ForgetMeNot Africa

Featurephones now more profitable than mid-tier smartphones

FMNA — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:54:24 +0000

For many handset vendors, the world has turned upside down. Nokia’s $40 feature phones are vastly more profitable than Sony Ericsson’s $200 Android models.

Steady Decline
This is not how the smartphone revolution was supposed to turn out. The latest handset industry reports reveal a market still characterized by exceptional smartphone growth – and deep trouble for most vendors. Globally, smartphone volumes mushroomed by more than 50% YoY in 4Q11. Feature phone sales continued a gentle decline.

1 billion units
But in 2012, volumes are still likely to be close to the billion unit mark. Most vendors fled this billion unit market 1-3 years ago, leaving it essentially to Nokia and a cluster of Asian white label firms.
Nokia gets 13% operating margin on featurephones – which could buy it much-needed time in the smartphone market.

The “Mobile Web” as text and voice

FMNA — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:55:27 +0000

Revolution
The mobile web revolution has already spread around the world. The phase of it that we live in is where we see the internet hitting critical mass based on the availability of web connectivity on mobile devices. Data is widely available, and the costs continue to decrease at an alarming rate. We’re seeing the disruption this is causing already, from businesses to consumers, and within the political structures of entire countries.

Text as a platform
The internet allows for a paradigm that doesn’t care what device you have, whether PC or phone, as long as you have a database and a channel you’re in the game. As long as the device has some type of text or voice communication it is suddenly a read/write platform.

SMS internet
What we’re seeing in applications coming from Africa is a way to stretch the use-case of “old” messaging technology like SMS, USSD or voice into new ways of data transfer that challenge Western conceptions of what the internet is.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 23.9% in 2011

FMNA — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:12:37 +0000

23.9 percent

Nigeria’s unemployment rate increased to 23.9 percent in 2011 compared with 21.1 percent in 2010 and 19.7 percent in 2009, reveals the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The NBS report shows that the rate is higher in the rural areas (25.6 percent) than in the urban areas (17.1 percent).

Age Factor

The result of the survey shows that persons aged 0 to 14 years constituted 39.6 percent, those aged between 15 and 64 (the economically active population), constituted 56.3 percent, while those aged 65 years and above constituted 4.2 percent.

Before now, not a few economic watchers have queried the recorded Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth rates in Nigeria, which over time are contrary to the growing rate of unemployment.

Lack of Employment

“A person is regarded as employed if he/she is engaged in the production of goods and services, thereby contributing to the gross domestic product, in a legitimate manner, which is a component of the national accounts. The category of persons considered not-in-labour-force include those without work, who are not seeking for work and/or are not available for work as well as those below or above the working age,” the report states.

ForgetMeNot Africa Apps Challenge Kenya coming very soon

FMNA — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:50:31 +0000

ForgetMeNot Africa Apps Challenge is aiming to create sustainable employment through technology in Kenya.

Stay tuned to this developers news section in the coming weeks or follow us on Twitter or Facebook for more details.

Microsoft to bridge digital divide through African school partnership

FMNA — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:04:03 +0000

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it was partnering with the British Council in Africa to deliver their Africa Digital Schools Project aimed at assisting in “bridging the digital divide”, in six African countries.

Change

‘BADILIKO’ (the Swahili word for change) aims to bring new technology to African schools as part of a boosting of education experiences through Microsoft’s technology.

According to a statement, each company contributed $1-million as well as technical expertise to accelerate the implementation of this innovative project that seeks to embed ICT in learning.

86 Digital Hubs to 100,000 learners

The $2-million seed money from Microsoft and British Council will be spent on the establishment of eighty digital hubs across the six sub-Saharan countries. It is hoped that 100,000 learners will be provided with digital tools which they will utilize to boost academic work and social skills that benefit the wider community.

Mark Matunga, the Microsoft Regional Education Manager, East and Southern Africa, says that greater uptake of ICT in learning dovetails with the software giant’s vision of bridging the digital divide in Africa. “Educators should embrace technology to pass knowledge to students and boost their aptitude in relevant areas of study. We are encouraging more teachers to be trained in ICT skills.”

Kenya’s Safaricom Extends Gains as Mobile-Phone Users Rise

FMNA — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:27:28 +0000

Safaricom LTD (Kenya’s biggest mobile-phone operator) gained for a second day after the industry regulator announced it added more customers than competitors did.

Many new subscribers
During the quarter, Safaricom, which is 40 percent owned by Vodafone PLC, recorded the highest number of new customers at 593,177, followed by Airtel Networks Kenya Ltd.

25.3 million
Mobile subscribers in the east African nation increased 4.8 percent to 25.3 million in the quarter ended September, Kestrel said.
“Increased trading on Safaricom is expected as investors react to the regulator’s released statistics,” Nairobi-based Kestrel Capital East Africa Ltd. said in an e-mailed note to clients today

Nigeria climbs up in Facebook ranking

FMNA — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:00:43 +0000

The number of Nigerians that have signed up to Facebook,as a means of communication, has increased from 400,000 in the last four years crossing 4.3 million mark at the end of December, 2011.

4.3 million
Available report from the global 2011 Facebook usage report of the World Internet Status, Nigeria ranked third position in terms of the number of Facebook users in the African continent. Coming ahead of Nigeria according to the report, were Egypt and South Africa with 9.4 million and 4.8 million users respectively.

Unprecedented growth
According to the report, social media has continued to assume unprecendented growth, with Facebook leading the pack with 799 million subscribers at end of 2011, with the networking sites allowing people across the world to share photographs and videos and post regular updates of their movements and thoughts.

“ForgetMeNot Africa tech startup worth watching”

FMNA — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:48:28 +0000

ForgetMeNot Africa was shortlisted as an African tech start ups to watch in 2012 by Memeburn.com.

Almost 50% of Nigerians don’t have access to a telephone

FMNA — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:51:36 +0000

Approximately 46.7% of Nigerians don’t have access to any telephone services, even after the nation saw an increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers across various telecommunications networks in the last ten years.

This is according to a study done by Daily Trust, who also discovered that subscriber numbers have risen from 400 000 in 2001 to almost 100 million in 2011 – a figure that represents roughly 53.3% of the population. That leaves 73 million Nigerians (46.7%) without any means of technological communication.

“Indeed, as telecoms services have expanded in the last 10 years, so did the level of service uptake by Nigerians, especially where operators have been able to roll out service.

The remaining addressable market is in the rural areas and we urge the operators to expand services to these rural dwellers,” said Chairman of the Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo.

“The remaining 73 million represents a huge market opportunity to be tapped into by the telecoms companies by channelling their infrastructure investment to the rural areas where basic telephony/voice service still remains a yearning demand by the rural dwellers,” The Daily Trust wrote.

Orange Money attracts 3-million customers

FMNA — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:22:04 +0000

Orange Money, the mobile payment service from telecommunications company Orange, has reached the threshold of 3-million customers in the eight countries where it is now offered, thus becoming one of the most powerful electronic money services in Africa.

Tripled its customer base
Orange Money has tripled its customer base in the past year and continues to grow with the recent launch of services in two new countries: in Botswana in partnership with the Standard Chartered Bank, and in Cameroon in partnership with the BICEC (BPCE group).

In countries where it is available, mobile phone customers may open an Orange Money account whether or not they have a bank account. Orange Money allows customers to carry out simple banking operations and transactions in total security.

25 million transfers every year
According to the World Bank, countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia (AMEA) in which the Group operates receive more than 25 million transfers every year.