[kictanet] Random Online (internet) query to the question "Who Owns...........?: " Taifa Laptop

Sat Aug 27 13:10:37 EAT 2016

Blessed day!

This is the response on a random Online (internet) query to the question "Who Owns...........?". To the below cited as Kenyan innovations on KICTANET. Note there may be many more responses as you do a random query

In innovation speak, tafadhali jaza pengo, so Kenya is a.........., Kenyan's are innovative? Kenyans are not innovative? Kenyans are good consumers of innovations?

1.M-Pesa
“The people working on M-Pesa service are Vodafone staff in Germany, the UK. Safaricom does not have people working on M-Pesa.” Vodafone owns the M-Pesa concept and has introduced it in eight countries including Kenya, India, Tanzania, and South Africa.May 14, 2013

Type	Public. Owned by Vodafone 40% & Permanent Secretary (The Treasury) 35%

2. M-Kopa Solar
M-Kopa (M = mobile, 'kopa' is Swahili for 'borrowed') is a Kenyan solar energy company that was founded in 2011 by Nick Hughes, Chad Larson, and Jesse Moore.[1] Moore and Hughes were previously colleagues at Vodafone,[2] and Larson and Moore were fellow MBA students at Oxford University [3][4] The company sells home solar systems in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.[5] Customers pay a deposit of 3,500 KES (approx $35), take the system home then pay 50 KES (approx $0.50) a day for a period of one year, to own the solar system. Daily payments are made through M-PESA, a mobile phone based money system, and in addition to getting solar power, customers also slowly off-set the cost of the device.[6] The system is meant for an off-grid household who is using kerosene (paraffin) lamps to light their home, and paying for batteries and phone charging.

3. Mobius
Q & A with Joel Jackson, founder of Mobius Motors
By John Peabody	May 23, 2013
Tags: AFRICA | CARS | MOBIUS | SMALL BUSINESS
In February, Global Post profiled an interesting startup in Africa called Mobius Motors that is working to manufacture affordable ($6,000) cars designed specifically for Africans.

By simplifying the designs through the elimination of non-essential parts like power steering and air conditioning, the team at Mobius is able to drastically reduce the cost of the vehicle, which they hope will help small business owners in need of affordable transportation. Reuters reached Mobius founder and CEO Joel Jackson over email to ask him about his plans for the car company and some of the challenges he foresees.

Reuters: First can you tell me briefly how Mobius came about? I understand you were working in Africa when you had the idea?

J.J.: Mobius was inspired by my experience working in rural Kenya in 2009 with a startup forestry venture. In this role I spent time with local farming communities and learned about some of their day-to-day challenges. One of the biggest issues these communities faced was immobility. Without access to appropriate forms of transport many people would walk tens of kilometers to get around – to get access to schools, or doctors, or clean drinking water or farming inputs.

The vision of Mobius is to build a more appropriate and affordable vehicle for transport businesses and in turn create a platform for mobility across Africa.

Reuters: Can you give us some info about the company? Number of employees, how many cars you currently build/hope to build? Any info on financials? 

J.J.: Mobius has 24 employees. We’ve built two prototype vehicles and one production alpha vehicle; and we’re launching initial proof-of-concept production of 50 vehicles in Q3 2013. To date, Mobius has raised several million dollars of investment and we plan to increase production to 300 units in mid 2014.

4. Ushahidi

Ushahidi, Inc.
Founded	2008
Founder	Erik Hersman, Ory Okolloh, Juliana Rotich, David Kobia
Type	501(c)(3)
Tax ID no.
2652079
Focus	activism, mapping
Location	
Nairobi, Kenya
Origins	Crowdsourcing
Area served
World
Method	mapping and geospatial
Owner	Ushahidi, Inc.
Key people
Erik Hersman, Juliana Rotich, David Kobia,
Revenue
US$300,000
Endowment	US$1,800,000[1]
Employees
29
Volunteers
50
Slogan	Crowdsourcing Crisis Information
Website	ushahidi.com

5. BRCK

Background

Company: BRCK
Started: 2013
Total VC Funding: $4.2 million
HQ: Nairobi, Kenya
Linkedin Employee Count: 23
Co-founders: Reg Orton (CTO), Jon Shuler , Philip Walton (COO), Erik Hersman (CEO)
Product: Mobile Wi-Fi Device

6. BitPesa

One bitcoin start-up is building what it hopes will become a template for using digital currencies in the developing world, a much-talked-about market for cryptocurrencies. It’s called BitPesa, it’s based in Nairobi, and it’s beginning a beta test this week of its first product, a remittance service for Kenyans living abroad.

On Friday, the start-up launched a pilot remittance program involving about 15 Kenyans in London, who can begin using BitPesa to send money back home. If it works, and spreads, it promises to lower the billions currently spent on transfer fees, and, its founders hope, maybe even spark a tech boom in Kenya.

BitPesa is the brainchild of Duncan Goldie-Scot, a well-known name in microfinance, and Elizabeth Rossiello, a Queens-born former Credit Suisse banker with a background in microfinance who’s been living in Nairobi the past five years. With Ms. Rossiello acting as CEO, the company has raised $700,000 so far

7. KopoKopo

Kopo Kopo is a United States company, with offices in Kenya and Tanzania. We are supported by reputed investors ...

8. PesaPal

Africa /
Interview: PesaPal’s Agosta Liko on African mobile payment solutionsBy Mark Kaigwa on 9 August, 2010
email article
Agosta Liko, CEO of PesaPal, relocated to Kenya from the US to start Verviant, a software development company in Nairobi. Three years later, the team at Verviant launched PesaPal with a vision of enabling Kenyans to make online payments.

PesaPal is making great strides in bridging the mobile and electronic payment divide in Kenya, and is set to expand to more African countries next year. Mark Kaigwa sat down with the CEO to discuss his perspective on doing business in Kenya, the African condition, and on how PesaPal was able to gain traction with ordinary people.

MK: How would you describe PesaPal at present, and where do you see the company heading in the future?
AL: In short, PesaPal is electronic payments; payments for the African condition. Doing things and answering problems that wouldn’t make sense if my co-founders weren’t African. It may make no sense to others but it applies for Africa.

“Social Cash” is a part of the African condition and culture. Social cash is how you raise money for weddings, funeral committees or harambee (a type of Kenyan fundraising meeting between family, friends and well-wishers.) When these people get together, they bring with them cash, cheques, mobile payments, bank transfers, etc. If you can have all that maintained and tracked from one account you’ve solved a problem. And it’s good for bookkeeping and for their affairs.

To the rest of the world Africa is a place of “micropayments” but to us it’s a lot of money. They talk about $2 a day and conclude “that’s not a lot of money”.

And the list goes on...On Aug 27, 2016 10:13, Timothy- Coach- Oriedo via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
> Well said Ahmed, the crux of it is looking at the entire Value Chain from Ideation to Market penetration and customer support.
>
> We often marvel at novelty and seldom subject it to an entire trajectory path.
>
> One of the skills that often need to be embedded alongside  the repertoire of skills needed for innovative ventures to thrive is Business Development. That skill delivered in a coaching intervention format i.e constant questioning,  goal setting and action will ensure the list given by Ahmed grows significantly....
>
> Restful weekend to all...unless you are at TICAD of course. ..
>  
>
> Timothy Oriedo
>
> about.me/Timoriedo
>
>    
>
>
> On 27 Aug 2016 10:01 am, "Ahmed Mohamed Maawy via kictanet" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>
>> Personal comments:
>>
>> A business model that forces success is not a successful business. Its a dictatorial business.
>>
>> Examples of famous products from Kenya that Kenyans use:
>> M-Pesa
>> M-Kopa Solar
>> Mobius
>> Ushahidi
>> BRCK
>> BitPesa
>> KopoKopo
>> PesaPal
>> And the list goes on...
>>
>> Some businesses just need to sort out their business models.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 9:51 AM, Walubengo J via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>>
>>> @ Prof Ndemo,
>>>
>>> As you well know and remember, we experimented with our famous e-Maddo machines that were assembled at a local university and we tried to sell them to government ministries - without much success. 
>>>
>>> Each ministry had and perhaps still has its 'owners' who will NOT want to buy local when they can buy foreign - with some good 'personal returns' :-)
>>>
>>> We have great ideas, but zero execution. 
>>>
>>> #What_Would_Magufuli_Do :-)?
>>>
>>> walu.
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Bitange Ndemo via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>>> To: jwalu at yahoo.com 
>>> Cc: Bitange Ndemo <bndemo at bitangendemo.me>
>>> Sent: Friday, August 26, 2016 11:20 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Taifa Laptop
>>>
>>> David,
>>> You are a great man.  Keep on sharing your experiences. Policy is a democrat's tool for benevolent dictatorship.  The Government should just have a policy to buy lab tops and desk tops from JKUAT.  Our taxes should be spent on our products.
>>>
>>> Ndemo.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 4:24 PM, David Otwoma via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Michael,
>>>>
>>>> I first met Taifa laptops w
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