PesaPal

Hash on PesaPal:

Start local, then Africa, then the world. That’s the mantra app developers in Africa should be repeating to themselves as they build their game changing tools. That’s what Agosta Liko and his team at Verviant are doing with their new web and mobile payment platform: PesaPal...PesaPal is an eCommerce platform focused on Kenya. It’s built to work seamlessly with Kenya’s main mobile payment services; Zain’s Zap with approximately 300,000 users and Safaricom’s MPesa with around 2 million users.

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• The truth about mobile banking in Africa (guardian.co.uk)
• 'Laptop Ni Lazima'-Laptop Financing (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)

Enugu Golf City

NIDF points us to an impending development in Southeastern Nigeria-Enugu Golf City:

The development team has been able to start with a clean slate and design a fully self-contained community in Nigeria, that seamlessly integrates luxury living with industrial and commercial activities within a conserved natural habitat that retains the indigenous flora and fauna in an ecstatic marriage of man and nature.

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Exotix

From their site:

Exotix is a frontier market investment banking boutique specialising in illiquid bonds and loans, equities, structured finance, asset management and capital raising.
Exotix’s core competences are a specialist understanding of illiquid, distressed or undervalued debt and equity, skills in raising structured finance or capital and alternative investments.

Madecasse Chocolate

Jill Santopietro of the NYTimes profiles Madecasse, a chocolate company:

These days my favorite chocolate isn’t U.S.D.A. organic certified and it’s not Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance stamped. It’s Madécasse, made from cacao grown in Madagascar’s naturally organic forests. It’s traded fairly and is environmentally friendly. Best of all, the new Madécasse 63% and 70% chocolate tastes so good — a refreshing anomaly in a sea of astringent bitter chocolates with trendy (and often misleading) labels.

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Gahaya Links

In Bacher's Blog:

Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana are Rwandan women who were born in a refugee camp in Uganda. In 2003 they started a business assisting women to manufacture their own goods and sell them internationally. They began with six women working under a tree. Their task was to weave baskets of a quality that would stand the scrutiny of the international market...From that small group, the cooperative called Gahaya Links (after Janet and Joy’s grandfather), has grown to over 3,000 women! In one week, an average woman can make a set of three bowls, or two small friendship baskets.

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Chembe Ventures

Chembe Ventures:

...provides seed capital to mobile application developers, social media start-ups and web ventures in East and Southern Africa...its focus is on pre-revenue mobile value added services, digital payment solutions and emerging local social media web ventures.

'Kilonshele' - “what’s going on”?

LoyOkezie reports:

Kilonshele is a new e-commerce site that provides ticket sales, marketing and distribution services as well as connects the world to live entertainment events in Nigeria by providing up-to-date information on live events and giving fans opportunity to buy tickets conveniently.
The word “Kilonshele” (pronounced – kee-lone-sheh-leh) is a Yoruba word meaning “what’s happening?” or “what’s going on”?

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I.B.Bayo

From their website:

Featuring one of a kind handmade wearable art and home decor designed by I.B.Bayo. He uses appliqué and quilting techniques with African fabrics hand woven, dyed, and embroidered by his family in Osogbo, Nigeria.

Quick Hits

NPR reports on Jekaben a board game that posits a United States Of Africa.
IBM opens an innovation centre in Lagos.
Foglamp provides "...research service for overseas investors focused on governance, transparency and regulatory dynamics..."
African banks spread their wings-Africa report.

'Laptop Ni Lazima'-Laptop Financing

Bankelele reports on a Laptop financing initiative:

A new promotion dubbed laptop ni lazima [Swahili for a laptop (computer) is a must] brings together two corporate titans of Kenya – Safaricom and Equity bank. The former is the dominant mobile phone company in Kenya, while the latter is Kenya’s fastest growing bank for the last 5 years, albeit at a slowing pace. Equity Bank has a history of financing some unusual loans ...

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• Kelele African Bloggers Conference 2009 Postponed (socialmediatoday.com)
• Kenyans to buy air, bus tickets through M-pesa (textually.org)
• UK to Kenya Mobile Money Transfer - M-PESA to Safaricom (pindebit.blogspot.com)

Another "Lost Crop" found-Tigernuts

More on indigenous 'lost crops', this one I remember having while growing up. Betumi Blog reports:

There is a grass-like sedge, cyperus esculentus, from ancient Egypt, whose nut-like fruit, actually the root, grows underground like a peanut (or groundnut) and that is known in Ghana as tigernut, and in Mexico and Spain as chufa (where they are used to make a drink called horchata (or orxata) chufa . Apparently, the Arabs took the sedge from Egypt to Spain between the 8th and 13th centuries, especially to Valencia. The Spanish took it to Mexico.

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HBD Venture Capital

From their site:

HBD Venture Capital is a Cape Town based venture capital firm founded and wholly funded by African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth’s objective, when starting HBD in 2000, was to reinvest a portion of the funds received from the sale of his company, Thawte, into South African companies. This objective was driven by his belief that entrepreneurs in South Africa have the potential to start businesses with global impact.

We need more innovators like Mr Shuttleworth to do the same. Sustainable Venture Capital ecosystems have largely been built by those who were once successful entrepreneurs themselves.

A Versatile Legume-The Cowpea

The base ingredient in dishes ranging from Akara to Moi-Moi, the IITA profiles the Cowpea:

Is a grain legume grown mainly in the savanna regions of the tropics and subtropics in Africa, Asia, and South America. The value of cowpea lies in its high protein content, and ability to tolerate drought. As a legume, cowpea also fixes atmospheric nitrogen, allowing it to grow on, and improve poor soils. All the parts of cowpea that are used for food are nutritious, providing protein, vitamins, and minerals. Cowpea grain contains about 25% protein, making it extremely valuable where many people cannot afford protein foods such as meat and fish.

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Multifacetted Bamboo

Spore reports:

With a tensile strength even greater than that of steel, coupled with an extremely light weight, bamboo is well-suited to a vast range of purposes. New technologies have developed bamboo as a strong and attractive construction material for entire buildings. Bamboo houses in Rarotonga, South Pacific stood up to hurricanes with winds up to 275 kph. Bamboo flooring can be made of pieces that have been steamed, flattened, glued together, finished, and cut. In the Caribbean, especially Suriname and Guyana, it is widely used for furniture production. More recently, bamboo has gained popularity as a product for making textiles. Bamboo fibre makes clothes with excellent wicking qualities, UV protection and odour absorption, making it ideal for the booming fitness sector. Tests show the fibre kills 98% of bacteria, so the fibre is especially suitable for socks.


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photo courtesy of Cempaka Nature

Spot One Global

From their website:

Spot One Global founded by Mariéme Jamme specialises in helping technology companies in Africa, Europe and America to develop their business, enter new markets, find partners in new territories and win new profitable business...we focus on technology markets. This gives us the vital knowledge to really accelerate your growth and take you into new territories.

Don't be a Non-Profit

Peter Haas, TED Fellow and founder of AIDG writes:

Bogo light, Tom’s Shoes, SKS Microfinance, there are plenty of examples of organizations that can scale quickly in providing services to people because they are for profit entities. Investment can be easier to find than donation and making money with each client served is always more scalable than losing it. While sometimes, like the case with AIDG’s training services, there is a need that it would be difficult to establish a profit model around, there are plenty of social ills that can be met in a for profit model. See if your cause fits.

Read more about Peter's rules here

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Crafting LED Light Arrays

Build Africa provides an update on the work of Nana Owusu Acheampong covered earlier:

Cheap Chinese LEDs, which are pervasive in Mali, have not yet reached this part of Ghana so Mr. Acheampong and others have started to make their own LED light arrays powered by wooden box battery holders. Asked how he came about the idea for the battery boxes, Mr. Acheampong explained that observed his radio worked that way so he “took the power out of his radio”.

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Photo courtesy of BuildAfrica

Gabriel Kondesi's Pachikweza Radio Station

When will we have the instinctive ability to recognize innovation and not punish it? From Malawi comes the story of arrested(later released) radio operator, Gabriel Kondesi:

A Standard 7 dropout, Gabriel Kondensi from Mulanje district(Malawi), built and operated a radio station known as Pachikweza. He was using a set of three transistors to penetrate the airwaves and a set of batteries as a source of power. His radio was running phone-in programs at 98.5 FM.

More here and here
Facebook support group

Mbugua Njihia- Software Developer

Interviewed on BlackAmphi Mbugua Njihia outlines his software application
projects which include:

Zunguka.com – Zunguka is hand-built, line by line, to be African Mobile and Web Social Network. We aim to revolutionize the way you work and lead your day-to-day activities.

Zunguka is aimed at enhancing your social and professional lives as by enabling you discover new ways to improve your efficiency and interaction

TumaSMS.com – TumaSMS is a communication service that will allow registered users to send SMS cheaply from their Web Browser or phone. I

Sembuse – With Sembuse you can say a simple habari (hello!) or tell the details of your weekend without thinking of the limiting constraints of regular sms at 160 characters or without having to result to cryptic SMS jargon that would leave the reader dumbfounded.

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See earlier related Hash coverage

Terre Exotique

In Yayemarieba:

Terre Exotique Gourmet Line is the vision of Erwan & Marie. This french couple lived for 5 years on a plantation in the region of Penja in Cameroun, there they fell in love with African spices, condiments , but particularly with the region's Penja pepper.
When they moved back to France they embarked in a cullinary business venture with an emphasis on African culinary particularites.
The line carries products from Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Madagascar, L'ile Maurice, Ghana, Mali, Cameroun ect, on top of African delicacies they also sell products from Guyane, Japan etc...

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