The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kenya

  • EDMARK holds first-ever cashless exhibition in Lagos

    …to Promote Entrepreneurship in Nigeria with Two Million Dollar

    …unveil Mobile Payment Application

    A Multinational Health Wellness and anti-obesity firm, EDMARK International Group of Company on Thursday held the first ever cashless product exhibition in Nigeria tagged “CASHLESS SHOPPING BAZZAR” aimed at promoting transparency, accountability, customers’ satisfaction, stress reduction and risk associated with physical movement of cash to in and out of her outlets across the federation.

    The bazaar exhibition which took place at the yet-to-be commissioned newly completed Corporate headquarters of the company situated at Aromire Avenue, Ikeja was attended by the company’s distributors popularly known as Crown and Double Crown Managers and several private Business Men and Women including financial institutions who came to display their products and services with only the newly invented mobile application of the firm called ED-POINT accepted as means of payment instead of cash.

    Invented by ED2E, a subsidiary of the EDMARK International, ED-POINT is a mobile application that can be downloaded from goggle or apple play stores by iphone and android phones users. The mobile payment platform which started in Philippine in 2016 has now been moved to five African countries namely Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria.

    Speaking with news men on the features of the mobile payment platform and the ongoing cashless bazaar which ends today, The Founder/Chairman of the EDMARK Group of Company, Mr. Sam Low said “EDPOINT is a Mobile application that needs to be loaded as currencies in order to avoid the use of physical cash for payments in all the branches across the federation.

    He said “once the app is loaded, it can be used to purchase our products from our distributors. The App can be reloaded in any of the EDMARK branches across Nigeria. We are of the believe that the new development will make transactions to be fast, user friendly and also for reduce risk associated with movement of cash and promote transparency and accountability and also to make our relationship with our over 450, 000 distributors easy and productive.

    Read Also: How to preserve Lagos, by experts

    Low, a Philippine citizen who claimed that his firm has invested over $5billion in Nigeria in the last 10 years, also announced that his company is currently working out a measure that will promote entrepreneurship in Nigeria with about $2milliom through Information Technology, Health and Real Estate.

    “I started entrepreneurship on the street of Malaysia as a Street hawker, today; I sit over a firm with about $20billion investment in 17 countries of the world. I wasn’t lucky to have people to mentor me but I want to offer the young people of Nigeria what I was not lucky to be offered yet I succeeded. I am committed to abolishing poverty in Nigeria through Information Technology< Health and Real Estate.” Low said in an emotion-laden speech.

    The Chief Operating Officer of EDMARK International who also doubles as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ED2E, Mr. Marc Camaligan said that the application is outstanding because it has reload features with 5% bonus. He said the company diverted from traditional to technological method of payment because their distributors are becoming isolated from the global best practices.

    Some of the company’s Crown Managers and participants who graced the cashless bazaar and products exhibition in an interview with our correspondent expressed joy and happy over the new innovation.

    To Mr. David T. Obinwizu, a Double Crown Manager at EDMARK International, the new mobile platform will afford him and his colleagues a golden opportunity to showcase their businesses and sell their products with an amazing ease without the use of cash. He said it is an opportunity for distributors to maximize profit and reduce stress of going to banks to make deposit and withdrawal cash.

    Another participant, Christiana Begusa who came to the exhibition center for shopping said the mobile app is designed in such a way that a low-cadre education person can make use of it and that it is data friendly and it can switch on with limited internet connection.

    The cashless bazaar and exhibition had several products for sale ranging from clothes, shoes, all EDMARK products, provisions, inspirational books, hair accessories etc using the EDPOINT mobile application.

  • Eight endangered black rhinos die in Kenya after relocation

    EIGHT critically endangered black rhinos are dead in Kenya after wildlife workers moved them from the capital to a new national park, the government said at the weekend, calling the toll “unprecedented” in more than a decade of such transfers.

    Preliminary investigations point to salt poisoning as the rhinos tried to adapt to saltier water in their new home, the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife said in a statement, describing how the animals likely became dehydrated and drank more salty water in a fatal cycle.

    The ministry suspended the ongoing move of rhinos and said the surviving ones in the new park were being closely monitored.

    The loss is “a complete disaster,” said prominent Kenyan conservationist Paula Kahumbu of WildlifeDirect.

    Conservationists in Africa have been working hard to protect the black rhino sub-species from poachers targeting them for their horns to supply an illegal Asian market.

    In moving a group of 11 rhinos to the newly created Tsavo East National Park from Nairobi last month, the Kenya Wildlife Service said it hoped to boost the population there. The government agency has not said how the rhinos died. Fourteen of the animals were to be moved in all.

    “Disciplinary action will definitely be taken” if an investigation into the deaths indicates negligence by agency staff, the wildlife ministry said.

    “Moving rhinos is complicated, akin to moving gold bullion, it requires extremely careful planning and security due to the value of these rare animals,” Kahumbu said in a statement. “Rhino translocations also have major welfare considerations and I dread to think of the suffering that these poor animals endured before they died.”

    Transporting wildlife is a strategy used by conservationists to help build up, or even bring back, animal populations. In May, six black rhinos were moved from South Africa to Chad, restoring the species to the country in north-central Africa nearly half a century after it was wiped out there.

    Kenya transported 149 rhinos between 2005 and 2017 with eight deaths, the wildlife ministry said.

    According to WWF, black rhino populations declined dramatically in the 20th century, mostly at the hands of European hunters and settlers. Between 1960 and 1995 numbers dropped by 98 percent, to fewer than 2,500.

    Since then the species has rebounded, although it remains extremely threatened. In addition to poaching the animals also face habitat loss.

    African Parks, a Johannesburg-based conservation group, said earlier this year that there are fewer than 25,000 rhinos in the African wild, of which about 20 percent are black rhinos and the rest white rhinos.

    In another major setback for conservation, the last remaining male northern white rhino on the planet died in March in Kenya, leaving conservationists struggling to save that sub-species using in vitro fertilization.

  • Kenyan rescuers search for missing plane with 10 on board

    Kenyan Rescuers resumed searching on Wednesday for a small aircraft that went missing one day earlier with 10 people on board.

    The plane belongs to Kenyan safari airline Flysax, a subsidiary of Kenyan budget airline Fly 540, and went missing about 60 kilometres north of Nairobi over the Aberdare mountains on Tuesday.

    Pius Masaai, the National Disaster Management spokesman, said bad weather had hindered the search, and that efforts suffered a setback when a Red Cross vehicle involved in the search collided with a lorry.

    Read Also: Kenya says plane on domestic flight missing

    Three Red Cross officials are in critical condition, Nyandarua county commissioner Boaz Cherotich told Kenyan media.

    Plane crashes are not unheard of in the foggy Aberdare mountains.

    In 2013, three Swiss nationals were killed when their plane crashed in the area.

    NAN

  • Kenya says plane on domestic flight missing

    A search for a small passenger plane that disappeared in Kenya on Tuesday was called off for the evening but will resume at dawn, said late on Tuesday.

    The plane had taken off from Kitale, a town in Kenya’s west, en route to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital, Nairobi, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said.

    It carried eight passengers and two crew members, according to a statement on the website of Fly Sax, the operator of the flight.

    “Search and rescue teams … were activated immediately and have as at this evening yielded no results.

    “They have paused the search for the night and shall resume at first light tomorrow morning,” KCAA said. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Kenya news now: Zuku Internet Packages 2018

    Zuku TV is probably the only company offering both the digital pay TV and internet in Kenya. Zuku fiber internet packages come in two slightly different categories; The Zuku home internet packages and the commercial packages. The latter is fit for use in homes, and the former is designed to give maximum benefits to commercial entities.

    Zuku TV is probably the only company offering both the digital pay TV and internet in Kenya. Zuku fiber internet packages come in two slightly different categories; The Zuku home internet packages and the commercial packages. The latter is fit for use in homes, and the former is designed to give maximum benefits to commercial entities.

    The need to recoup operating costs that come with increasing internet speeds has seen the company increase the prices of its Zuku packages with internet and TV in the last two or so years. The latest increase in Zuku internet packages is the one it effected on September 8th this year. The cheapest internet package currently stands at 1299 Kenyan shillings. Continue reading to know Kenya news on Zuku Internet now.

    Zuku internet packages and prices

    For purposes of clarity, we will classify Zuku internet packages and prices in terms of speeds offered. It is important to remember that this classification is not the official Zuku classification.

    Zuku internet packages with speeds between two Mbps and five Mbps

    This category presents Zuku internet plans that offer you speeds ranging between 2-5 megabytes per second. The cheapest of this category is the J2 Zuku internet plan that goes for 1,299 Kenya shillings while giving you a speed of 2 Mbps.

    The other is the i2 package that goes for 3,199 and gives you the same speed of 2 Mbps. The R2 offers the same speed and goes for 3,499 Kenyan shillings. The J5 gives you a superior speed of 5 Mbps and goes for 2,199 Kenyan shillings.

    The i5 closes our list of this category and offers you a speed of 5 Mbps and will cost you 3,199 Kenyan shillings.

    Zuku internet packages with speeds between 10 Mbps and 30 Mbps

    Zuku fiber packages can give you varying speeds depending on the consumer’s ability to pay for those looking for a bargain and for those interested in the speed of doing things. To start us off in this category we have the J10 that brings you 10 Mbps worth of speed and costs you 3,499 Kenyan shillings.

    The package previously known as R20 is now known as R30, and its speed has been updated from 20 Mbps to 30Mbps.

    The package will now cost you an average of 4999 per month. The other one that has now been renamed is the i20 which offered 20 Mbps of speed.

    It is now called the i30 and currently offers 30 Mbps of speed at 4,699 Kenyan shillings.

    Zuku internet packages with speeds over 50 Mbps.

    This category contains packages with some of the fastest internet speeds in the country. The R50 brings high speeds of 50 Mbps and costs 6199. The i50 brings you the same level of speed and is a bit cheaper at 5,999 Kenyan shillings.

    The i100 gives you speeds that are as high as 100 Mbps and chips into your pockets at 9,999, while the R100 gives you the same speed at the cost of 10,499. The i250 will close this category for us, and it gives 250 Mbps worth of speed at the price of 19,999 Kenyan shillings.

    Zuku home internet packages

    The company offers you what it calls standard packages that include the Home Basic Package that brings you 30 Mbps worth of speed at the cost 4,699 for the unlimited access to the internet.

    The other plan is the Home Preferred that gives 50 Mbps at 5,999 Kenyan shillings. For those interested in higher speed, the Home Premium plan is most likely your choice. It comes with speeds of 100 Mbps and goes for 9,999 Kenyan shillings.

    If 100 Mbps is still slow for you, then what you probably are looking for is the Home Advanced Zuku internet plan. It offers you 250 Mbps worth of speed and will cost you 19,999 Kenyan shillings.

    Source: Tuko Kenya

  • Kenyatta outlaws abuse of people on social media

    President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya on Wednesday signed a new law that outlaws the abuse of people on social media but which critics say could be exploited to repress civil liberties.

    Proponents of the law, including the legislators who pushed it through parliament, say the proliferation of social media has given rise to new crimes including online scams, which were not covered by previous laws.

    New York-based media rights watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned last week however that the bill could criminalize free speech, “with journalists and bloggers likely to be among the first victims if it is signed into law”.

    The law lays the ground for investigation and prosecution of computer and cybercrimes including cyber-harassment and “publication of false information”, a statement from the presidency said.

    Violations to be penalized under the law include cyber-espionage, false publications, child pornography, computer-borne forgery, cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying among others, the statement said, without spelling out the penalties.

    Read Also:  Kenyatta, opposition leader pledge to heal divisions

    Offenders convicted for sharing “false” or “fictitious” information and propagating hate speech will be liable to a fine of five million shillings (49,776.01 dollars) or sentenced to two years in jail, or both.

    Lawmakers passed the bill last month despite protests from media practitioners and rights activists that its provisions could be used to stifle press freedoms.

    Kenya joins other countries in the region that have passed laws that activists say will curtail free expression.

    Earlier this month, Tanzanian bloggers and rights activists won a temporary court injunction against a government order to register online platforms that raised concerns about a crackdown on free speech.

    In April, Uganda, another East African country acting to regulate internet use, announced plans to slap a new tax on social media users.

    NAN

  • Kenya’s fiscal deficit to drop to 5.7 % of GDP

    Kenya’s budget deficit is expected to drop to 5.7 per cent of GDP in its 2018/19 (July-June) fiscal year from 7.2 per cent this fiscal year, budget estimates sent to parliament by the Treasury, showed on Monday.

    Read Also: Kenya opposition figure Miguna deported again

    The East African nation has been under pressure from bodies such as the International Monetary Fund to cut its gaping budget deficit.

    The deficit peaked at 9.1 per cent of economic output in the 2016/17 fiscal year.

    NAN

     

  • Kenya bans lesbian love story film ‘Rafiki’ set to open at Cannes in May

    Kenyan authorities have banned a film that tells the love story of two women on the grounds that it promotes lesbianism but activists said the ban would only promote interest
    in the movie.

    “Rafiki”, a word that means friend in KiSwahili, was this week invited to premiere at the May Cannes Film festival — the first Kenyan film to receive such an invite.

    The Kenya Film Classification Board announced the ban on Friday and said in a tweet: “Anyone found in its possession will be in breach of law”, referring to a colonial-era Kenyan law under which gay sex is punishable by 14 years in jail.

    Board spokeswoman Nelly Muluka tweeted: “Our culture and laws recognise family as the basic unit of society.

    “The (board) cannot, therefore, allow lesbian content to be accessed by children in Kenya.”

    Read Also:  Kenyan mobile firm eyes Nigeria, S/Africa market

    Film director Wanuri Kahiu said: “I’m really disappointed because Kenyans already have access to watch films have LGBT content, on Netflix, and in international films shown in Kenya and permitted by the
    classification board itself.”

    “So to then just ban a Kenyan film because it deals with something already happening in society just seems like a contradiction,” she told Reuters.

    The ban represents a reversal by the board whose head, Ezekiel Mutua, praised the film earlier this month.

    “It is a story about the realities of our time and the challenges that our kids are facing especially with their sexuality,” he said on privately-owned HOT 96 FM radio.

    Homosexuality is taboo across Africa and people who are gay face discrimination or persecution.

    In recent years, however, campaigners for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender rights have become
    increasingly vocal.

    “It’s appalling, it’s a shame … Kenyans will view the film whether it has been banned or not, they will find a way to view it,” Lorna Dias, a lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender rights activist,
    told Reuters.

    “In fact, Ezekiel Mutua has probably created enough of a platform to make even the least interested people curious.”

    The ban coincides with a landmark case brought by gay rights campaigners to repeal Kenya’s law on gay sex on the grounds that it deprives sexual minorities of basic rights.

    The film is adapted from an award-winning short story “Jambula Tree” by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko.

    The film board used a hashtag, #KFCBbansLesbianFilm, that immediately sparked a barrage of supportive
    tweets from Kenyans who decried homosexuality.

    In 2015, the board banned the film “Fifty Shades of Grey”.

    NAN

  • Kenya, 14 other countries send early entries

    Fifteen countries have already sent in their provisional list of athletes and officials for the 2018 Africa Senior Athletics Championships to be hosted in Asaba, Delta State from August 1 to 5.

    After scoring a big point with the hosting of the inaugural edition of the Africa Junior Athletics Championship in Warri, Delta State is set for another big mark this time with the leading Africa Senior Athletics Championships.

    According to the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee of Asaba 2018 African Senior Athletics Championships, Solomon Ogba, a record attendance is expected at the event.

    Ogba said that for the first time in the history of the biennial athletics championship, all the countries in Africa would be represented in Asaba.

    “I can guarantee you that we will be having a historic championship in Asaba as every country will be represented. The LOC will be sponsoring two athletes from all the countries so you can be sure that everybody will be present,” the former president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria assured.

    Ogba who played a key role in the successful hosting of first Africa Youth Championships, which has served as a template in subsequent editions, disclosed that the aim is to also make Asaba 2018 the best ever in the history of the Africa Senior Athletics Championships.

    “We want to set a new standard as far as the Africa Senior Athletics Championships is concerned, the goal is to make this edition as glamorous as the World Championships itself,” Ogba stressed.

    Aside from Nigeria who have entered 72 male, 69 female and 29 officials, the likes of Kenya, Algeria and Senegal are also planning a large contingent for the event.

    Kenya have provisionally entered 34 male and 27 female athletes as well as 11 officials, Algeria have 31male and 29 female athletes on their roster with 17 officials, while Senegal have registered 30 male and 30 female athletes as well as nine officials.

  • Kenya, Ghana seek Visionscape partnership on waste

    Environmental utility firm Visionscape recently engaged by the Lagos State Government for refuse collection, has got offers from Kenya and Ghana for partnership in waste management and power generation.

    It was learnt that the firm performance  in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Dubai, recommended the firm for consideration.

    Directors of the firm have held series of meetings with Ghanaian officials led by the minister of environment in Lagos and Dubai while Governor Mike Mbuyi Sonko of Nairobi, Kenya expressed his preference for the presentation made on behalf of Visionscape by GIL Capital.

    A detailed presentation, source said, will be made later on the governor’s request in his quest for a one-stop shop management solution to waste in the Kenyan capital.

    The Lagos State Government signed a contract with Visionscape with the responsibility of residential collection of waste.

    Private Sector Participants (PSP) operators were given the responsibility for evacuation of waste generated from commercial areas. The PSPs which also wanted to retain residential collection of waste, however, withdrew their services in protest and went to court.

    Recently all the parties in the crisis agreed to an amicable resolution. The court last week gave parties a two-week ultimatum to resolve the issues.