10 African startups that rocked 2014

2014 has been another amazing year for startups in Africa.

More and more entrepreneurs turned their attention to building businesses that can solve the continent's problems and provide services it has long awaited.

Enterprises emerged to fix problems in payments, traffic and talent, while more entrepreneurs raised more money from investors than ever before.

Here, in no particular order are 10 of the most exciting young companies of the year.

The list includes the startups I consider to have the most potential, to be the most viable -- not necessarily the most popular or hyped.

Sendy
Where: Kenya

In a nutshell: Uber-style motorbike delivery service.

What's unique: Africa has delivery services and courier services but never before Uber-style so you can track exactly where the deliver rider is via your phone app.

Sending packages is usually expensive and difficult in big, congested African cities like Nairobi and Lagos. Many people use motorbikes to get to work to avoid getting stuck in traffic, so using motorbikes for deliveries is a smart, cheap, local solution.

Future moves: Sendy is in a very strong position because e-commerce is growing and at some point those kinds of sites could integrate with companies like Sendy. It could also potentially be acquired by a foreign company, perhaps Amazon, if they decide to expand to Kenya or South Africa and want to invest in a delivery service that understands the terrain.

Angani
Where: Kenya, East Africa region

In a nutshell: Pay-as-you-go cloud computing

What's unique: This is nothing new internationally, but the cloud computing space in Kenya is nascent. Angani are coming into the market trying to make prices affordable.

What makes it cool is that you pay for what you use. You choose a plan and go.

Future moves: It may be difficult for Angani to scale in a short time, given that all of their competitors in this new and growing market are established players. It remains to be seen whether their tactic of driving competition with low prices will attract enough customers.

Irofit
Where: Nigeria

In a nutshell: Mobile payments without internet

What's unique: Their offering -- mobile payments over mobile networks -- is unique. It's something that hasn't been done before. Making mobile payments over the internet can often be an issue in Africa, so Irofit are leveraging more widespread mobile networks.
Future moves: They launched very recently, and no one has used the app yet. But Irofit raised $600,000 in just six months earlier this year, showing that there are big players who think the startup has real potential.

Wyzetalk
Where: South Africa

In a nutshell: Invite-only social platform for business

What's unique: A business platform for companies to help their employees to more effectively communicate. Staff can use the platform to collaborate on projects, set up meetings, instant message, share files and more.

Future moves: Wyzetalk has been around since 2011, but they have built the company steadily, winning round after round of funding, which shows they must be doing something right. It is currently used by companies from a variety of industries including travel and tourism, tech and food and drink. They have a very solid model and are likely to keep growing.

Gamsole
Where: Nigeria, Global

In a nutshell: Gaming company

What's unique: Celebrated as the biggest success story of any African game developers, this startup has been developing games in the Windows phone market for a couple of years. Gamsole was incubated in the 88mph accelerator and since then their games have seen 9 million downloads globally.

Future moves: Gamsole recently received an innovation grant from Microsoft and are looking for new talent with a recently launched competition for illustrators and designers that offers $4,000 to the winner. They are also yet to launch a global smash hit game.

Snapscan
Where: South Africa

In a nutshell: Make payments via your mobile phone

What's unique: A service, not dissimilar to Apple Pay, which allows people to make payments with their mobile phone by simply taking a photo of a QR code and punching in the amount they want to pay.

Future moves: Less than a year after launch, the system was being used by 12,000 small businesses. There is huge potential for this service: There is an appetite for convenience in payments and there is an opportunity to leverage on Africa being mobile first. They have the potential to expand into other markets and maybe even compete with Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

Delivery Science
Where: Nigeria

In a nutshell: Delivering smarter using big data

What's unique: This startup is all about using big data and analytics to help companies in Africa's emerging e-commerce sector manage inventory and deliver more efficiently. Delivery Science offer to completely manage a company's logistics from what's in the warehouse to innovative ideas like verification codes for deliveries to ensure the right person gets a package.

Future moves: The company was started this year by a team who have successfully launched other startups and who are knowledgeable in delivery and logistics. They have the right idea and the knowledge to serve the market in Nigeria.

Paysail
Where: Ghana

In a nutshell: Out-of-the-box payroll management application.

What's unique: Right now, many companies in Ghana still use spreadsheets to organize employee pay. Paysail offers an all-in-one service that comes with Ghanian tax codes programmed in to make company accountants' jobs easier.

Future moves: It's a new idea. It's different. Most of the companies -- like this one -- that are incubated in the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Ghana try to reach other markets. Right now, no one is doing anything like this in next-door Nigeria, which means the Paysail application has opportunity to offer an incredible change.

Andela
Where: Nigeria, pan-Africa

In a nutshell: Training graduates as developers, matching them with employers

What's unique: Andela is focused on helping employers from all over the world find talent from Africa. They take it a step further by identifying raw talent and paying them to learn to become developers, then matching them with global employers looking for talent. The company currently has a local office in Nigeria and a company in the United States.

Future moves: This company's approach is very smart. In Africa there is a desperate need for talent -- we don't have enough developers, let alone quality developers, because universities don't qualify graduates in technologies for the future. There is also a huge market globally, so this company has a massive opportunity.

BRCK
Where: Kenya, all of Africa.

In a nutshell: A self-powered, mobile WiFi device.

What's unique: BRCK is a blackbox described by its makers as "a backup generator for the internet," with the aim of solving Africa's connectivity issues. In Africa, there are power outages on a daily basis so getting online and staying online anywhere and anytime in these parts as well as other parts of the world requires a device that can seamlessly switch between multiple networks to provide access, even in remote areas. That's where BRCK comes in.

Future moves: This product is quite ingenious. The potential impact and scale of this company is the reason it closed a $1.2 million seed funding round, after initially raising $172,000 in a Kickstarter campaign last year. BRCK has the potential to provide internet connectivity to rural areas across the world, where Internet access can be unstable.

By Loy Okezie, Special to CNN

Announcing Certiport's 2015 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship from August 9-12 in Dallas, Texas!

Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, the leading test delivery solution provider for the global workforce and academic markets, today announces the 2014 Microsoft Office Specialist World Champions in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint, culminating the most popular technology skills competition on Microsoft Office since its inception in 2002.

In its 13th year, the 2014 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship attracted more than 400,000 unique candidates from 130 countries who competed to demonstrate their mastery of Microsoft Office products. 123 student finalists participated in the final round of competition.

Certiport recognized the top six student competitors at the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship Student Awards Ceremony at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort, and presented each with a $5,000 scholarship.

“Microsoft Office Specialist certification gives students a way to become tangibly prepared for college or a career,” said Margo Day, vice president of US education at Microsoft. “Today’s job market requires computer proficiency and all individuals who earn certification have a valuable credential proving their skills. We congratulate the top winners for their extra efforts and look forward to seeing how they put their superior Microsoft Office skills to use in their future endeavors.”

In the concluding round, competitors participated in unique project-based tests to demonstrate their ability to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations for the information presented in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

“More than 740,000 exams were uploaded as part of this competition, and the MOS World Champions are tops in an elite group of individuals who know how to use Microsoft Office tools effectively,” said Bob Whelan, president and chief executive officer for Pearson VUE. “Microsoft Office Specialist certification continues to grow in popularity all over the world, allowing more students to prove they have the academic and workforce skills to succeed.”

Next year, Certiport will host the 2015 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship in Dallas, Texas.

First African Computer anti-virus software developed in Baringo,Kenya

The first African antivirus has been developed in Kenya at a remote village in Baringo County. Bunifu Technologies is an industry innovation firm founded in the 2011 and since inception has developed software products ranging from mobile, desktop, web and engineering solutions and tools.

Bunifu Sniper, the antivirus software was developed locally by that clearly indicates the exponential potential that Africa has. The anti-virus has an in-built console panel that will help users recover infected files safely. The Sniper anti-virus, which took the group more than a year and a half to develop, also features a wireless and Local Area Network (LAN) scanner that can scan devices within your WiFi range or over your LAN, a document, file and folder repair and restore, file and folder unlock sensor, wireless and LAN sensor as well as piracy protection. The anti-virus is a software too tough for even hackers to crack, and better than others available in the market according to the firm. There will be continuous online upgrades of the antivirus software although the company is also working on ways to enable offline upgrades. The Sniper antivirus product has dominant features such as fast engine, over 17 million virus database definitions, heuristic engine, shared protection, directory navigation guard (watchdog) and proactive real-time surveillance.

Bunifu Technologies has also provided technology-based services and products that range from Android mobile apps, desktop applications, web applications and engineering solutions. Other products that have been developed by the firm include accounting software that provides real-time analyses and record keeping of day to day transactions and Light Bolt SMS – a mass message sending utility that has the ability to send customized personalized messages to many from a single message. Bunifu’s other product is an exam management system that provides an easy interface for exams processing and analysis as well as the Bunifu mini-commander, a handy automated software that can process and respond to SMS commands and also process more than one command at a time.

The firm also runs the only innovation hub in Kenya outside Nairobi.

Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/lifestyle/article/2000122666/it-brains-develop-first-african-anti-virus-software 

Top IT skills and certifications revealed

The latest ActiveTechPros IT salary & skills report for South Africa reveals the top IT skills and top IT certifications in the country.

ActiveTechPros released their latest IT Salary and Skills Report recently, allowing IT professionals to compare their salary and skills against fellow IT professionals globally.

The ActiveTechPros report which is published annually and is based on aggregated data from their users for the period of January 1 – December 31 2011.

According to the report the most popular IT skills in South Africa are Operating Systems, Desktops/Software and Servers/Networking.

It is telling that the top skills (hence the skills which most IT professionals possess) corresponds with the lowest salaries in the market.

When it comes to the top certifications the ever popular A+ reigns supreme, followed by Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Network +.

Read more here.

Investment potential of Kenya's education sector

The first thing a visitor to the Fanisi Capital boardroom in Nairobi notices when he walks in is a big black television and, below the television, a picture. It is an interesting one to look at: the people in it – students and teachers, presumably – are of every race, skin and hair colour, all smiling. The lawn in the foreground is lush and well manicured. Palm trees rise above the smiling faces, flanking seven thatched roof peaks. It could be a picture of a “Young United Nations” conference on a tropical island. The only thing that shows it is not the UN is a school crest. Hillcrest Investments Limited (HIL) currently owns the school in the photo, as well as its sister schools on the same campus.

HIL was established in 2011. Its principal shareholders are Kenya-based Fanisi Capital, a US$50-million venture capital fund represented byAyisi Makatiani; and Anthony Wahome, an investor whose principal ventures include the Linksoft Group of companies and the Rose of Sharon Academy. Hillcrest is a source of great pride for Makatiani. His office nametag and keys hang on a Hillcrest-branded lanyard. So how did Makatiani, who built Africa Online, one of Africa’s first Internet service providers, end up owning a school? “It was an opportunistic move for Fanisi,” he says. “The school was put up for sale and we bought it at the cost of land.”

Read more: Investment potential of Kenya's education sector

Harnessing ICT for development in Kenya

In the decade since the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (MoICT) was established, the ICT sector has grown from virtually non-existent into an important component of the economy. According to the latest government statistics, for the quarter ended September 2013, mobile and internet penetration rates have reached 76.9% and 47.1%, respectively.

Insufficient infrastructure has been the biggest constraint to continued expansion. To this end, in July 2013 the government launched the National Broadband Strategy (NBS), a joint product of the MoICT and the Communications Commission of Kenya, the sector’s regulator, with an overall objective of providing broadband access to 100% of the population. More than half of its $2.8bn budget is allocated to building infrastructure, with the balance directed towards capacity building and content development.

The proposed funding sources include a broadband infrastructure bond and venture capital fund, in addition to an increasing ICT’s share of the government budget from 0.5% to 5%.

Fred Matiang’i, the cabinet secretary for the MoICT, told OBG the support of the private sector will be necessary to realise the goals of the NBS. “We need to come up with a framework that will facilitate the role of the private sector in the development of digital infrastructure. Given the demand on our labour and financial sources, we will not be able to do this alone,” he said.

Harnessing ICT for development in Kenya

Microsoft Office Specialist: Helping Students Develop Workforce Skills

Will your students be ready for the workforce when they clear high school and college? An achievement they could place on their college portfolio and career resume? Will they have practical Office computing skills that will help them get started in their careers?

Now is your opportunity to enrich the substance and value of your course curriculum with Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) credentials. With certification, students get the opportunity to develop foundational expertise in cutting-edge computing skills as part of their chosen course of study, to help them knock down the academic obstacles and barriers that typically disenchant students and lead to increased drop-out rates. Regardless of the course topic, teachers can provide more to their students by personally achieving demonstrated skills in Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office Specialist certification features a simple framework for skill assessment and validation. And certification verifies a wide variety of computing skills; not only in programmes, but also for specific job functions such as managing budgets and presentations.

MOS certification is the leading IT certification in the world with more than 1 million MOS exams are taken every year in over 140 countries.

Provide Your Students with a Valuable Resource

For years now, the Computer Studies course, which helps students master skills in areas such as word processing, spreadsheets, desktop publishing, and presentation applications has been based on general principles and does not always teach industry leading technologies used in the business world. The course does not include a certification to help students validate to potential employers that they have the necessary skills to perform on the job.

Using MOS certification as a ready-made module for the school’s business and technology curricula offers students the opportunity to master real-world desktop computing skills that businesses require. With Microsoft and Certiport, the certification exam administrator, schools and colleges can replace an outdated curriculum and give their students a curriculum that would remain current with materials from Microsoft and certification exams.

The certification allows students to prove to employers they have a specific skill that is in demand. The MOS program is one way to close the skills gap – it’s one way for employers to find someone to fill exactly what they need in an open position.

Available certifications

With three certification levels (Microsoft Office Specialist, Microsoft Office Specialist Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master), the Microsoft Office Specialist credential allows individuals to validate their skills and progress toward their career goals in the following office applications:

• Word - Transform ideas into professional documents
• Excel® - Achieve valuable insights with powerful analysis tools
• PowerPoint - Turn your ideas into impactful presentations
• Access - Track and report important information with ease
• Outlook - Stay connected with up-to-date email and calendar tools
• SharePoint - Stay productive with the freedom to take shared content with you while on the go
• OneNote - Capture, store and share information in digital notebooks
• Office365 - Secure, anywhere access to email, calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, conferencing, and file sharing

Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship

The Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship presented by Certiport, Inc. is a global competition that tests students' skills on Microsoft Office Word, Excel® and PowerPoint. Top students are invited to represent their respective countries at the World Championship. At the World Championship, each student competes for World Champion in his or her category (Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Excel® 2007, Microsoft Excel® 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007). The MOS World Championship is an inspiring event, motivating more students from all over the world to get certified and validate their technology skills.

To participate, students aged 13 to 22 must submit a passing score on the MOS Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Word 2010, Excel 2010, or PowerPoint 2010 exams and attend an approved, accredited learning institution.

Participants who outperform their peers to make the final round of the World Championship generally have perfect or near-perfect exam scores and completion times well below the allotted examination time. The top three winners in each category receive scholarship prizes for $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 respectively.