Author: Antony Mutunga

By Antony Mutunga For a long time, Africa took a back seat when it came to technology as the continent would follow and never lead in the sector. By leapfrogging the use of plastic money and going straight for mobile money, which is widely accepted in most countries, Africa will benefit going forward. African tech companies are currently pushing their way into the world economic forum technology pioneers’ list, an assembly of leading high growth firms from around the world that are pioneering new technologies and innovations. Like 2021, the 2022 list did not disappoint – African tech start-ups were…

BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Amref Health Africa and AstraZeneca, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), launch a fleet of Mobile Vaccination Clinics (MVCs) in an effort to protect last-mile communities from the pandemic.  As of June 17, 2022, 31.4% of the adult population in Kenya were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while Africa’s average vaccination rate is 17.7% lagging behind other world regions. Each of the 10 mobile clinics are set to help vaccinate 70 to 100 people per day reaching up to 1,000 people (on a daily basis) once they are fully operational. The initiative will also help to…

BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Nokia and African Telecommunications Union (ATU) have entered into an agreement in a bid to transform the continent’s digital journey. Rajiv Aggarwal, head of Central, East and West Africa market unit at Nokia, said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will ensure that all are able to benefit from technology and no country will be left behind due to lack of infrastructure, or training. “We will leverage our global technology expertise and insights on policy matters to positively impact the universal socio-economic development in the continent,” said Aggarwal. By leveraging the power of telecommunications, the two companies will…

Cyber security should be at the center of every business conversation to emphasize the need to establish an appropriate cyber security framework that matches the business environment – Report Antony Mutunga Shifting to digital ways of working has for a long time been a challenging task. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that the bulk of businesses started following that path. Cyber-attackers and hackers are evolving and gearing up to target these growing numbers of online users.   According to the “evolving cyber security threat in Africa” report by Liquid Intelligent Technologies, over 90% of tech decision-makers across Kenya, South…

Electric cars can be embraced to reduce carbon footprint, which experts say is currently high By Antony Mutunga Why is it that electric cars have been around since the 1800s but it was until recently that their popularity begun to be visible? How come the vehicles are important now? What is the joy all about? There have been reports that the life-cycle emissions of purely electric cars are up to 69% lower than those of modern combustion engines. The merits of electric cars are believed to be more compared to those of petrol, or diesel automobiles. In particular, a new…

The social media-based customer support will not only drive a holistic shopping experience but also revolutionize e-commerce Ajua, formerly mSurvey, has partnered with tech giant, Facebook to automate commercial interactions and customer support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using WhatsApp. The “Janja solution” will enable automated customer support, borderless banking, and payments across apps and social media platforms. Its main objective is to rewrite the rules of customer care by making the process quick, easy, and painless. According to Teddy Ogallo, VP of product, merchant services for Ajua, this will help users increase their market reach, receive secure payments…

By Antony Mutunga The world health pandemic has sped up the paradigm shift towards digitization that was already underway. As a result, organizations and businesses have been left with limited paths; it’s either they go digital or they go dark. Businesses that were reluctant to embrace digital transformation before have had no choice but to make the shift in order to survive in the ensuing environment. This, unfortunately, has turned out to be a blessing for cyber criminals and hackers, as they take advantage of the new digital norm and exploit the large number of users online. As a number…

BY ANTONY MUTUNGA As time goes by, we continue to transform our world into a digital one. Just how digital can we get was recently answered by the catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic. As with most pandemics throughout history, the Covid-19 saw the norm change. with social distancing, a majority around the world were forced to either work from home or close down their businesses for a time. In the period, reliance on the internet grew as doing everything online from ordering food to usual work meetings became the new norm. Despite the continuing emotional and economical toll the pandemic has on…

BY ANTONY MUTUNGA “Africa shall no longer be described as the Dark Continent, she will be called the Sparking continent. The fire is not too far from catching on.” – Zenanu Kihme Since the days of colonization, Africa has come a long way, despite still playing catch up to the developed countries, the continent has managed to handle the latest technology and integrate it in most of its industries. In fact, in some cases, Africa has managed to get ahead as in the case of mobile money, for example, Kenya’s M-Pesa which saw the country leap the reliance on plastic cards…

BY ANTONY MUTUNGA The festive season is finally here with us after the year was mostly plagued by the disruptive Covid-19 pandemic. As we ushered in 2020, many would have not imagined the economic disruptions that have seen an economic slowdown worldwide. Many businesses were forced to close down and many people around the world were left unemployed. As we come to the end of year, which is mostly a time of consumer spending, things are expected to be a bit different for many. The long queues of shoppers and heavy traffic is not an expected sight this year as…