Missing the TED Party

The ongoing TED Conference in California makes me thing back to the remember TED Global that was held in Arusha, Tanzania in 2007. From the opening talk by Euvin Naidoo President to the last talk President Jakaya Kiwkete this TED conference was a unique event; it was a magical event full of euphoric, optimistic and inspiring moments. Links, networks and friendship were formed and the path was set out to open a new chapter for Africa, through business & investment, with diseases & poverty largely eradicated. Sadly in 2009 not much has change in the continent and even some of the shining economic models then like Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, have had politics overshadow and handicap their economic ambitions.

Housekeeping

New tools
- Heard about Twitter in Arusha, but only signed up last month. It’s a bigger world than blogging, and fills in a lot of the gaps e.g. found something unique, but too small to post, or you just want to share in a second via mobile phone? Twitter’s the answer!
- Never has much interest in photography as a blog tool, but got a camera now, so fellow shutterbugs - Hash, Mental, Afromusing, Mweshi - your influence has rubbed off, and I’ll be throwing in random photos of travel and daily work events here are a few


forest near Kericho


I found the Ark


would you steal these hotel sandals?

Getting some love
- Bankelele is listed as one of the 100 best blogs to learn about Africa - not sure how selection was made, but there are some interesting reads on that list 87 Bankelele. Banking and business are at the forefront of this blog written by a Nairobi banker.
- The best way to learn about blogs in other parts of Africa or the non western (US, Europe) world is through Global Voices. They have a post that mentions the top ranked blogs in Africa with Bankelele (ranks 18) from Kenya who writes about baking banking, finance and investment in Kenya and Bongo Celebrity (ranks 20)
- The Business Daily ( a Kenyan financial newspaper) had a feature on blogging with topics like Blog post revolution hits corporate Kenya, Blogs command attention of corporate world, Blogs emerge as avenues for making money, Companies use online platform to monitor views from the public, Fibre optic cable to pave way for corporate blogging, Mounting lawsuits could sound death knell for social sites and What is likely to compete with the mainstream media which noted Some are born out of events like bankelele.com Bankelele, started in 2004 after the blogger attended a “very riotous AGM.” And he describes his blog as “ It’s my diary of financial events —and as a banker and investor. I use it to keep track of pertinent events.

Anyway, I hope to link up with some friends from TED and collaborate on projects in the future and that the Business Daily leads to more corporate blogging opportunities and ideas in this part of Africa.

New month, new hopes

seeking bloggers: Mediation talks are going on in Nairobi, and we hope for a better month than January. The last post I did was on winners - one of whom was Kenyans online who have been inspired by the political crisis to start blogging. I’d like to add new bloggers to the blog roll (the list on the right, below the advertisements) - an update of the list is long overdue and some blogs there have since become dormant. Regular readers are invited to submit any interesting blogs they have found (and which are likely to be running for the next few months at least) and I may do a write up of them

Other opportunities
most from the daily papers this week

TED Africa registration opens today

Import finance: the Government of Japan has through Kenya’s ministry of finance come forward with a 1.5 billion yen (884 million shillings) facility for Kenyan businesses to import raw materials and finished goods from Japan. Applications are on a first come, first served basis, minimum amount is 5 million shillings, maximum 40 million ($560,000) ; terms are down payment of 10% and finance is up to 90% to be repaid over 1 year and secured by a bank guaranteed. Info is from crown agents (crownagents@ke.crownagents.com)

Ford foundation scholarships: The 7th round of the Ford foundation international fellowships program is up and running. 48 scholarships are available to Kenyans – details online and D/L is 7/3
Jobs
- Credit analysts at Africa trade insurance company
Consolidated bank: branch manager, credit manager, credit admin manager, credit analysts. Apply though snail mail by 15/2
- Regional learning & development coordinator at Deloitte. Apply to hr@deloitte.co.ke
KCB: divisional director HR - apply through hawking associates by 11/2. Also investigators (frauds-forensics) and head of central services. Apply to recruitment@kcb.co.ke by 8/2
- Kenya Airways: Ramp Bus Operator,
Sales & Ticketing Agent, Multilingual In-Flight Attendant, Customer Service Agent, Qualified Pilots
Nimble Africa: industry experts (hospitality, financial, retail). Apply to recruitment@nimbleafrica.com by 10/2
- Safaricom: Area sales representative, M-PESA new business sales officer. D/L is 6/2
- Standard group: financial & commercial services director, group managing editor. Apply through PWC at ess.ke@ke.pwc.com by 15/2.
- USIU; management accountant, financial accountant. Apply to jobs@usiu.ac.ke by 15/2
- Independent financial advisors at Winton investments: Apply to jobs@wintoninvestments.com.

The Broadband Gap

Earlier this month I received (though the mail) a DVD pack of all the talks from the organizers of TED Global. This is the first time I have seen any TED videos – ever!

While they have been online all this time, it’s not easy to watch any videos online because of the slow speeds – a 3 minute video can take ¼ hour to download, and they you have to rewind it to watch .

Also as more and more local video content and jazzed up websites, go up online, it is unfortunately still not possible to for many intended viewers to access the content watch. Or even bother to try until speeds are fast enough.

I’ll save the links and wait till I find a place that has very goods speeds. Some have impressive free speeds but can’t concentrate and watch there, besides have to lug around a heavy laptop to enjoy them

More Connectivity

Great news that Safaricom are going to roll out video on phones, broadband speeds and a host of other goodies soon. They paid about ½ of what they did for their mobile phone license less than 10 years ago for a 3G license. Maybe I can see some TED video’s from my phones.

Strathmore University have rolled out a campus wide Wi Fi network at the Madaraka campus to enable students with laptops to access the internet from all over the campus. And next students will be able to access the network from their homes via the Kenya Data Networks (KDN)'s infrastructure.

TED Talks: Andrew Mwenda

Next up from TED Global Talks in Arusha is Ugandan editor Andrew Mwenda's talk from TEDGlobal2007 who defined on of the themes of the summit with his calls for investment and trade opportunities and not for more aid for Africa. (Another great TED synopsis here from Ethan Zuckerman)

Unfortunately, Mwenda now appears to find himself wrong footed, when one of East Africa's premier investors, the Aga Khan, chose to suspend him in a bid to appease the Ugandan government and ensure smooth survival of his business interests in the country.

Tech Tuesday

SABC - Highway Africa Awards 2007 for Innovative use of new media technology in Africa. Awards are given in three categories: 1) Individual/Student, 2) Non-profit and 3) Corporate.
- Individual and Non-profit category: communications which find innovative ways to overcome the limitations of the existing African infrastructure.
- Corporate category: creative adaptation of global technologies in an African media context.
- Other criteria (which apply to both categories)is the use of new media to benefit press freedom in Africa and encourage social empowerment in African communities. Also the functionality of websites/blogs/wikis is an absolute must, interactive features, design and use of mobile technology in an innovative way is encouraged.Entries to be submitted online or via fax by 20/8

Digital Village Concept opportunities
(i) Own manage digital village center/kiosk (there will be one in each constituency). Applicant’s must have experience in running cyber cafe, computer lab and already have electricity, steady clients, premises and qualified staff. Details here and deadline is 20/8
(ii) Supply products/services such as hardware/software, loans/finance, stationery, furniture, and supplies. Details here and deadline is 20/8.

Threat to ISP's: Safaricom has applied for a 3G license to offer broadband wireless through their extensive base station network to subscribers.

Congratulations to TED Global Fellow Paul Kukubo who has been appointed as chief executive of the Kenya ICT Board

Idea Exchange: sponsors & links

Before he went to satellite, radio mega star Howard Stern would occasionally get into hot water in some US cities over the content of his show. This would be manifested by busy bodies in some towns starting a petition/protect outside the station re-broadcasting his show and occasionally threatening to boycott local sponsors of the show. Stern's usual answer to this (besides accusing these groups of racketeering) was to ask his listeners to support the local sponsors of the show (in their towns/regions) by giving them business and mentioning that they had heard about them from listening to the show.

Anyway, I also read yesterday how a major league blogger - John Chow acknowledges sponsors and thought it would be a good time to do the same.

So Thanks to;

Mama Mikes: who have a new promotion where all phone airtime ordered before 5 PM (Kenyan time) is topped up on the same day. Also, several phones can be topped up in one order, all for only $2.49

Business Post: A reminder that not all good writing is online; this monthly magazine offers a great collection of Kenyan business stories.

TED: Thanks for the invitation to TED Global Arusha. They have now begun to stream some of the most popular talks from the conference, starting off with George Ayittey, William Kamkwamba and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. These three talks were among the memorable. Ghanaian economist George Ayittey coined the race in African between the hippo and cheetah generation of leaders, while William Kamkwamba, a 19 year old Malawian embodies this as an inventor of a electricity producing windmill out of scrap metal. And former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, famous for fighting corruption and restructuring her country's debt, who rightly put an end to the aid vs. trade debate by reminding us that both are needed. These should be up on Wednesday afternoon with a fourth from Euvin Naidoo - President of the South African Chamber of Commerce, America on strengthening meaningful corporate ties across the Atlantic.

Readers i.e. you, but especially commenters. No one has a monopoly on information, and I learn so much from comments on investments, and perspectives from readers. I’ve said it before, but anonymous comments are given less weight, no matte how insightful they are – so try and register/come up with a name e.g. bankelele to leave comments and so we can interact better.

Networking
- Linked In: I have not responded to some invites from people on Linked In. I apologize for not following up as I am not keen on that networking aspect – yet
- Pajama Nation - micro jobs and freelance work site.
- piloting request: any ideas where a Kenyan 'A' student with a passion for flying can obtain piloting scholarship?

All on July 31

election 2007 registration closed. If Oprah (no comparison) can endorse a candidate (Obama), then so can I - I support and will be voting for Jonathan Mueke who will be going up in a real David vs. Goliath battle in Westlands constituency. Good luck in party elections which can be more significant than the real election. Best wishes - Bwana J

Kenya Re IPO closed

Uchumi shareholder loan deadline passed. What's the future like for shareholders? Delta Airline (US) is a far different company in another country (different laws), but which emerged from a similar reorganization to chart a new direction. For Delta shareholders;
- The company will issue new shares to claim holders (previous debt holders) as part of its reorganization.
- Other claims remain in dispute.
- Previous shares were canceled and holders of those shares received nothing in the reorganization.

Nairobi WiFi

I am an Internet addict and if you put up a WiFi zone/Hotspot, I'd like to check it out.

I checked into Tamasha (pub in hurlingam, Nairobi) on Saturday afternoon during qualifying for the French grand prix where I hoped to do a live blog of the qualifying hour like ESPN's Bill Simmons who has lived blogged dozens of events like the super bowl, boxing matches and most recently the NBA draft.

I arrived at Tamasha at 3 pm. Ordered a beer and a goulash soup, had them change the TV channel to super sport 5 and also got the network key for the hotspot from the barman.

The connection was very good and I was able to check my mail, check google reader (which is a test of Internet speed, in itself) and even update my anti-virus (took 2 minutes). I did not stay online for the hour (watching the race, typing the happenings, fear of viruses) but was impressed by the connection.

I did a live post of the qualifying hour, but I was unable to edit it within the hour and decided not to finish the post. I also wonder how Ethan was able to live blog every session for four straight days.

Other Nairobi hotspots

After our few days at Ngurdoto Lodge (for TED), I can't imagine checking into another hotel that does not offer Wifi. The days of hotels offering expensive unreliable internet access should come to an end and wifi should become a regular feature for guests. Already Country lodge and Fairview have made it a point to promote their wifi as an attraction. Other hotels may have it but they don't advertise it as a main attraction – and of course they would be for guests only.

What other hotpots are there? JKIA wifi is a bust, there's the elusive butterfly, Java (at Junction, ABC, Adams, Village Market – but only in early morning and late night, except Adams which I am told is all day). I hope to check out Telkom hot spot at Nandos/ Pizza Inn and a Skunkworks session and welcome more businesses to set up hotspots.

Plane spotter


Emirates Cargo 747 at Eldoret airport

Saudi Ok, Africa Not

After listening to a week of stories on aid, development, and entrepreneurship, we emerged from Ted Global in Arusha to find one of the proponents of a new vision for development in Africa - outgoing British prime minister Tony Blair endorsing shady dealings that involve Saudi Arabia in the name of strategic relationships

The implications of this are that (accoring to the US & UK governments) is that corruption/economic transgressions in Saudi Arabia are ok, but not in Zimbabwe or (former aid darling) Uganda. But the effects of these are that no British high commissioner can come preach good good governance to Kenya, or any other African country.

Africans are not all corrupt, not are we without faults, but so are British and American and their agents. In the words of George Ayittey we will find African solutions to African problems and be wary of cheerleaders on governance.

NN (Part II)

In Part I I was unable to get enough local newspaper content. But when I got back to my room at the end of Day 3 (Wednesday, around 7 pm), I found a “dear me” letter from the hotel reception and attached to it were three English newspapers – just as I had requested, and even though it was the end of the day, that was great! But unfortunately they were from the day before (Tuesday). Still you work and I was later able to get several Swahili newspapers on Thursday.

So here goes: highlighting local financial & development issues and challenges specifically addressed to during the TED week

- There is a shortage of a new anti-malaria medicine - ALu (syrup), made by Norvatis to be given to infants. And the government will come up with a national HIV testing program. combating malaria and HIV were cited as major steps needed to be achieved to enable Africa to develop
- Celtel has lowered its Internet access charges from Tshs. 1766 to 475 (about $0.4) per MB downloaded. The company has also extended its East Africa network to Congo, Gabon and the giant DRC
- The Tanzania Chamber of commerce, industry and agriculture won an afriglobal African achiever award in South Africa.
- Tanzania exported 51,000 tons of coffee last year, earning the country earning about $100 million
- Education will get the highest allotment (17.1%) of the country’s 5.1 trillion ($4.2 billion) budget to be announced this month.
- In preparing for the budget, the government has commissioned a report to crack down on vehicle misuse – it is estimated that the government owns over 800 land cruiser VX's that costs over 33 billion a year ($26 million) to run
- Ben Enterprises launches – kazitanzania.com - a database of quality jobs.
UNICEF donates 1,500 lap desks to Salei primary school in Arusha
- The government denies knowledge of Integrated Property Investments - a British firm that is reported to have acquired 120 acres of Indian Ocean shoreline in the Dar es Salaam area to set up a $20m mangrove plant.
- The University of Dar es Salaam has an evening MBA program
- The Tanzania government plans to start auditing all foreign mining companies to verify their processing and export figures
- Last year, the Tanzania post office system processed 17.7 million letters which was 8% less than the year before. Also reducing (by 5%) were the number of parcels leaving country and the number of registered letters (down 19%). All these were attributed to advances in technology (email, SMS, fax).
- Tanzania wants most of the 500,000 refugees from Burundi to return to their country by year end
- Zara solar limited (of Northern Tanzania) has been nominated an Ashden Award (winners to be announced on June 21 in London) that recognizes outstanding sustainable energy projects. Zara sold over 3,600 solar PV systems, benefiting 18,000 people. It is estimated that 10% of the country and only 2% of rural population have access to the electricity grid.
- Fastracking of teachers to fill acute shortages at newly built secondary schools may be lowering the quality of education.
- USAID has commissioned a 2 year environmental education program that will be administered by the Jane Goodall Institute.
- The World Bank will offer vulture aid to help developing countries stuck with high & expensive commercial debt following an infamous fleecing case of the Zambia government by a European investment- vulture fund.

Vanity Fair Africa

From Crunk & Disorderly



In his talk, Bono had mentioned that he had persuaded Graydon Carter to have Vanity Fair do an issue highlighting Africa. Here's one of the 20 different covers.

What's inside? See the table of contents

TED: CDF

Had a breakfast chat with the Member of Parliament for Laisamis (in Northern Kenya), Joseph Lekuton who's here at TED to give a brief talk this morning and we discussed the constituency development fund in program in Kenya.

CDF was established in 2003 and is a program that directs 2.5% of the Kenya government revenue (from taxes) to be directly apportioned to the 210 constituencies depending on their population and other demographics. Local committees administer the fund and pick the programs which are to be financed e.g schools, dispensaries. The Laisamis CDF has disbursed its full allocation of about $600,000 for the year which he has committed to deliver services to his constituents who are largely nomadic.

More stories about the MP and Marsabit district, where Laisamis is located, which has a dedicated website.

NN

I am newsless newswise (NN). TED has been great so far but I also want to know more about Tanzania on my first trip here (wandering around Lunga Lunga does not count)

One of the ways to appreciate what's happening in a country (political, financial, investment, government, arts, developmentetc.) is to read as many local newspapers as possible - because while there are billions of things found online that a newspaper will not contain, there are also thousands of things in a daily newspaper that cannot be adequately captured online. However here at TED i have had a very hard time getting a newspaper to read.

I woke up on Day 1 (Monday morning) expecting to find newspapers available (free or tot buy) in the hotel lobby or gift shop. But I was told that daily newspapers would only arrive in the afternoon – which I found strange. And unlike in Nairobi or Kampala, there are no vendors milling around hotels selling newspapers. Have i found stumbled upon something here? Is the reading culture different from Uganda or Kenya and does that mean anything for the East African Community? Or is it just that guests at this premier hotel are usually not interested in the Tanzanian daily papers?

On Day 2 (Tuesday) I even got up at 5:30 a.m. and went in search of any shuttle driver (who transports delegates across town to conference) to buy and bring me a papers in the morning and I even left money at the reception.

So, after two days, I have got three newspapers. Day 1: Citizen, and Mtanzania (Swahili), that I that I bought at 1 PM from a vendor at the hotel. Day 2: the African that I believe was brought by a shuttle driver at about 12 PM. I have also had a change to read the Tuesday daily nation (Kenya) - a copy which belongs to the hotel.

I have become something of a newsless nuisance (NN) to the hotel staff who seem bemused at my desire to locate a newspaper in the morning (fresh with news for the day) – as if I am awaiting an important fedex package which I can't trace.

It seems I may have to go to town myself to buy more papers like the business times, Arusha Times as well as other newspapers.

We'll see what Day 3 brings....

Mandatally Manji

Chatting with Hash at TED this morning about the entrepreneurship and I got to talking about a book I had recently read. Before long, we agreed that it was a good story that would be worth repeating here this week. Kumeckucha [Blog] had posted on this a while ago)

A few weeks ago, I had read the autobiography of the late Mandatally Manji, an Asian-Kenyan who who founded House of Manji which he built into the largest regional biscuit company.

He was encouraged by his family to put his life's' story together and it's a fascinating story for any budding entrepreneur to read on. He details how;

- From being a clerk transporting commodities around Central Kenya he came up with his plan to start a bakery.
- After hard work and sweat many years later, he achieved his dream when through a partnership he was able to buy and run a bakery with a perfect location and healthy customer base in Nairobi.
- How he chose to walk away from the bakery in frustration at his his dead weight partner who contributed little to the success of the bakery.
- Having to start all over again with even less, as his former partner was slow in paying him for his shares
- Dealing with macro economic problems - and having to produce biscuits even as basics commodities like sugar and wheat were rationed and diverted to the war (WWII)effort.
- Dealing with discriminatory/political barriers – and winning customers and contracts away from European bakeries through unmatched service and delivery.
- Ingenuity to keep producing bread and biscuits by observing and experimenting. This he did by adapting the the cooking habits of his employees who used grains not known (or rationed) by the Colonial Government. His competitors accused of him of souring from the black market as they could not imagine how his bakery was able to keep producing.

It's a great book that's less than 200 pages long, but very hard to find.

More:
- Earlier post on Manji by Kumeckucha.
- Wikipedia entry
The book can found at amazon (though pricey)

TED Global: History Rhymes

Dr. Ken Vickery of North Carolina State University gave a talk on past leaders in Africa and their engagement in entrepreneurial zeal and partnerships on their own terms to benefit their people.

- Nzinga Mbemba the Manikongo (leader) of the Kongo in the 16th century who entered into a joint venture with the Portuguese where his people would receive education and Christianity in exchange for ivory and slaves. His son was eventually consecrated by the pope as the first African roman catholic bishop. But Portuguese did not fulfill their end of the deal, negotiating around him to get greater even greater numbers of slaves and corrupting his court. His relationship with the Portuguese is chronicled in 22 letters that are now widely published.

- Ja Ja, King of the Opobo Kingdom, in the 1880's. Got into a partnership with the English for ship palm oil. When he felt he was not getting a fair deal from shipping companies so he set out to establish his own shipping line. For this he was captured and exiled by the British.

- Third was African counties in the post independence area (early 1960's to mid 70') their economies GNP's grew post independence and they delivered services such as education and health care and largely performed as governments. They were not basket cases until the oil crisis and collapse of raw material market shocks destabilized their growth patterns.

So even as we stand at the dawn of a new era of partnerships of trade, development, debt, aid, etc., remember that history rhymes.

Ted Global Arusha

Mentioned earlier about being blessed/fortunate in life to see people like Michael Jordan (destroy Washington in their last game as the Bullets, though Scottie Pippen provided the winning dunk), Michael Schumacher (win the first US grand prix) and Tiger Woods (not enjoying his first US open). That all compares with being at TED Global in Arusha at which Kenya is well represented.

I will use this weeek to relax & learn from such esteemed speakers, participants, delegates, fellows and our Tanzanian hosts. (Read on who else is here, and what happened on Day 1 here, here, here)

Where's Safaricom? Not met anyone here from the company whose M-PESA is touted by so many people (from around the world) here as a revolutionary enabler and an example of a means to empower millions by giving them financial accessibility & income earning potential