Africa Lately: On KongaPay, M-KOPA And Value4Naira.com

E-commerce is one thing that is spreading across Nigeria and Africa as a whole, and companies and businesses are taking advantage of it. Recently Konga launched its payment service, KongaPay which has actually existed for some time now. We could call it a 'relaunch' if we want, but it has been on the Konga platform since August last year. But now is adding new features and extending KongaPay as a payment method to consumers outside the Konga.com platform.

Konga which is founded by Harvard MBA holder, Sim Shagaya, just last month launched KongaPay which is considered Konga's PayPal to Ebay.
KongaPay's "Me-Commerce" option will allow any business in Nigeria to create their own QR payment code from a mobile phone image. Social networks like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp will now have a new payment option in Africa, which is the KongaPay. Awesome right?

This move is in line with Shagaya's vision to create a 21st century operating system that will better connect buyers and sellers across Africa. Way to go! Ah! KONGA!

Now, M-KOPA Solar is a power startup that is lighting homes of low income across East Africa via mobile money leasing.
M-KOPA is presently in 330,000 homes in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and just recently, Ghana and plans to enter new African countries in the near future.

The company was co-founded by Jesse Moore, Nick Hughes at Vodafone, and Chad Larson.
The M-KOPA baseline box-kit comes stocked with a solar panel, lights, radio, multi-device charger and a pay-as-you-go SIM card.

The company, which launched in 2012, has Safaricom and M-Pesa as its finance partners in Kenya and Tanzania while customers in Uganda make payments via MTN Money or Airtel Money.

Coming to Nigeria, M-KOPA's Jesse Moore noted that there is "huge potential" but said that due to kerosene subsidies and the "not-so-patronized" mobile money scenario, the model is restricted for now.
M-KOPA is looking to better its services with new financing options and powerful solar charging capacity as well as additional product packages like its flat screen TV which it first offered in February. Good thinking.

Back to Nigeria, Value4Naira.com is Nigeria's latest online supermarket which is assuring Nigerians of the best prices and services. It intends to cater to the needs of busy Nigerians in terms of grocery shopping and purchase of household items.
"We want to ensure that Nigerians enjoy beautiful shopping experience while enjoying a premium customer service at the cheapest prices," says Umeike Ernest, Chief Operations Officer.

According to Ernest, the company has a team of experienced persons with over 15 years experience in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market segment, banking and e-commerce.

"This gives us a good understanding of customer needs in terms of price sensitivity, robust supply chain and dynamic customer care. We have chosen the supermarket part of e-commerce because we know that we can assure customers of the best prices, widest range of options and effective supply system to make this a wonderful shopping experience" says Ernest.

Concerning making its quality of service, it announced that it has secured a number of partnerships.
"We have gone into partnerships to ensure that our customers are assured of cheapest prices in e-commerce in Nigeria. The partnerships grow by the day and can only serve to reinforce the quality and variety of products and prices customers pay."

It's looking at being the fastest in terms of delivery with a same day delivery option for orders made before 11am within Lagos, and the next day for orders made after 11am. Pretty cool!

Low prices! Good quality! Quick delivery! Works for me.

Bae: A Dating App For Black Singles

How do you feel about online dating services or mobile dating apps? I don't think I'm exactly cool with the idea of looking for a relationship or love online or on a mobile device (Except you dey find another tin).
I mean don't get me wrong, but I just feel for a relationship to begin or even be given a chance, one should get to see and observe such a person quite closely, rather than just trying to meet someone for the first time, you met on your mobile. Hey! I'm just saying. I guess that makes me old fashioned. Haha!

Anyways, there's a new online mobile dating app, not so new per say, but it's targeted at Black folks. It's called 'Bae'. You know the popular acronym right? "Before Anyone Else". Yep! It is what it is.
Bae is a mobile dating app created by Jordan Kunzika, Brian Gerrard and Justin Gerrard. All black youngsters, who hope to make online dating better for Blacks. 

The app was launched in April of 2015 and has reached well over 150,000 downloads on the App Store. Incredible! Now here's the strategy that Bae's founders employed, in building their user base to up to 17000 downloads within the first few weeks of the  launch. They hosted an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) tour which consisted of parties and mixers where people who matched on Bae could meet in person. All attendees had to have Bae downloaded to participate. Awesome strategy if you ask me. First, the platform is targeted at Blacks all over the world. Then the app went on a University tour. That's New. Best strategy to get users, young and willing and searching. 

But more than just a strategy for a high user base, is the fact that the app is solving dating issues faced by Blacks in the United States and other countries. In the US, Black online users face apparent bias, as Black men and women are sometimes penalized when users rated their matches on dating apps. So this solves that issue. 

Kunzika, CTO of Bae and senior at Dartmouth College, a Google Generation Scholar who has internships with Microsoft and Intel, turned down Microsoft and Google to build the Bae app. Now that's epic! I mean come on it's Google and Microsoft we're talking about here. Who would pass up such an opportunity? Jordan Kunzika, That's Who. I must say this Angolan-American's got 'guts'. Or is it Vision? I say 'Both'. Often being the only Black person in his computer science classes, he says "I quickly realized that it was up to me to either let this negatively affect me, or let it motivate me to be successful, so that people who come after me will have role models who look like them". 

I'm inspired, I must say because he's looking at the future and how to make an impact positively in the lives of Blacks all around the world. That's both Daring  and Visionary. And he is just in his Twenties. "I was honored to get full-time offers from Google and Microsoft before even turning 21,but I knew that I could serve a higher calling to represent a paradigm shift in what a tech entrepreneur could look like" he says. 

Kunzika met his co-founders, Justin and Brian Gerrard in his junior year and joined the team after they pitched Bae to him. 

Bae has reached users all over the world and has even been listed as a Top 50 Life-style app in twenty African and Caribbean countries. Bae is different because of its proprietary algorithm which was built by Kunzika. What users like most about Bae is the quality of matches and the fact that it helps you find those you're interested in, matches from your secondary school, stuff like that. The founders' goal is for Bae to become the best Black dating app in the US and across the African diaspora. Now that's a Dream. I'm still not a fan of online dating, but I'm just prouda them. Reping Blacks and the African Continent. ✊ #Inspired. 

Exclusive Launches!

Here are some recent launches by different companies in Nigeria and beyond,starting with Uber.
You know Uber yeah! Taxi hailing service? Right. You should know also that it has officially launched in Nigeria's Federal capital city, Abuja. Lagos in early January, hit over a billion trips since its inception in 2014, and one wondered when the capital city would get her fair share of the "launch pie."

Now it's finally here. The launch was officially announced on the 23rd of March, making Abuja the eleventh African city that Uber launched after Mombasa Kenya. This also made Abuja the 400th city (I think) in the world, Uber launched. The app offered users in Abuja 6 days of free rides.
Uber also partnered with some Abuja-based firms to attract users. As a way of celebrating their city, the first riders (talking about the partners) were out and about, and had special treats in store for all Abuja Uber riders.

Among these were Charles Okpaleke; CEO and co-founder of the Play Entertainment Network, Adama Ndimi; a passionate humanitarian and one of Northern Nigeria's most influential taste makers, Restaurateur and culture promoter, Sal Gbaja of Salamander Cape. There was also celebrity wedding and lifestyle photographer, George Okoro, and owner of women's fashion house, Dzyn, Ogwa Iweze and they all had some interesting discounts for Uber riders. All that was needed were Uber receipts or scan codes to get discounts.

Sliide launched officially in Nigeria last month and already has over 5000 downloads on the Google Play Store.
It's a new startup that wants to lower the cost of mobile broadband for Nigerians. With high cost of Internet access, and growing social network presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the rest of them, it is only needful to find new and better ways to help Nigerians pay for Internet access.

Android users can earn NGN100 free airtime just by downloading the Sliide Airtime app from the Google Play Store, and more airtime every month for keeping Slide Airtime on the phone.
Also, users can earn an extra NGN100 for every friend they introduce to Sliide Airtime, and their friends will also earn NGN100 each. The service can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or www.sliideairtime.ng.

South African born Corbyn Munnik, is the CEO and co-founder, Sliide Airtime. Corbyn who had his childhood in Botswana, said the service is non-intrusive. People get free airtime and are also sent contest which will be interesting and useful. The company is focused on Nigeria for now but intends to expand into South Africa, Ghana and Kenya later.

And finally, Ford is going head-on with Uber, with its FordPass. FordPass, a mobile app, is available to both customers and non-customers of Ford. It provides live chat assistance and navigation, remote starting, locking and unlocking, vehicle health information, finding and paying for parking. It is also testing sharing and borrowing of cars via the app. This was during the keynote address by President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields. He suggested that FordPass could do for the car industry what the iTunes did for the music industry.

The app has been introduced in the UK and Germany and will formally launch this month. (Don't know if it has launched already).

Big Announcements: A 'HeartBerry' Attack, A Shocking Sale, And Two Applauds.

So here are some recent announcements made by different companies that caught my attention. Some were shocking, others were exciting and promising.
All the same, they were made and the deals signed off as well as preparations in full gear towards their plans and new status.

Let's start with my country home. You must know the major online stores we have in Nigeria. Yudala, Jumia, Konga, DealDey, etc. Well, here's the announcement that shocked me about a week ago, having to do with one of them online stores. DealDey! Awo!

Don't take it the wrong way, I'm not their manager or anything, but it came to me as a shock as I have always loved them and didn't expect that the company would be sold off.
I truly didn't expect this sale. What do I really know about these things? Not so much. I mean considering the fact that it was acquired by a foreign company at an undisclosed amount. Lots I guess.

The acquisition was made by an African subsidiary of Swiss media and e-commerce company called Ringier. Ringier Africa Deals Group is a joint venture between Swiss Ringier Africa AG and South African Silvertree Internet Holdings Ltd. Why? Is it about the money? *crying in my underwear*
Anyways, don't mind me. I guess I'm just taking it personal. After all, you still have Konga.com and lots of money too @Sim Shagaya. Chop knuckle! 👊

Now onto the next big announcement. This one is a little shocking too although, I think we saw it coming.
Is Facebook dropping BlackBerry support?... Uhm! Was that a question to be answered or was it rhetoric?
The caption as it reads here says: "Facebook Joins WhatsApp In Dropping BlackBerry Support" *ding*.

WhatsApp, which made a hesitant and half-hearted debut on the BlackBerry platform three years ago announced towards the end of February 2016, its decision to rescind. And we know BlackBerry has been struggling lately. Now Facebook. Really?
You want a 'HeartBerry' Attack or what? E no good o!

I've never really been a BlackBerry fan, but I don't know if this is fair. All at once, from two major social networking platforms? That is just cruel.
This means that the latest BlackBerry 10 operating system will not support Facebook and WhatsApp features.
Well, phones like the BlackBerry Priv will be able to run Android apps, meaning that it will continue to run the Android version of Facebook. So I guess that's a good thing. All hope isn't lost. *take hearts*.

Moving on! It's BMW! (Applaudise). BMW was among the first auto manufacturers to introduce integration with iPhones in 2011. Now, the company has announced that BMW apps will integrate with Android devices. Awesome! ✊
It made the announcement at the New York International Auto Show held last month.
For starters, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify, are the first three apps to work with the iDrive system in the 2016 BMW 7 Series, and as you know, they are all about music. Rock On!

Users would need to download the BMW Connected app to stream music from their phone through iDrive via Bluetooth.
You can still give a thumb up or down to a song in Pandora, access playlists and browse on Spotify, and your saved favorites in iHeartRadio are there, along with live radio stations across the country. Score!

Finally, Sony wants to make PlayStation games for iOS and Android. Yay! The company is also making a few changes to its board and status with its Sony Computer Entertainment evolving to Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Its mobile gaming arm - Forward Works, will now be led by its Atsushi Morita. Nice! Whoever you are.

Well, with these announcements, I believe I've been able to convince you that there was a 'HeartBerry' Attack, A Shocking Sale, And Two Applauds (Debaters Club). Thank You.