition entry, prize notification).

Over 1.7 million consumer entries and were received over the 3 month duration of the competition, with an average entry rate of 8 entries per person.

Grapevine Interactive is an interactive messaging company in South Africa. Grapevine’s Enterprise Messaging Platform (GEMTM) allows businesses, agencies or media owners to deploy interactive messaging-based services and campaigns across various electronic channels.

SOUTH AFRICAN CLUBBING MARKETING CAMPAIGNS DOMINATED BY BULK SMS MESSAGING

The marketing of South Africa’s highly popular youth dominated clubbing scene has, within the last year, become dominated by innovative bulk Short Message Service (SMS) technology, with one of the largest such entertainment promotional companies, now relying on the medium for the bulk of its instant venue promotions.

"Johannesburg Live (JHBLive) is one of South Africa’s largest night club entertainment companies, and acts as a promotional agent for a large number of nightclubs in the greater Johannesburg area, says Derek Fingleson, managing director of Mobile Internet Gateway, (MIG) which provides bulk SMS messaging technology to over 80 percent of the clubbing scene in the country.

The SMS Systems cater to an extremely technologically savvy market, most of whom have cell phones, and who are now used to receiving their information instantly, says Fingleson. "Very often the decision to go to a venue, or attend a concert or event, is made on the spur of the moment, and the most effective way of reaching this target market is through an instant SMS service."

JHBLive director, Michael Balkind, confirms that the instant messaging ability of the MIG service holds the key to his company’s marketing success: "In the young market sector we cater for, we have a zero delay in reaching our target audience," Balkind says.

"In addition to being very reliable, the MIG software is extremely user friendly, and also allows two way message traffic," Balkind says. This enables patrons to respond instantly to event notifications with their names and surnames, and thereby either reserve places at an event, or qualify for discounts and special offers.

The SMS system, works with MIG software, which is loaded onto the client server. The program integrates with the client database, and from there, the individualised SMS messages are automatically generated and sent according to preset schedules.

"Once the SMS has been prepared, it is integrated with the necessary field changes which ensure that each message is individually personalised according to recipient, it is encrypted and transmitted via the internet to MIG’s gateway," Fingleson says.

Once at MIG, the data packet is unencrypted and then distributed via secure dedicated lines to the three South African cellular service providers for instant transmission. The return message path from the cell phone users is identical except in reverse.

"This ensures that our clients database always remains in their possession, and is never transmitted to outside parties," says Fingleson. There is also no extra equipment or hardware necessary to generate the bulk SMS messages - all that is required is a computer and an Internet connection.

The software package is totally locally owned and developed, and is thus available at an extremely competitive pricing structure. "MIG is able to offer the service at this cost effective rate because we have no foreign licensing fees to pay," explains Fingleson. In addition, the locally developed nature of the software means that there are always support engineers on hand, and that any future updates or additions will be fully integrated with the original package.

For further information contact: Derek Fingleson, MIG, derek@mig.co.za, +27 11 257 8311

SA’S SNO TELECOM BIDDER PLANNING TO SPEND R9-11 BILLION

The two companies bidding for the majority stake in the second network operator (SNO) were planning to spend between R9 billion and R11 billion on capital expenditure (capex) over the next 10 years, according to documents published Tuesday last week.

CommuniTel Consortium, which includes Telecom Namibia, and Two Consortium are vying for the 51 per cent equity stake in the SNO.Two Consortium estimated its cumulative capital investment would reach R9 billion by 2013. CommuniTel planned a total capex of R11.2 billion in the same period, with nearly 40 per cent required in the first four years.

A winning bidder for the 25-year SNO licence will be recommended to communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri on August 15 by the telecommunications regulator.

Two Consortium consists of Swedtel; Norwegian Telenor Telecom; Mvelaphanda, led by Tokyo Sexwale; and Blue Planet Telecom.

CommuniTel includes Telecom Namibia; Detecon/T-Systems; Premier Contracts Agency; the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans’ Association; and Gateway Communications, a British-based firm.

The two applicants intend to enter the market in different ways. In its bid documents, Two Consortium said it had developed a business model based on targeting gaps in Telkom’s products and services .

The consortium said that instead of a Telkom lookalike strategy, which most often led to a direct price war, it would entice those customers that had not been provided with adequate services. It expected its total revenues to increase from R1,2 billion next year to R8,7 billion in 2013.

It projected residential voice customers to grow from 321 000 next year to 3,2 million in 2005, and residential data customers to grow from 25 000 to 250 000 in 10 years.

Two Consortium said its operational launch should take place no longer than six months after the licence had been awarded.

CommuniTel said it had developed a hybrid business model known as "churn and grow," to aggressively attack Telkom, capture the market and generate revenues.

CommuniTel estimated its revenue at R14 billion in 2013, allowing for price erosion, and said about 40 per cent of the sales would be derived from data products.

It believed the SNO could achieve a market share of just under 15 per cent of the fixed-line network revenue by the end of 10 years. "Our total market share in year 10 will be about 14.5 per cent," CommuniTel said. It could launch its network as soon as possible after the licence had been awarded, it said.

(source: The Namibian)

KENYAN CELL PHONE ACCESSORY SALES DIP OVER BUDGET TAX RISE 

Dealers in mobile phone accessories last week said they had recorded a sharp decline in sales volumes as the 10 per cent excise duty imposed on airtime in the 2003/04 Budget started taking effect. A cross-section of dealers interviewed by The Financial Standard said daily sales had fallen by about 50 per cent.

The most affected items include scratch cards, sim cards and handsets, which potential subscribers were shying away from due to the anticipated rise in calling costs. "We don’t know exactly what to do because our customers are scared of the impending high cost of mobile calls," complained Alfred Wanjohi, a dealer along Munyu Road in Nairobi’s central business district.

Telephone bureaux operators appear to be the beneficiaries of this crimp in mobile phone sales since most people now prefer making calls from the outlets in a bid to cut costs. Consequently, Wanjohi said the rate at which mobile phone users reload their credit has drastically gone down.

(Source : Financial Standard)

SIERRATEL ROLLS OUT NETWORK IMPROVEMENTS IN BO

Sierratel has put in digital switch in the southern town of Bo that will handle 2,500 lines rather than the current 500 through the old analogue switch. There is also now a microwave link to Freetown. Senior Engineer A.B Mansaray said Sierratel has gone back and installed solar power systems in all the areas previously installed before the civil war, and facilities at Rotifunk, Moyamba and Mano Basse have been updated fully. Mr. Mansaray also noted that one of their primary objectives was to introduce internet facilities, fax and e-mail services into all these areas in the provinces, geared towards easing communication with that part of the country. He said the prepaid system will soon be introduced with facilities provided for NGOs, banks and government offices on request. The senior engineer pleaded with subscribers to pay their bills, as that is one of the greatest problems the company is now facing, and which is threatening to undermine the company’s operations.

BOTSWANA TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION INTRODUCES PREPAID PHONE SYSTEM

It sounds just too marvellous to be true, but Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) says there is nothing clandestine about their prepaid telephone service. In fact, it is a customer’s dream come true, says Mmaphala Letsatle, BTC acting marketing communications manager. She said the service is an answer to the huge demand for affordable communication options that they identified in the country.

Letsatle said they have noticed that there are many customers who use receive-only services, while others have been suspended as a result of costs related to communication. And after analysis, BTC company created and launched the prepaid service to enable customers to enjoy the convenience of reliable telephony, which is suitable for their budgets and needs. To get one, BTC customers have an option of applying for a new BTC prepaid line or convert their existing post paid line to prepaid. Letsatle said customers are asked to pay P247 installation charge for a new line, whereas conversion is done free of charge.

Once installed or converted, the customers will find free introductory units available for them to start making calls and if they so wish, they could create a pin number to limit access. Other advantage of the service includes ability to check their balance at any time and at no cost, as well as free voice mail.

On recharging the BTC prepaid account, customers will purchase scratch and dial cards of any amount and load the units onto the BTC prepaid service. Customers can dial 1350 before the voice prompt and then enter the 14-digit number found under the foil. The customer will then be told the new balance on the account. The system was launched in Gaborone on June 3.

In a similar move, Ghana Telecom will install 1,000 indoor payphones in all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), police stations and military instalments throughout the country by the end of the year to help drastically reduce the huge payment of telephone bills by the government. The payphones, which have been specially designed, will allow people to make calls only with the use of a prepaid card within their offices. Another feature is that, unlike the outdoor payphones, they can receive calls as the normal office phones. Most of the phones will be distributed within Accra and Kumasi, with the rest spread to the other regions.

IN BRIEF

- The Egyptian National Postal Organization announced that it will offer the service of telephone bill settlements through its offices as of the upcoming July bill.

- Telecom Egypt chairman, Eng. Okeil Beshir, has announced ongoing studies to establish a wireless network to expand fixed line services to Egypt.s remote areas, further adding that the company is looking into the best alternatives to proceed with associated plans, possibly through an international partner.

- The Tanzania Telecommunication Company Ltd. plans to increase the number of its payphone kiosks in Handeni, Tanga, from the current five to about a hundred in the near future.

- Captaris, Inc., a provider of business information delivery solutions, and Sony Ericsson last week announced their collaboration to develop the Mobile Business Solutions market in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa.

LONG-AWAITED TANZANIAN IXP LAUNCHES WITH RAHA.COM CONNECTING

Tanzania’s local internet exchange point launched this week. Raha.com has connected and the other six ISPs that make up TISPA will join in the coming months. Equipment for the exchange was installed by Brian Longwe and Bill Woodcock. The 24-port switch awaits the connections from the other ISPs.

GEOLINK AND EUTELSAT LINK UP WITH LA POSTE TO PROVIDE BROADBAND

Geolink and Eutelsat are backing an initiative by France’s La Poste group to provide Geolink Access, two-way broadband Internet access, to post offices in Africa. Indeed, La Poste has just installed the first two interactive cyberkiosks in Burkina Faso. These will provide a satellite Internet link using the two-way Geolink Access® system. The rollout of this system is part of the programme to support the development of new technologies in developing countries initiated by the Universal Postal Union and financed by the United Nations.

The cyberkiosks are in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, and in Dinare, a rural community 30km from the capital. They provide broadband Internet access via Geolink Access, enabling a high-speed connection entirely via satellite in areas without terrestrial ADSL or cable systems.

Geolink has also helped set up a new cyber-café in Senegal’s Saint-Louis in partnership with Isercom. The system installed will be able to transmit at 128 KBps and receive at up to 2048 KBps. Geolink is positioning itself for the liberalisation of the market in Senegal in July 2004 which it believes will open up greater satellite opportunities.

TELKOM KENYA SUES GATEWAY OVER UNPAID JAMBONET BILLS

Incumbent telco Telkom is entangled in a dispute over an alleged Sh9.1 million in unpaid fees with one of its ISP clients. Telkom Kenya sued Gateway Online for failing to pay for telecommunications services rendered by its Internet gateway service, Jambonet, last year.

Telkom, in a plaint filed by Kiptui Mbabu Advocates at the Milimani Courts, alleged that the Internet Service Provider had on several occasions admitted owing the money and made various proposals to pay, but in vain.

In a defence and counter-claim filed by Mr Omolo, Gateway has denied owing the sum to Telkom. It argued that the terms and conditions of services contained a ‘Penalty Clause", and that the access fee levied after disconnection of services was unreasonable and economically oppressive.

It claimed that the clause did not reflect loss arising from disconnection of service by the state monopoly and that it should be struck down as it was never agreed upon by the parties.

Gateway alleged that Telkom was guilty of wrongdoing and for abusing its monopoly by failing to consider payment proposals it submitted. Gateway has admitted having established a business goodwill with the service provider. It has, however, alleged that Telkom never gave it adequate notice to raise the amount being claimed and unreasonably refused to accept its proposals. The ISP claimed that on April 24, Telkom disconnected its link to Jambonet.

Lawyer Mbabu for Telkom said the ISP never honoured any of its proposals. She denied all contents in the counter-claim and said that if Gateway lost business good will, it was as a result of its failure to pay for the telecommunication services. The state firm said the reliefs sought by the ISP could not be granted and wants both the defence and counterclaim struck off. The case was djourned to a date to be fixed at the registry.

(Source: The Nation)

IN BRIEF

- I C O A G H (the Internet Cafe Operators Association of Ghana) will hold its first General Meeting at Busy Internet in Accra at 6pm on Friday 11 July. Have you joined the ICOAGH mailing list yet?? to join, just send an email to: icoagh-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

CATI SAYS IT WILL BE SELLING PCs "MADE IN SENEGAL"

Based in Dakar, La Compagnie Africaine de Technologies Informatiques (Cati) wants to promote African ICT knowledge and bring Africa up to the same level as Europe, writes Isabelle Sciamma of Afrik.com. It plans to launch Senegalese-assembled PCs on to the market in the next few months. They will be put together in a factory owned by the company and the initiative is a joint venture between Cati and London-based tech investor, Time Investments. It aims to source the latest components from Asia and set itself developed world standards of production. It will train its own personnel on-site. Prices will be extremely competitive. Based in the Technopôle in Dakar, it has ambitious plans to sell 20% of its production in the Senegalese market with the balance being sold across the continent.

CONSORTIUM TEAMS UP WITH CIDA CITY CAMPUS TO PROVIDE OPEN SOURCE SKILLS TRAINING

Sun Microsystems’ Sun Educational Services (SES) division has concluded an agreement to provide open source training courses to CIDA City Campus as part of a consortium that is assisting the college to establish an ICT Academy. As the open source movement gains momentum, Sun is working with the Campus to address the skills requirements of this burgeoning market.

In addition to supplying the Sun StarOffice productivity suite, Java and Unix courseware, Sun is to supply funding for the trainers and 30 Unix workstations to the CIDA ICT Academy, pending the approval of a grant from Sun Corporate in the USA.

Other members of the consortium are T-Systems, SAP Public Services, Espial, CompTIA, Cisco Systems, and OutLearning, all of which will lend their expertise to provide the basis for the CIDA ICT Academy curriculum and will supply certification to the students.

According to Stefano Mattiello, managing director at Sun Microsystems sub-Saharan Africa, SES provides highly structured learning solutions that will assist those students selected for the CIDA ICT Academy to master the Solaris and Java environments. "SES will provide infrastructure as well as qualified and experienced training instructors for this project," says Mattiello.

Explaining Sun’s training approach, Mattiello says:"Training is not just about providing courses for people to attend, but rather about providing solutions to challenges so that successful enterprises are propelled by powerful education solutions." He explains that SES’ proven training methodology delivers needs-base skills development that secures performance improvement, allowing graduates to maximise the benefits of the Sun platform.

Students will be sourced from the existing second, third and fourth year students currently doing their Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree at CIDA City Campus, with elected courses incorporated into the overall academic curriculum of the BBA degree.

CISCO LOOKS FOR INCREASED BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

A network of highly-skilled partners, increased marketshare in new business areas and closer relationships with customers - these are just some of the goals that Internet and infrastructure solutions giant Cisco Systems has set for its second formal year of business in Nigeria.

The news results from a review of the business secured since the opening of Cisco’s regional headquarters on Victoria Island in June last year. Previously, the company worked through business partners and a small local sales team, all supported by Cisco in South Africa.

"We take a rather partner-centric approach to our business in Nigeria," explains Didier Lecluse, the regional manager for Africa at Cisco. "The local Cisco account management and technical team focuses on creating and building relationships with customers. Practically all product and solution business is then passed on to the partner that’s most qualified for the job."

The company maintains an exclusive number of one-tier partners - distributors, systems integrators and solution providers that are highly-skilled and experienced; they source products directly from Cisco and work with larger enterprise companies. A broader contingent of smaller two-tier resellers buy from these primary partners and, in turn, service the needs of small to medium businesses (SMBs).

"It’s a relatively simple strategy and it works," says Kayode Jegede, the territory manager for Nigeria at Cisco. "Customers benefit from technology that’s ideally suited to their business, and implemented and supported by highly-skilled companies. Our partners do excellent business. And we stay close to all parties while continuing to grow the Cisco brand in Nigeria."

The numbers seem to reflect Jegede’s assertion. Over the past year Cisco has cemented its position in the Internet and infrastructure space, claiming upwards of a 90% share of the enterprise router and switch market in the West African country. And with newly-set goals, other markets are coming onto the company’s radar screen.

"While we’re well known for our network infrastructure technology, less is known here about our IP telephony, wireless networking, content networking, network management, security, virtual private network [VPN], storage networking, voice, video and Optical solutions. These are all going to be an area of focus for us in the coming year with particular emphasis being placed on IP telephony and content networking," says Jegede. Cisco is also turning the spotlight onto new customer segments this year. The company has traditionally been strong in large scale enterprise markets - particularly financial services, oil and gas companies, governments, manufacturing organisations and education institutions.

As far as new markets are concerned, the SMB space holds great potential. "The SMB market is an area that we haven’t addressed to any great degree in the past," explains Jegede. "However, Cisco recently acquired Linksys [an SMB networking company] in the US to bolster the portfolio. That, combined with a pricing review and the addition of a local team member dedicated to this market, means we’ll be able to add great value to Nigerian SMBs." The service provider market is another active area for Cisco. Here the company works with the large fixed line and mobile telecommunications operators, private telephone operators (PTOs) and Internet Service Providers. Jegede admits that competition from other international suppliers exists in this space but sees that as a motivating factor for doing better business.

"We’re going to focus on introducing telecoms operators to the benefits of IP-based Next Generation telecoms solutions - including its flexible service creation and cost savings in terms of capital and operational expenditure," he says.

"In general, competition is a great thing for us. It ensures we put the most efficient partner network and supply chain process in place. That’s obviously a fundamental part of our strategy this year. We’ll also be working on programmes to combat the market for grey imports. And, of course, we’ll be taking feedback from partners and customers and honing our strategy accordingly." For more information on Cisco’s office and activities in Nigeria, visit www.cisco.com/global/za

IN BRIEF

- Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and VP General Dynamics last week opened an IT Liaison Office in General Dynamics Virginia’s premises. This new form of cooperation will facilitate the establishment of partnerships between the US and Egyptian IT industries and services to serve the Middle East and the world market.

- i-flex solutions, India-based provider of Information Technology (IT) solutions to the financial services industry, announced that its flagship product FLEXCUBE has been selected by the Egyptian American Bank (EAB) as its core-banking platform. This is the third FLEXCUBE customer-win in the growing Egyptian market.

- Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) in conjunction with APC (Association for Progressive Communications) has completed the 2003-2005 Action Plan and a brief state of OSS in Africa. For a copy of the document (zipped RTF format), visit: http://www.wougnet.org/ICTpolicy/opensource.html#FOSSFA

MTN KEEN ON TAKING UP VIVENDI SHARES IN KENCELL

Mobile phone operator MTN is looking at acquiring Vivendi’s 60 per cent stake in KenCell Communications as one of the options of expanding its footprint in East Africa. "We are assessing that," said Chief Executive Officer Phuthuma Nhleko during the announcement of financial results for the year ended March 2003.

"We’d like to consolidate in the regions we are in. It makes sense to develop hubs around the continent," he said confirming reports that the other option for the company that pulled out of the running for a third cellular operator’s licence in Kenya, would be to expand further north, around its operations in Nigeria and Cameroon.

The group’s profit leapt 305 per cent to $293 million as debt dropped 36 per cent. Mr Nhleko said MTN’s foreign operations were becoming more important as competition in South Africa drove down margins.

No dividend was declared, with the directors saying they believed it was in the best interest of stakeholders to reinvest earnings in operations or use them to reduce borrowings.

Analysts said MTN was focusing on its foreign operations, to counterbalance its inability to dominate in South Africa.

"We are constantly exploring other opportunities. While we were trying to get out of the woods in Nigeria, we had to focus on that. Now we are getting to the edge of the forest and we are comfortable looking at other opportunities," Mr Nhleko said.

MTN’s biggest triumph has been in Nigeria, where network expansion has yielded a 59 per cent market share and $146 million in after-tax profit for the year to March 2003.

Officials said MTN’s services have reached only 36 per cent of the population in Nigeria, leaving huge potential for growth.

The subscriber base grew threefold from 327,000 in March 2002 to reach 1,037,000 by March 2003. However, the network still needs major investments to increase its geographic spread and ease congestion.

At the same time, increased competition in South Africa had made it necessary to raise its subsidies on handsets and to offer more connectivity incentives, pumping up the cost of signing up new users.

MTN Cameroon has chalked up 431,000 subscribers, representing 54 per cent of the market while MTN Uganda had also grown to 363,000 subscribers by last March.

(source: Liquid Africa)

SA’S JOHNNNIC CONSIDERS INVESTING IN NEW SECTORS

South African investment holding company Johnnic Holdings said this week it could branch out into new sectors after it distributed shares in its main asset, mobile phone firm MTN, earlier this month. Reporting a 69 percent jump in core earnings for the year to the end of March, chief operating officer Jacob Modise said Johnnic, which has interests in entertainment, media and property, was still considering its strategy for the future.

"There are a number of options open to us," he said in an interview. "We could go for a narrow strategy, focusing on media and entertainment or we could decide to broaden it a little bit. "We haven’t excluded entering into other sectors of the economy," he added, noting that any acquisitions were likely to be in areas pushing to improve levels of black participation. Nine years after the end of apartheid, the mainstream economy is still largely controlled by whites and the government is pushing through legislation compelling firms to do more to attract black shareholders and staff.

Johnnic, 28-percent owned by the National Empowerment Consortium, has six months under bourse regulations to address the structure through which it holds 62.5 percent of media and entertainment firm Johnnic Communications (Johncom).

Deciding what to do with Johncom would be part of the group’s overall planning, Modise said. Johnnic said in March it would not sell its Johncom stake and would look at other ways to unlock shareholder value. Modise said the firm did not receive satisfactory offers. Johnnic said headline earnings almost doubled in the year to March 31, largely thanks to its investment in mobile phone operator MTN Group. Johnnic distributed a 31.9 percent stake in MTN worth seven billion rand (US$869 million) to shareholders this month in an effort to address the discount at which Johnnic shares traded to underlying net asset value.

It retained some 4.6 percent of MTN. MTN said earlier this month its annual earnings grew 97 percent, boosted by its international operations. Johnnic’s annual revenues grew 44 percent to 12.1 billion rand and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed 69 percent to 2.9 billion rand. Headline earnings, which strip out exceptional items and their tax effects, grew 90 percent to 603 cents a share.

(source: Reuters via Liquid Africa)

IN BRIEF

- Vodafone Egypt will distribute a LE2/share cash dividend for the 120 million existing shares prior to the company.s recently conducted stock split

- The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced that a 25% stake in NITEL valued at approximately N21bn (US$152m) will be offered as an IPO before the end of August 2003.

- Nigeria’s MTS First Wireless, a wireless phone operator has agreed a deal with Accenture. It will involve corporate financing, marketing and business planning. Neither party wished to identify how much the deal was worth.

CORRECTION:

ISSUE 163: AFRINIC NOT AFRISPA CHOOSES FOUR HOST COUNTRIES FOR AFRINIC BOT

In this story, the body choosing the host countries was (of course) AfriNIC BOT, not AfrISPA as stated. Apologies for any confusion caused and thanks to the several readers who brought the error to our attention.

ACADEMICS AT WORK ON ONLINE MULTILINGUAL SA WEB DICTIONARY

An online Northern Sotho-English dictionary has been launched by a group of academics called TshwaneDJe to promote interest in the official indigenous languages of South Africa, writes Stephen Whitford of ItWeb.

TshwaneDJe is an initiative of Professor Danie Prinsloo, who also heads up the African Languages department at the University of Pretoria, and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, a Belgian researcher of African languages. Together with David Joffe, who created the website AfricanLanguages.com, they hope to provide language reference and learning materials for the nine indigenous African languages. They all work on the project in their spare time. Joffe says there is a lack of even basic language information available to South Africans.

"Almost all South Africans have a need for language reference and learning materials for the African languages. Yet there is a lack of even basic language information available to South Africans. Mother-tongue speakers wishing to learn English also lack decent learning and reference materials."

Joffe says the dictionary was created as a resource for people interested in Northern Sotho, for mother-tongue speakers wishing to learn English and for the promotion of a truly multilingual culture among all South Africans.

The dictionary is the first Internet dictionary created in South Africa. The dictionary website itself is available in both English and Northern Sotho, making it the first online African-language dictionary.

It contains 25 000 Northern Sotho­English entries and a section containing a linguistics terminology list. An overview of the language, pronunciation, a list of common phrases, days of the week and the numbers 1-10 is also on the website.

Joffe says he hopes they will be able to pull more people into the project so that more dictionaries can be created for the other indigenous South African languages. The Northern Sotho-English dictionary can be found at http://www.africanlanguages.com.

IN BRIEF

- Kompyuta ne Yuganda is a Luganda translation project to enable any literate Luganda speaker (and probably speakers of some other bantu languages) make use of the power of electronic computers and information technology. The Translation Project is an international voluntary organisation whose aim is to coordinate software developers, people who can translate and computer users (running Linux, GNU and other *NIXen) in an effort to enable computers to "speak" in as many of the world’s languages as possible.
http://www.wougnet.org/ICTpolicy/ug/fosiug.html

- Senegal’s Garentic has launched the new version of its web site that provides articles on ICT written by Africans.
http://www.garentic.org/

- IDPM of Manchester is making available its handbooks for those working with SMEs and entrepreneurs themselves in french, spanish and arabic.
http://idpm.man.ac.uk/rsc/is/ictsme/index.shtml

- South African football team the Kaiser Chiefs have become the first team to open a cyber café for their supporters.

- Nigerian Guaranty Trust Bank’s website has, for a record three-times, been rated the overall best amongst all banks’ website in Nigeria. In the latest rating released last week by Phillips Consulting it won the Gold Award for overall effectiveness.

PEOPLE

* Hassan Versi of Tanzania’s Quality Computers died last week. He was only 30 but had started in the business at the age of 19 with Salama Office Automation. His success led to the establishment of several companies, including Computer Doctors, Heartbeat Online (raha.com) and most recently Quality Computers. As one who knew him put it: "His art of selling was comparable to none other. He didn’t build business relationships with customers but he was building lifelong relationships with people".

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