EASSY LANDING

Finally, the third submarine cable to call at the Port of Mombasa, is here albeit 4 years late. Those in the know will remember this was the first cable that was meant to connect the Eastern Africa seaboard but boardroom wrangles and ulterior moves by South Africans who wanted to control the cable set it back.

In fact, Kenya's own cable TEAMS was conceived when during a meeting of countries in SA to discuss the cable, Information PS Bitange Ndemo stood up and issued an ultimatum from the Kenyan government.

"If the next meeting does not resolve when we start laying this cable, Kenya will go on its own," the then new PS told a stunned but disbelieving audience. The rest as they say is history.

This weekend, the East frica Submarine System (EASSY) a project spearheaded by the Western Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) will land in Mombasa.

The WIOCC guys have promised that internet costs will drastically come down. But more interestingly, is the cost of calling between African countries which is still higher than the rates at which we call the UK and US.

EASSY has a unique model that brings together African landline operators who will serve as the cable's backhaul and provide redundancy.

Basically by ensuring these African operators are all interconnected, it will cut off Europe as an exchange point for phone calls originating from Africa and destined for other African countries.

Currently to call another African country for example requires routing of traffic to Europe and then back to Africa.

EASSY will now join TEAMS (Kenyan owned) and SEACOM (Aga Khan Fund, Cyril Ramaphosa and American investors) and will provide diversity.

WIOCC CEO Chris Wood and GM James Wekesa have said this is the first fully connected cable because it goes straight to Europe whereas TEAMS connects to Fujairah in Dubai for onward connectivity and SEACOM connects through Mumbai from where it can connect to I-ME-WE (India Middle East and Western Europ) cable.

THe other unique feature of this cable is that it will allow for monthly contracts and sell bandwidth at lower quantities than the other two.

It will be interesting to see how Kenyan telecoms who have stubbornly refused to bring down bandwidth costs (some say its because they had entered into expensive Satellite Bandwidth contracts which they want to first pay off) will react.

Wananchi Group which has spoken of doing 1000KM of terrestrial fiber optic cable looks to be the wildcard here. For, although the Ministry of Information has threatened to crack down on price collusion amongst operators, it is only the market per se which can bring prices down. Wananchi can for example decide it doesnt have the number of clients Safaricom or Orange have and opt to slash prices precipitously to gain clientele.

If this happens, others are bound to follow.

Countries covered by EASSY:

• Botswana
• Burundi
• Ethiopia
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Rwanda
• Swaziland
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

KENYANS ARE CHATTERS AREN'T THEY?

Kenyans are a chattering lot. On the web that is. Data from a research commissioned from Telposta towers (that is where the Kenya ICT Board and the Ministry of Information) shows that majority of Kenyans go online to gab.

It is not alas, and to the chagrin of marketers to check out products to shop online for.

89 per cent of respondents surveyed said they mostly go online to chat while another huge chunk said it was mostly to Facebook. Most would like to surf on their mobile phone but are restricted by small screens and pages that are not formatted for the mobile web.

Kenya ICT Board (CEO Paul Kukubo pictured) commissioned TNS International to research internet usage by Kenyans within the borders with a view to creating a useful baseline report that firms and marketers can use to position themselves more appropriately on the net.

In a nutshell, companies need to know a couple of things about the potential Kenyan internet customer.

ONE: Facebook is the most popular destination for Kenyans with 90 per cent dropping in on the popular social networking site.

Hi5 (38%), Twitter (37%), LinkedIn (30%) and Youtube (30%) follow in that order. Tagged (23%) is it even used here?, Yahoo360 (20%), MySpace (20%) and others trail.

SECOND: While most Kenyans do not buy online (mostly because of the cost of delivery and the lpoor of credit card penetration), they do research products online. Apparently, while 78 per cent of users have researched a product online such as a mobile phone, only 51 per cent subsequently went to buy it and this they did directly from a shop and not an online store.

However, 88 per cent said they would be willing to pay for such goods using mobile money services like M-PESA and ZAP.

And they don't like what they are seeing of Kenyan websites - too little information is available and the most important, cost, as Kenyans are price conscious, is usually lacking.

ADVICE TO FIRMS: Have an internet presence, make sure your site shows up quite high on the search engine results and have the information people need.

THIRD: and confirming a suspicion I've long held that Kenyan college students do too much copy pasting from the net, the TNS report shows that knowledge led surfing rules the Kenyan networld.

Wikipedia ( I admit I use it often) ranks high on usage and again this confirms a feeling I've had that there is too little unique Kenyan information being generated by Kenyans. While researches and oral literature reviews of Western writing abounds on the net, you'd be hard pressed to find any meaningful takes on Kenyan books online.

FOURTH: Kenyans prefer to do their surfing on their mobile phones than in cybercafes ( I think I should do a cost comparison for this) .

FIFTH: 92 per cent have seen online ads and 45 per cent admitted to being influenced by them. However, 44 per cent said they trusted product reviews made by people who used the same product.

Some companies are doing something about their net presence.

Nation Media Group whose website is among the top visited Kenyan sites has an active Facebook group which draws on average 30 comments per each posted story. No word yet on how to monetize on FB but clearly it does no harm for DN's brand endurance.

"Internet is dominated by knowledge seeking behavior," Melissa Baker (pictured) who ran the research said when she presented the findings at Hotel Intercontinental.

Interest clearly was high. I came across some guys from Barclay's, Segeni Ng'ethe the guy who started Mama Mikes Online and now has a venture called Hapa TV was also present along with marketers from different firms.

Segeni would have been glad to learn that 66 per cent of Kenyan internet users link with their families outside Kenya. Those who may remember Segeni made his bones right after he left Georgetown University and started Mama Mikes a service that used to link with Nakumatt and Uchumi to get guys in the US to purchase Supermarket vouchers for their families back home.

Mama Mikes would deliver the vouchers to the address given by the sender.

But for guys selling products on the internet, there is still a ways to go.

HP ROLLS OUT THE GADGETRY

The song may be getting old - yet another IT giant making a courtesy call in Nairobi - a city many believe is on its way to becoming a financial and IT hub for the region.

But Hewlett Packard the world's largest computer maker (remember they swallowed Compaq when Iron Lady Carly Fiorina ran the firm ) broke out some serious hardware when it launched its global roadshow dubbed Printonomics 2010 at the Safaripark Hotel this week. BTW this is the first time the roadshow is starting in Africa.

But before we get to the products you have to hear these guys talk about how gazillions of printouts are done across the world and why they see business only getting better.

By the end of this decade, a guys called Hassan who heads HP Africa explained animatedly, we will be printing 16 billion books a year, 3billion cards, 1 billion newspapers and 1.5 trillion packaging materials.



Hugging the entire wall of one of the presentation rooms was this massive grand piano looking HP Printer that apparently can even print on tiles. Presentations went on for too long we didnt get a chance to get a load of what it could do but from the looks of it, its industrial grade nothome or business.

I can see it being used for these big billboards that meet you at every major intersection in
Nairobi.

Closer to consumers pockets was this rolling-pin sized mobile document scanner that can even do business cards - so I guess at company events instead of the bowl PR guys give us to drop in our business cards they can scan your card and return it to you and save the data electronically.

That baby comes to Kenya in May with a ex-factory price of 249 euros (Sh25,000).

For engineers and architects comes a non-networked printer that can take even A3 paper in its printer like tray and scan immediately and even in colour to your computer. It is the fastest scanner in the HP stable and has 5000 page duty cycle per day.

Another standout was this scanner that sports a keyboard along with a colour touchscreen menu for you to configure your scanning desires. It is also a sheet-fit model apparently people are moving away from the flat bed scanner that you open place a document on and close to scan.

Sheet-fit scanners can take a shuffle of documents and scan them one at a time to your computer or to email.

After scanning, the HP guy said, you can quickly send it as email using the fitted in keyboard.

Quite a few HP customers attended the extravaganza at Safari Park Hotel and were duly taken on a tour to see the range of products.

One thing however that came out of the show is a decisive entry by HP into the solutions business sort of like a utility company.

Instead of buying HP printers, the company is using a rent model where it comes in and assesses your printing and imaging needs, how much you spend on printing and possible wastage areas.

It then proposes a solution, the appropriate number of printers and brings in the equipment itself. You pay a monthly fee and buy your paper but all other things are handled by HP. It also allows you to issue your staff with PIN numbers to use for printing so that the habit of double clicking on the print button that leads to mountain of printouts left beside the printers is reduced.

And it can give you printing reports to see how staff are printing.

Strathmore is apparently on the system for its 2000 students and 300 staff. HP has put in six printers against the recommended 12 and is charging a minimum of Sh200,000 per month for the Managed Service.

I'm hoping HP will me the pics and spec sheets of all the new lines of products any time soon. Nairobitech will also pay a site visit to Strathmore University to see how this is being implemented.

SAMSUNG TAKES ON

Samsung is bursting at the seams to talk about Samsung IT. You see, in this region they have existed as a consumer electronics and mobile handsets vendors. But, to hear them speak, they are actually a big IT company involved in making of PCS, laptops and now printers which they are seeking to market in Kenya.

They have this laptop which even has fingerprint recognition as the password before it starts up.

Apparently they've given one to Michael Joseph of Safaricom to try it out no doubt hoping he likes what he sees and orders a few for his people or for his retail stores.

For its printers, I was skeptical. Epson and HP are all I've known and experienced in the field of printing.

But no, the Samsung guys said, actually most HP printers carry Samsung engines inside. Samsung and Canon ostensibly, make 80 per cent of the engines that run on printers worldwide and also most of the components that you see on comps such as laptop screens come from Samsung.

AITEC MOBILE MONEY AND BANKING COMESA CONFERENCE PROGRAM

AITEC have put out the programme for the conference which kicks off tomorrow.

Programme
AITEC Banking &
Mobile Money COMESA
.......................................

Day 1: Wednesday 24 February 2010
BUSINESS STRATEGY BRIEFINGS
7.30am - Theatre 1 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Breakfast Briefing for Bankers on Mobile Banking (Guests by invitation)
Guest of Honour
Hon Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Finance, Kenya
Speaker
Claire Alexandre, Senior Program Officer, Financial Services for
the Poor, Gates Foundation, USA
MC
Patrick Mweheire, CEO, Renaissance Capital, Kenya
9am
SESSION 1: Theatre 2
CONFERENCE OPENING
2.30pm
MOBILE MONEY TRACK
SESSION 3: Theatre 2
MOBILE BANKING - NEW TECHNOLOGY AND REGULATORY FRONTIERS AND CHALLENGES FOR BANKS AND MOBILE OPERATORS
MODERATOR: Santanu Sengupta, Secretary, Change Innovators Society, India
SHOWCASE PRESENTATION Mobile payments vs Mobile banking: Where are the Banks? Paul Nilsen, Regional Sales Executive, Business Connexion, Tanzania PLENARY SESSION PLENARY SESSION BREAKFAST BRIEFING
A bank-centric model for mobile banking
Opening Address
MODERATOR: Sean Moroney, Chairman, AITEC Africa
Welcome Addresses
Martin Oduor-Otieno, Chairman, Kenya Bankers Association Bernard Matthewman, CEO, Paynet Group
Mr Nagababu, Delivery Manager, Manam Infotech, India
Bankers respond based on practical experience
• James Wainaina, Director, Personal Banking, NIC Bank • Joseph Arinaitwe, Head eBanking, United Bank of Africa2.30 -4.00PM, PARALLEL SESSIONS (UBA), Uganda
Hon Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Finance, Kenya
10am Refreshment Break & Group Photo
10.30am
SESSION 2: Theatre 2
KEYNOTES TO SET THE AGENDA
MODERATOR: Jonathan Campaigne, Executive Director, Pride
Africa, Kenya
The benefits of electronic payments in driving economic
development
Charles Niehaus, GM, Visa Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa
YOUNG INNOVATOR’S 10-MINUTE SPOTLIGHT Electronic micropayments in Third World countries Agosta Liko, Founder, PesaPal, Kenya RISK MANAGEMENT TRACK
2.30pm
SESSION 4: Theatre 3
COMPLIANCE & RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE
POST-MELTDOWN WORLD
MODERATOR Session 4: Sophia Bekele, Executive Director,
DotConnect Africa, Ethiopia
Why data security is crucial for all C- Level executives
Wayne Donnelly, Channel Development Manager, Networks
Unlimited, South Africa
Biometric technology and identity management as integrated risk tools in the banking sector
Louis Siebrits, Head of African Sales & Marketing, Ideco Group, South Africa
Sanctions and PEPs Filtering, why bother?
John Nash, Global Alliance Manager, Sword FircoSoft, UK
Shh, the market is talking. Listen and act!
Bernard Matthewman, CEO, Paynet Group, Kenya
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission: A mandate for financial security
Bala Sanga, Principal Staff Officer to the Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria
SHOWCASE PRESENTATION Consumer interaction and response to the evolution of the financial services sector Tim Smyth, MD, MillwardBrown, Kenya Steps to improving network security: PNT/VAS and network audits in securing your network
Steve Chege, CIO, Seven Seas Technologies, Kenya
SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT TRACK
2.30pm
SESSION 5: Theatre 4
INTERBANK PAYMENT REFORMS
– NEW TRANSACTION & SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS – Part 1 MODERATOR: Andrea Bonstedt, Publisher, Ratio Magazine, Kenya
Modernisation of payment systems in Kenya
Stephen Mwaura, Head, National Payments System, Central
1.15pm Lunch Bank of Kenya
2
Network lLearn lDo Business PLENARY SESSIONS
How innovation can drive growth and create differentiation
Rudolf Smit, Channel Manager for Africa, S1, South Africa
Addressing strategic reforms in the interbank payments cycle Marius Krige, Aperta, South Africa
MICROFINANCE TRACK
2.30PM
SESSION 6: Theatre 4
MICROFINANCE INNOVATION AND NEW FRONTIERS – Part 1
MODERATOR: David Cracknell, Africa Director, Microsave, Kenya
Change happens. Are you ready for it? An overview of the innovations in the microfinance marketplace and guidelines for adoption
Laura Frederick, President, echange, Uganda
Linking microfinance and MMT
Cameron Goldie-Scot, Africa Implementation Team Manager, Musoni, Kenya
Microfinance and branchless banking: How and if MFIs should engage
Lauren Braniff, Microfinance Analyst, CGAP, USA & Carol Caruso, Head, MD, Triple Jump Advisory Services, France
Accessibility vs. affordability in mobile payment models
Benjamin Lyon, Founder & Executive Director, FrontlineSMS:Credit, USA
4pm
SESSION 7
MOBILE BANKING BUSINESS STRATEGIES
MODERATOR: Muriuki Mureithi, CEO, Summit Strategies, Kenya
Report-back on the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, focusing on how to build strong agent networks for mobile money
Seema Desai, Mobile Money for the Unbanked, GSM Association, UK
The growth of mobile money transfer services: The case of M-PESA in Kenya
Pauline Vaughan, Head of M-Pesa, Safaricom, Kenya
Understanding what works and does not work in mobile payments
Richard Ketley, Director and Head of Banking Strategy and Access to Financial Services Practices, Genesis Analytics, South Africa
Product innovation and access to finance
Dr Keith Jefferis, Economic Advisor, USAID Southern African Trade Hub, Botswana, Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of Botswana
SESSION 8
PANEL DISCUSSION: ARE COMESA’S FINANCIAL INSITITUTIONS WINNING THE WAR AGAINST CARD FRAUD?
MODERATOR: Catherine Mogambi, Chair, Kenya Credit & Debit Card Association
• Director, Banking Fraud Investigations, Central Bank of Kenya • Graham Gilmour, MD, The Business Phone, UK • Reshma Sookran, Fraud Control Executive, Payment System Risk, Visa CEMEA - Sub Saharan Africa, South Africa SESSION 9
INTERBANK PAYMENT REFORMS
– NEW TRANSACTION & SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS – Part 2 MODERATOR Session 9: Barry Ryan, MD, Fintech, Kenya
The future of cheques in the modern world of electronic payments
Rob Muller, Commercial Director, Finteq, South Africa
Operational and technical perspectives on cheque truncation systems
Sekar Ponniah, MD, Global Software Solutions
Fraud detection technologies in a cheque truncation environment
Anand Natarajan, Director & CTO, Image InfoSystems, India
SWIFT and security markets
Vasu Prakasam, MD, Kenya Commerce Exchange Service Bureau (KENEX)
SESSION 10
THE NEW FINANCIAL SERVICES ECOSYSTEM
– CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATION IN CARDS, CHEQUES & MOBILE MODERATOR: Stephen Roberts, Executive Director Neptune Software
Multi-channel payment systems
Barry Coetzee, CEO, iVeri, South Africa
Smart card challenges and smart ways to address them
Hoda Shoukry, MD Mediterranean Smart Cards Company, Egypt
YOUNG INNOVATOR’S 10-MINUTE SPOTLIGHT Online Payment systems in Kenya: Jambopay Danson Muchemi, CEO, Web Tribe, Kenya The ultimate in payment security: End-to-end encryption and VeriShield Protect
David Poole, VP Sales, Middle East and Africa, VeriFone, UK
Beyond simple payments: Leveraging managed services and infrastructure for value-adding partnerships
Raoul du Plessis, CTO, Transaction Payment Solutions, UK
6pm
Networking Cocktail Reception
Sponsored by Kenya Data Networks
3
DAY 2: Thursday 25 February 2010
TECHNOLOGY BRIEFINGS
9.00AM - 10.30AM, PARALLEL SESSIONS PLENARYSESSION
8am -Theatre 4 THINKING OUT OF THE BOX FOR BANKERS
Julius Kipng’etich, Director, Kenya Wildlife Service
9am
• Joseph Tiampati, Head of Retail Credit, Kenya Commercial Bank Fidelis Muia, ICT Consultant, Kenya Bankers Association • Jared Getenga, Project Manager, Kenya Credit Information Sharing Initiative, Kenya Bankers Association Credit bureau establishment
SESSION 11: Theatre 2
MOBILE BANKING IN THE REAL WORLD – Part 1
MODERATOR: Benjamin Lyon, Founder & Executive Director,
SMSFrontine:Credit, USA
Mobile payments and micropayments
David Svarrer, MD, Digital Age Institute, Kenya
Mobile money and banking: The pivot for financial inclusion
Santanu Sengupta, Secretary, Change Innovators Society, India
YOUNG INNOVATOR’S 10-MINUTE SPOTLIGHT M-Commerce solutions for carrying out real time mobile money transaction processing Philip Nyamwaya, Business Development - Enterprise Applications, Intrepid Data Systems, Kenya How Family Bank is leveraging M-PESA and mobile banking into its business
Kariuki Kevin Kihara, Relationship Manager, Family Bank
9am
SESSION 12: Theatre 3
NEW CHANNELS – BRANCHLESS, AGENT & POST-OFFICE BANKING
MODERATOR: Benjamin Nkungi, CEO, Association of Microfinance Institutions, Kenya
Overview of proposed supervisory and regulatory framework for agent banking in Kenya
Matu Mugo, Assistant Director, Bank Supervision, Central Bank
of Kenya
Mrs Nyambura Koigi, MD, PostBank, Kenya
11.00AM - 12.30AM, PARALLEL SESSIONS 9.00AM - 10.30AM, PARALLEL SESSIONS
Antony Ragui, Secretary, East African Credit Bureau Associa
tion, & GM, Compuscan, Kenya
9am
SESSION 14: Theatre 2
SMART BANKING SOLUTIONS – Part 1
MODERATOR Session 20: David Svarrer, CEO, Digital Age Institute
Business process management solutions
Jeff Thuo, Business Manager, Coseke Kenya
Operational excellence and customer service from a banking platform perspective
Martin Heraghty, Sales Director, SunGuard Ambit, UK (in association with Technology Associates
Business Intelligence in banking
Dennis Karanja, Regional Director, Sybase East Africa
Implementing a universal e-Banking strategy – One installation, many banks
Polys Hadjikyriakos, Sales Direcfor, NETinfo, Cyprus
10.30am Refreshment Break
11am
SESSION 15: Theatre 2
MOBILE BANKING IN THE REAL WORLD – Part 2
MODERATOR: Jonathan Petrides, Head of Operations, Mobile Ventures, Kenya
Liquidity management for a mobile banking agent
Frederik Eijkman, MD, PEP Intermedius, Kenya
Mobilizing commerce for SMMEs
Shaun Campbell, Business Manager for Africa, Sybase, UK
The role of m-Banking in enhancing transaction process
ing among SMEs in Kenya
Memba Florence, Lecturer, Jomo Kenyatta University of Science & Technology
11am
SESSION 16: Theatre 1
MICROFINANCE INNOVATION AND NEW FRONTIERS
– Part 2 MODERATOR: David Ferrand, Director, FSD Kenya
Of communities and financial intermediation: Why the
community banking model is better than the agency
banking model for Africa
Davis Kambale Tayo, Branch Supervisor, Bank of Africa, Kenya
Branches all around: Agent banking
Kamal Budhabhatti, MD, Craft Silicon
9am
SESSION 13: Theatre 1
CREDIT BUREAUS: USHERING IN A NEW ERA
OF RISK MANAGEMENT
MODERATOR: James Kashangaki, Head, GrowthFin Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSD Kenya)
PANEL DISCUSSION ON NEW CREDIT BUREAU REGULATIONS
Panel Members:
• James Manyonge, Manager Legal Affairs, Bank Supervision Department, Central Bank of Kenya Measuring the return on investment in technology for microfinance
Craig Chelius, Global Consortium Manager, Technology for Microfinance Group, Grameen Foundation, USA
Electronic delivery systems for social cash transfers: Lessons learned and opportunities for Africa
Dr Katharine Vincent, Social Protection Consultant, Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme, South Africa
4
Network lLearn lDo Business Microfinance: The new frontier of mobile banking
Kahenya Kamunyu, CEO, Virn Instruments, Kenya
11am
SESSION 17: Theatre 4
DISASTER RECOVERY & BUSINESS CONTINUITY
MODERATOR: Tim McGinnis, Communications Consultant, Kenya
10 years on from the US Embassy Bomb Blast: A case study on Co-operative Bank’s recovery strategy
Sam Mutungi, CIO, Co-operative Bank
Capacity building in the context of emergency preparedness for Business Continuity (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)
Syed Zain Khan, President & Managing Consultant, Alliances Consulting Group, Canada
SESSION 18:
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS FOR BANKS
MODERATOR Jorge Perez Luna, IT Director,
2.20pm
SESSION 20: Theatre 4
SECURITY FOR AFRICA’S MOBILE BANKING ERA
MODERATOR Steve Schaefer, World Council of Credit Unions, USA
The widespread and rapid adoption of mobile commerce calls for an urgent need for a robust risk management framework
Duncan Oduor, CEO, MobiKash Afrika, Kenya
Appropriate regulatory frameworks for the e-money economy - How ready are COMESA member-states?
Michael Murungi, ICT Lawyer, Kenya
2.30pm
SESSION 21: Theatre 1
OUTSOURCING, SHARED INFRASTRUCTURE AND HOSTED SERVICES MODELS
MODERATOR: Syed Zain Khan, President & Contact centre Consultant, Alliances Consulting Group, Canada
How to grow your ATM footprint: The right hardware, the
right sites and the right partners
Marc Sternberg, MD, Spark ATM Systems, South Africa
Does the changing economic environment present
different opportunities?
Ron Webb, Group Technology Director, Paynet, Kenya
Outsourcing in the banking industry
Eric Nesbitt, Director, KenCall EPZ, Kenya
Technology & skills outsourcing in driving business agility
and competitiveness
Mike Macharia, CEO, Seven Seas Technologies, Kenya
2.30pm
SESSION 22: Theatre 1
SMART BANKING SOLUTIONS – 2
MODERATOR: David Stewart, BPO Consultant, Kenya
Moving to SOA: Supporting new trends in the banking industry
Adam Nyaga, GM Business Applications, Seven Seas Technologies, Kenya
Going beyond payment with integrated services
Roger Mechri, Head of Business Development Services & Rachid Oulad Akdim, EEMEA-Africa Director, Ingenico-Tracom, France
Integrating contact centres with business processes
Solomon Thuo, Technology Business Consultant, Seven Seas
Technologies, Kenya
2.30pm
SESSION 23: Theatre 3
“SOFT” BANKING SOLUTIONS
MODERATOR: Caroline Juma, MD, Kenya Computer Resources
PLENARY SESSION 11.00AM - 12.30AM, PARALLEL SESSIONS
2.30PM - 4.30PM, PARALLEL SESSIONS
Global Development Programme, Gates Foundation
The use of satcoms for the retail banking sector
Issa Odtallah, Regional Manager, Inmarsat, United Arab Emir
ates
.
Secure network in a rapidly changing environment
Kai Wulff, MD, Kenya Data Networks
Effective communications: How intranets can help banks
cut costs, go green and increase ROI
Martin Njuguna, Business Development Manager, Digital Vision,
Kenya
Effective communications systems as a key enabler for
banks in Africa
Chuks Ofor, GM, Gateway Communications, Kenya
12.30pm
SESSION 19:
CIO PANEL DISCUSSION: HOW CAN WE MAKE OUR BOARDS SEE MORE VALUE IN INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGY?
MODERATOR: Joseph Wariungi, MD, Advantech Consulting, Kenya
• Peter Gachau, GM ICT, Equity Bank • Dr Tony Githuku, Divisional Director Operations & Technology, Kenya Commercial Bank • Kasasine Ole Pertet, Chief Information Officer, K-Rep Bank SHOWCASE PRESENTATION Empowering Africa’s new mobile merchants Graham Gilmour, CEO, the Business Phone, UK 2.00pm Lunch Communicating bank marketing messages both through mobile and broadcasting
Salim Amin, Chairman & Asif Sheikh, CEO, A24 Media, Kenya
5
Programme Advisory Board Sean Moroney, Chairman, AITEC Africa & Programme Director Kamal Budhabhatti, Founder & CEO, Craft Silicon, Kenya Catherine Mogambi, Chair, Credit & Debit Card Association of Kenya Waceke Mbugua, Marketing Manager, M-PESA Jonathan Campaign, CEO, Pride Africa, Kenya Barry Coetzee, CEO, iVeri, South Africa David Cracknell, Africa Director, Microsave, Kenya David Ferrand, Director, FSD Kenya Tom Juma, COO, Old Mutual, Kenya Bernard Matthewman, CEO, Paynet, Kenya Jackson Machuhi, GM, East Africa, DELISYS Delivery Systems, Kenya Benjamin Nkungi, CEO, Association of Microfinance Institutions, Kenya Emmanuel Okoegwale, Founder & CEO, Mobile Money Africa, Nigeria Stephen Roberts, Executive Director, Neptune Software Barry Ryan, CEO, Fintech, Kenya Pauline Vaughan, Head of M-Pesa, Safaricom, Kenya George Wainaina, GM, Kenswitch John K. Wanyela, Executive Director, Kenya Bankers Association 6SHOWCASE PRESENTATION Power protection solutions for the banking industry Arlene Nazereth, Territory Account Manager East Africa, APC by Schneider Electric, Kenya This presentation will benefit all IT decision-makers in Corporate organizations, especially if you have concerns about Inefficiency due to over-sizing your datacentre/ server room, down time due to long lead times for maintenance, need to better optimize white space, unpredictability for future growth, or having to wait for scheduled downtime in order to add or change capacity. The presentation will include an overview of APC solutions for desktop, server room and datacentre. Also featuring case studies for: Imperial Bank (Kenya) and First Rand Bank (South Africa)PLENARY SESSION PARALLELSESSIONS Creating a .africa domain for regional economic integration
Sophia Bekele, Executive Director, DotConnectAfrica, Ethiopia
Discover how the banking sector banks on HR technology
Balaji Ganesh, CEO, Adrenalin eSystems, India
4.30pm
CLOSING PLENARY
MODERATOR: Sean Moroney, Chairman, AITEC Africa
Kenya’s 2030 Vision, with special reference to the Financial Services Section of the Athii River Technology Business Park
Dr Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information & Communications
SUMMING UP
SETTING A LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION AGENDA
Stephen Mwaura, Head, National Payments System, Central Bank of Kenya & Benjamin Lyon, Founder & Executive Director, FrontlineSMS:Credit, USA
Network lLearn lDo Business

TECHNOLOGY IN NAIROBI THIS WEEK

Quite a few technology related events will be taking place in Nairobi this week.

Tuesday, 23rd February, 2009: ORACLE/DELOITTE BREAKFAST MEETING

The database maker and vendor, Oracle will together with audit firm/consultants Deloitte hold a breakfast meeting at the Serena tomorrow. 7AM.

The presentation will revolve around the ORACLE SECURITY STACK that includes:
· DATA BASE VAULT
· AUDIT VAULT
· IDENTITY MANAGEMENT ACCESS SUIT

The main presenter will be AVINASH RAMTOHUL from Oracle Mauritius.

Publicity for the event and the presenters is being done by Owens Muhiu of IMG Events and PR: omuhiu@imgkenya.com

Wednesday, 24th February, 2009: AITEC Banking & Mobile Money COMESA Conference

AITEC is facilitating this event at KICC for two days starting Wednesday.

In attendance will be bankers from the COMESA region. Nairobitech spoke to James Mwangi, AITEC CEO who said, "We want to chart a way forward in terms of innovations. What innovations are friendly to the customer in terms of cost, availability etc.."

The Opening Speech will be delivered by the Minister of Finance, Honourable Uhuru Kenyatta.
Preceding the opening ceremony will be a breakfast briefing hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for CEOs of financial institutions from within the region.
· Date: 24th February 2010
· Time: 7:00a.m.
· Venue: Tsavo Room (Theatre 1)
Uhuru Kenyatta will be Guest of honour at the breakfast. Other key guests and speakers at the opening ceremony include:
1. Clair Alexandre, Senior Program Officer, Financial Services for the Poor, Gates Foundation,
2. Bernard Matthewman, CEO, Paynet Group

3. Martin-Otieno Oduor, KCB CEO, in his capacity as Chairman of the Kenya Bankers Association.

Friday, 26 February, 2009: eMobilis Technology and Training academy STUDENTS PROJECTS PRESENTATION DAY.

The academy which trains developers for the mobile platform has already graduated its first batch of students. Students will be showcasing their projects at the academy's 3rd floor, Kipro Center premises on Sports Road opp Parkland's Baptist Church.

NairobiTech will try and bring you the digest from these events.

HOW NOT TO DO A BIG TIME CONVENTION!

The tragedy of big meetings is that they focus on big things as talking points and too often the very small but important innovations or ideas get ignored.

Take my advice, if you ever attend the Mobile World Congress or any other major industry or international get together, narrow down your purpose to one or two things that you want to learn more about and home in on those for the rest of your time there.

Running around the 8 humongous halls that housed all the major brand names in the world of Mobile Technology and Computing as well as hundreds of others you´ve never heard of, I realized you cannot take in the whole enchilada so to speak as far as things conventions are concerned not even when you are running a team of 10 battle hardened scribes with years of doing this behind them.

I started with wanting to attend all the major announcements headlined by the likes of Microsoft, Vodafone, the GSMA, Research In Motion et cetera et cetera while at the same time hoping to visit the stands of all the mobile payments innovators as well as the stands of all the country galleries where nations were showcasing some of the industries they´ve incubated in their own little Silicon Valleys and hoping to attract more innovators and venture capitalists while at it and so on and so forth.

BY the end of it, I realized I had achieved very little. I had seen a lot without forming any major themes that I could tell others about, only disjointed bits of this and that and half-beginnings of that idea etc.

Now that the event is over, I realize I did not get around to one of the most important topics that is going to become relevant for media in days to come - Mobile Advertising!

While there were many showcasings of mobile advertising solutions, the advertising companies are yet to migrate their dollars from the traditional media to mobile even as the latter is hyped as the current and future big thing.

I have some write ups from PR guys but given anotha opportunity, I would have dissected the convention with the sober precision of a surgeon not the brute passion of a butcher....