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6Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Having cracked the feature phone challenge, 2go heads for smartphones

Mobile social network 2go is extending its successful feature phone app to smartphones, while growing its team of software developers and support staff. 2go currently has over 10 million active users who send more than 6 billion messages a month, mostly on lower-end feature phones in Nigeria and South Africa. “Feature phones have been an incredibly successful platform for us and will continue to be so for the next few years at least,” says Alan Wolff, who founded 2go with fellow student Ashley Peter while still at university. “Research firms such as Informa indicate that by 2015 there will still be 5.6 feature phones in the African market for every one smartphone. But now is the right time to start extending to iOS, Blackberry and Android platforms as well.” The secret to 2go...

5Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, Kenya News

Deforestation Costing Kenyan Economy Millions of Dollars Each Year and Increasing Water Shortage Risk, UNEP and Kenya Forest Service Report Finds / Services from Kenya’s Water Towers Underpin Many Sectors of Economy

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 5, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ – Deforestation deprived Kenya’s economy of 5.8 billion shillings ($US 68 million) in 2010 and 6.6 billion shillings in 2009, far outstripping the roughly 1.3 billion shillings injected from forestry and logging each year, according to a joint Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report. The ongoing work of the KFS, together with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and international partners, says that the contribution of forests is undervalued by 2.5 per cent, putting the estimate of its annual contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at around 3.6 per cent. Hon. Dr. Noah Wekesa, Kenya’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, said the report – entitled ‘The ...

31Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News

Bunna International Bank Partners With Finacle From Infosys for Banking Transformation

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia and BANGALORE, India, November 1, 2012/PRNewswire-FirstCall via African Press Organization (APO)/ — New Core Banking Solution to Improve Customer Service and Operational Efficiency Bunna International Bank, a leading player in the Ethiopian market, today announced the selection of Finacle[TM] core banking solution [http://www.infosys.com/finacle ] from Infosys for its transformation journey. Finacle will enable the bank to integrate its front and back office operations and deploy a state-of-the-art loan origination system. This will include automating the credit check and loan approval processes for risk-free and efficient loan disbursals. This transformation will help Bunna improve the overall banking experience for its customers. Finacle will also comp...

23Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Energy, Green Energy

Global Solar Backsheet Market Revenues to Reach an Estimated $1.4 Billion by 2020; Energy Harvesting to Touch $3.1 Billion in 2017

FARMINGTON, Conn., Oct., 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The global solar backsheet market is growing at a fast pace, supported by strong growth in the solar PV industry in many countries, such as Germany, Italy, China and the US. Global solar PV backsheet market revenues increased from an estimated $596.5m in 2008 to $1.6 billion in 2011, at a CAGR of 38.8%. Industry forecasts expect global backsheet market revenues to reach an estimated $1.4 billion by 2020. The growth momentum of the global solar PV backsheet market parallels the expanding field of energy harvesting with its limitless number of applications and market opportunities, particularly in solar and photovoltaic energy sources. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121022/CG97483) Five new significant market resea...