NAIROBI, Kenya May 22 – MTN Business says a consortium set up for the deployment of Long Term Evolution (LTE) infrastructure in the country will reduce data costs significantly.

MTN Business Kenya Managing Director Tom Omariba says that maintenance cost of the network will come down as one Base Transmission Station can cover longer distances.

“We started from 2G, then moved to 3G and are now set to deploy the 4G or LTE network. The LTE infrastructure has several benefits the main ones being that it would enable users to do more in terms of data speeds and volumes that can be transferred as well as the fact that there is no need for many base transmission stations (BTS),” Omariba told a panel discussion on digital ecosystem evolution at the 9th East Africa Com conference held in Nairobi,.

He said that the nine-member consortium set up to drive the deployment of the country’s LTE network will provide enhanced and more sufficient ICT services in the country.

The nine-member LTE consortium – which includes the Kenya government (through Treasury) as well as Safaricom, Telkom Kenya-Orange, Airtel, Essar Telecom’s yuKenya, KDN, MTN, Alcatel-Lucent and Epesi Communications – was set up to implement the initial phase of the project at cost of Sh8.4 billion.

The mobile network operators in the consortium – Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, Airtel and yuKenya – are expected to provide their masts and BTS under a shared-infrastructure model while the equipment makers reach a formula on how to roll out the network.

“The Kenya LTE consortium has to cover 98 per cent of the country and will upon deployment have far reaching benefits to both the government and private sector as it would boost provision of various crucial services – including e-Government; e-Health and e-Learning among others. Imagine having the same kind of connectivity in all parts of the country,” stated Omariba.

However, no much activity has been achieved since the consortium was put together with a member of the consortium – Safaricom – expressing willingness to deploy its own LTE network.

Ericsson has also reportedly proposed to build a countrywide 4G network for free and recover the costs after a 15-year period, a move that would automatically scuttle the 9-member consortium.

“The private sector is selfish that’s why we’ve delayed the roll-out of the LTE/4G network in the country. There’s been no much progress made by the consortium since they were set up apart from lots of stakeholder meetings and discussions with various teams including legal, financial and taxation,” said Omariba, adding that the consortium was meant to work in the same way as the TEAMS cable model.

Industry statistics indicate that by 2020, it is projected that the ICT industry will have moved to 5G technology, with much of the data traffic expected to come from smart devices like home appliances rather than phones and tablets.

Already, several African countries have LTE/4G networks among these being South Africa, Tanzania, Angola and Rwanda.

The report dubbed ‘Connected Worker’ shows that new mobile solutions will help workers connect to fresh job opportunities, improved working conditions and secure of delivery of wages using mobile money transfer services/FILE

The report dubbed ‘Connected Worker’ shows that new mobile solutions will help workers connect to fresh job opportunities, improved working conditions and secure of delivery of wages using mobile money transfer services.

Speaking during the launch in Nairobi, Vodafone Group Director Andrew Dunnett said for organisations, enhanced communication will enable increased efficiency through improved skills, tracking worker activity and build better relationships with employees.

“Our objective was to look how mobile technology can help both the workers and the employers in 12 markets. We based our survey on different 90 projects but we narrowed down to six and specified some of the solutions that would work well,” Dunnett said.

The report was undertaken in 12 countries including DRC, Fiji, Egypt, Ghana, India, Qatar, Lesotho, Mozambique, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Turkey.

“I think it shows a clear sense of direction as to how our technology will grow as the smartphone revolution gathers momentum. As the price for smart phones comes down, the increased access to Internet is going to make a substantial impact,” he said.

The six ideas explored in the report include Job Finder Solution which offers subscription-based service to match workers to jobs and has a potential to reach approximately 49million workers to job annually by 2020.

Fieldforce Enablement services are expected to provide remote access to corporate systems and facilitate better scheduling hence improve productivity while mIdentity solutions will use mobile technology to manage worker identity to enable more secure transactions and identity verification.

Mlearning solution is expected to deliver basic skills training in literacy as well as job-related training via a mobile device while Worker Panel services could enable large organisations to better understand real-time working conditions experienced by worker in their supply chain.

The sixth solution expected is mPayroll which will enable secure, cost effective wage payments to be made to unbanked workers using existing mobile money networks.

“The 12 markets identified in this reports are undergoing significant economic and social change. In general, they have fast growing populations and are expected to see rapid economic growth over the next decade,” Dunnett noted.

KQ will fly to the city on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays departing Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi at 1925 hours and arriving in Abu Dhabi at 0105/FILE

The airline will start operating the service on the route from July 1 flying three times every week between Nairobi and Abu Dhabi on a Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

KQ will fly to the city on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays departing Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi at 1925 hours and arriving in Abu Dhabi at 0105.

The return flights will leave Abu Dhabi on each of those days at 0205 hours and arriving in Nairobi at 0555.

The city of Abu Dhabi is the second KQ destination in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai where the airline already flies to 10 times a week.

The airline’s CEO Titus Naikuni said the new route will provide a vital connection between Africa and the Middle East leveraging on the relationship with Etihad Airways.

“These flights are intended to add value to our customers by providing improved connections and more choices of travel into other parts of the Middle East,” Naikuni added.

The launch of flights to Abu Dhabi comes just months after KQ signed a code share agreement with Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates.

The agreement allows the airline’s passengers to seamlessly connect to Etihad Airways’ other destinations, while also ferrying those originating from various Etihad destinations in the Middle East to different parts of Africa through Nairobi.

A palm oil plantation/FILE

Liberia, Jan 22 – Liberian farmers who survived a 15-year civil war are now fighting lucrative property deals with Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil companies that threaten the land they live on, if not their sacred burial sites.

Thirty hours by car from the capital Monrovia, the green and yellow flag of Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), an Indonesian palm oil giant, floats over deforested hills in Sinoe County, southern Liberia.

Local farmer Benedict Smarts looked at the scene, and said: “We are not against development – but we want to be heard, we want respect – we want those people to listen to us.”

In 2010, GVL acquired a 63-year lease on 220,000 hectares (544,000 acres) of land to produce palm oil.

It pays annual rent of $1.50 (1.10 euros) per hectare for virgin forest land and $5.00 per hectare for cleared terrain in the lease which is renewable for an additional 30 years.

Palm oil is used for cooking in parts of Africa, Brazil and Southeast Asia, and is an ingredient in soaps and washing powders.

GVL’s lease was signed in Monrovia, without the presence of representatives from those who live in Sinoe County.

In the village of Plu, on the plantation’s outskirts, inhabitants showed letters of complaint sent to the Liberian interior ministry.

“The Indonesians came here for the first time in September 2010,” resident Benedict Manewah explained.

“They said: ‘We have a concession agreement, your president has sold it to us’.

“Three months later they came back … and they started to destroy the properties, farmlands, crops, livestock and houses.”

Manewah listed the crops he had planted. “I had rubber trees, cassavas, breadfruits, orange trees, cocoas, coconuts and palm trees” for his family’s personal consumption.

GVL workers uprooted his crops to produce palm oil exclusively, and “they ship everything to their people, at home” in Indonesia, he said.

Manewah pointed out a tiny parcel of land that contained the graves of relatives. It used to be tucked in the forest but was now surrounded by palm trees.

– Development, or ‘modern slavery’? –

—————————————

Saydee Monboe, whose black rimmed glasses lends him a certain resemblance to the late US civil rights activist Malcom X, pointed out that farmers now had no choice but to work under contract for GVL, charging: “This is not development, it’s modern slavery.”

Alfred Brownell, a lawyer who founded the organisation Green Advocates added: “Nobody is doing anything for the people in this country, they only have their land and now you tell them they have to leave.”

He filed a complaint on behalf of local inhabitants, not with Liberian authorities, but with the international organisation RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) which groups industry stakeholders including growers, processors, traders, retailers, banks and investors.

Producers in Liberia adhere to RSPO, which was launched in 2003 by the World Wildlife Fund and industrialists, and delivers a certification for “sustainable palm oil”.

The process requires that information be provided on how the oil was obtained, along with the approval by communities where it was produced, a point reiterated in December by RSPO Secretary General Darrel Webber in a letter to GVL executives.

In late 2011, RSPO upheld a complaint by Liberian villagers against Sime Darby (SD), a Malaysian grower that cultivates 200,000 hectares in Grand Cape Mount county.

Subsequent negotiations between the grower and villagers are ongoing.

“SD recognised the right of the communities to their food security and livelihoods,” Brownell noted, “along with rights to compensation for shrines, and water resources affected by the practice of clear-cutting that wiped out the villager’s food supplies.

He expected SD to pay more than $1 million in compensation over a 60-year period.

Imam Mustapha Foboi, who led resistance from 17 villages against the Malaysian company added: “We are making history not only in Liberia but in the whole of Africa: Grand Cape Mount has become a landmark case.”

Since the petition from Liberia others from Cameroun and Gabon followed suit, and the RSPO is currently reviewing 34 complaints worldwide.

Brownell is nonetheless worried about the situation with GVL, calling it a “terrible case in a very remote area.

“The way they operate is almost as mob gangsters; threats, intimidation, illegal arrestations,” the lawyer charged.

A day after they spoke with AFP for this story, four villagers were briefly detained by local authorities, something Brownell says has happened in the past as well.

Back on the plantation, GVL manager Jeff Benzin received AFP with a smile, saying: “When we made mistakes we admitted it.

“We pay compensation to any person who accepts it. When they specifically show us sacred sites, we stop everything,” Benzin added.

But he also argued that palm oil “can save this country economically.

“Industry can collapse but agriculture is here to stay,” Benzin vowed.

Bichachi started Dia Consult two years ago, which is involved in online public relations and advertising for various individual and companies/MIKE KARIUKI

“My personal view of things and perhaps I would not recommend to many people, is that I see employment as ‘slavery’. Because what does a slave have? A house to sleep and food to his stomach. You are comfortable but you cannot really achieve what you desire,” he says confidently.

Bichachi started Dia Consult two years ago, which is involved in online public relations and advertising for various individual and companies.

These include social media management for companies, digital marketing, data mining and interpretation, celebrity endorsement for branding, social media training among other online services.

The firm helps companies connect to people and consumers that pay for their product and services, attain, retain and maintain relationship with potential and future consumers and turn cash-paying consumers into friends.

“The difference between employment and entrepreneurship is not the capital, the brain power or the idea. No. It’s just the ability to take the risk by deciding to leave your comfort zone and move to the unknown,” Bichachi says in an interview with Capital FM Business.

The young MD says he started his digital company in his own house with his laptop after coming up with the idea of digital marketing. He believes for one to kick off any business it is critical to have a physical place to start and for him, one of his bedrooms worked as his first office.

“Also look at the few coins you have and how to multiply the ‘one shilling’ in the short term. Again look for ways of networking, networking and networking,” he emphasizes adding that he has never taken a loan from any institution but instead capitalized on his savings.

Bichachi did not just wake up and decided that he will never be employed. No. But he had always desired to be an entrepreneur. This is despite the push from his father – who was a civil servant – who insisted that he had to study hard and become an engineer because he was a bright student.

“I went to Egerton University and did Instrumentation and Control Engineering, a course I didn’t like at all. But my dad could not imagine my (A) mean score in high school being translated into something else apart from engineering degree in the University,” he says adding that his parents even had to talk with the University heads and counsel him because they felt he ‘had lost focus’ as far as his carrier was concerned.

In Njoro Boys High School, while in Form three, is where his business streak took root. He used to sneak a mobile phone into school and would spend his prep time being a Simu ya Jamii. He would charge Sh40 per minute for a call and Sh15 per SMS; needless to say the business afforded him certain comforts that were unheard of, for one in boarding schools in Kenya.

“I would make a thousand shillings a day,” he says.

Soon after high school he left for South Africa and joined Boston City Campus College to pursue a certificate in Computer Programming.

A year later he came back and was admitted to Egerton University to study engineering despite his preference to study literature. That is when the business bug bit even harder hence during his campus days, he engaged in various successful business ventures that built his prowess in business.

While is South Africa for the one year, Bichachi did not bother his parents for pocket money, but instead engaged in selling curios and saved even more money that allowed him to start a club while at campus back in Kenya.

The club business however flopped since he had not done research on the business.

After campus he decided to go into self-employment doing various businesses, including and most notably supplying meat and meat products to a targeted market niche. It was during this time that he was introduced to former the Gichugu Member of Parliament Martha Karua and was asked to apply his IT savvy to her digital presidential campaign.

“I remember I signed up for a Facebook account and wrote to all my friends and told them, listen; I will supply all of you with meat at your convenience. And that is where I started African Meats, a strong company that I have left my cousin to run to be able to manage Dia Consult.

After Karua’s campaign, Dia Consult got more and more clients who wanted his services.

The multimillion firm has nine employees and is not only looking forward to employ more staff, but expand its products to the East and West Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Namibia.

“I am an entrepreneur and I am always looking forward to diversify.”

His word for the youth? “Everyone has a talent that can make money for them. However, you can’t ignore education because some talent needs knowledge to be actualized,” he says urging the government to come up with policies that will focus on growing young businesses, especially accessing funds.

A ship unloading at the port of La Guaira, outside Caracas/AFP

CARACAS, May 22 – Venezuela’s National Assembly on Tuesday approved a $79 million credit to import toilet paper and other personal hygiene products to relieve shortages in the petroleum-rich state.

The South American OPEC member has the world’s largest proven oil reserves but has wrestled with periodic shortages of several consumer goods since price controls were imposed in 2003 under the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

“We have consistently denounced the strategy of hoarding and speculation, and the campaign of terror that has spread among the people, forcing them to buy compulsively and fearfully,” ruling party lawmaker Jose Avila said.

The government has long accused the center-right opposition and the United States of plotting to undermine Chavez’s self-styled socialist revolution.

The credit will be used to purchase 39 million rolls of toilet paper, 50 million sanitary napkins, 10 million bars of soap, 17 million disposable diapers and three million tubes of toothpaste.

Venezuela has been bitterly divided since Chavez’s handpicked heir Nicolas Maduro was officially declared the winner — by a razor-thin margin — of last month’s presidential election.

Henrique Capriles, the opposition candidate who ran against him, has accused the ruling party of stealing the election and has vowed to take the matter to international bodies.

Chavez, who died of cancer in March, launched a “Bolivarian Revolution” during his 14 years in power, using the country’s vast oil wealth to fund social programs for the poor and back regional leftist allies.

But chronic shortages have plagued the country since Chavez imposed currency and price controls in 2003.

Venezuelans suffer from sporadic power outages, inflation — which topped 20 percent last year — and a public debt of $150 billion, or half the gross domestic product of the country of 29 million.

EU as represented by country flags/FILE

BRUSSELS, May 22 – EU leaders, desperate to give growth a boost, target energy policy Wednesday amid concerns a US-led revolution in shale oil and gas development will reshape the global economy and leave Europe far behind.

Stuck in the doldrums, Europe has lost nearly all momentum as the debt crisis bites deeper and sends unemployment soaring, with governments scrambling as they can to find some momentum.

Worse still, energy costs remain high, in marked contrast to the United States where new shale oil and gas resources have sent prices tumbling, setting up nothing less than a new industrial revolution.

The implications are unmistakeable for a Europe which paid one billion euros a day for its energy imports in 2012, according to European Commission figures.

“Europe risks becoming the only continent to depend on imported energy,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy, who host’s Wednesday’s summit meeting, has warned.

“In 2035, we will still depend on imports for more than 80 percent of our energy needs and that will have consequences for our competitiveness and our companies,” Van Rompuy said.

“We need one trillion euros in investment by 2020,” he said.

EU leaders will have “a strategic discussion … on the key issue of energy policy and competitiveness,” Van Rompuy told leaders in a summit invitation letter.

Last week, the International Energy Agency said North American shale energy production had set off a global “supply shock” that is reshaping the whole industry.

While the benefits are clear, shale oil and gas also comes with a potentially high environmental cost which worries many.

Critics say hydraulic fracturing — ‘fracking’– of rocks deep underground to release oil and gas threatens water supplies and may even set off earthquakes.

Against this backdrop, a draft of the summit conclusions makes no direct mention of shale, referring only to European Commission plans to “assess a more systematic recourse to indigenous sources of energy with a view to their safe and sustainable exploitation.”

But the message is clear.

“What is happening in the United States with shale gas … that is one of the factors driving the discussion,” an EU official said ahead of the meeting.

Energy, the draft conclusions note, is the preserve of national policy although member states are duty bound to keep their EU partners informed of what they plan to do.

Britain, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Spain favour developing shale energy but others, and France in particular, are opposed, citing the environmental issues involved.

“If member states want to do shale gas, they can do it. Their energy mix is up to the member states,” EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said last week.

At the same time, Hedegaard said shale energy would never push prices down in Europe as it has in the United States while Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnick warned Brussels must take on board popular opposition.

“People are not convinced that developing shale gas is without risk,” Potocnick said.

The summit draft otherwise rehearses a series of exhortations to review and improve EU energy policy, and to spend more on investment and development.

With national budgets under intense pressure at a time of austerity, that could prove problematic.

“In the current economic context, we must mobilise all our policies in support of competitiveness, jobs and growth,” the draft says.

“The supply of affordable and sustainable energy … is crucial in that respect.”

Backed by leading European power firms, the chief executive of French group GDF Suez, Gerard Mestrallet, charged in Tuesday’s Le Monde daily that European energy policy had failed and Europe was “destroying part of its energy industry.”

He said: “It is urgent to redefine this policy, the ambitions and the means.”

He argued that the European Union had failed with regard to its three announced objectives: the fight against climate warming, improving competitiveness, and the security of supply.

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 21 – Orange Kenya has asked Google to share revenues acquired from traffic which runs on providers networks in order to enhance partnerships.

Speaking during a panel discussion on digital ecosystem evolution in Nairobi, Mickael Ghossein said that revenue share between Google and mobile network operators is necessary as Google’s services and traffic utilize those networks.

“All operators are talking about the issue globally and this is not just an Orange issue with Google in Kenya. Network operators can’t be expected to have first-class infrastructure when others riding on their networks are utilizing them for free,” stated the Orange Kenya CEO.

Ghossein stated that the network operators’ call for revenue share with Google are based on the fact that most of Google’s services are reliant on their networks and infrastructure, which cost huge amounts of cash to deploy and maintain.

”Google has to pay us as you can’t use the Orange network – which is like a highway for Google – without paying a fee to us to maintain the network,” said Ghossein.

Ghossein said that in mid 2010, several EU operators – including Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom – called on Google to start paying them for carrying content such as YouTube videos on their networks.

“The network operators said that the search giant should share some of its online advertising revenue with carriers to compensate them for the billions of euros they are investing in fixed-line and mobile infrastructure to increase download speeds and network capacity,” he observed.

They further called on industry regulators to step in to supervise a settlement if no revenue sharing deal is possible between the parties.

The Orange Kenya CEO was part of the panel which focused on key players’ strategies for 2013 and beyond in East Africa; building on improved networks to deliver more advanced services, as well as new business models and partnerships to seize the opportunities in the region.

The two-day East Africa meeting- held under the theme ‘Seizing the Digital Growth Opportunities in a Better Connected East Africa – brought together delegates and industry leaders deliberating and sharing latest business knowledge on various topics including digital transformation; customer experience management; digital services as well as mobile marketing in East Africa among other industry issues.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said the ministry is willing to offer support to the county governments, to establish the required infrastructure in counties/FILE

ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said the ministry is willing to offer support to the county governments, to establish the required infrastructure in counties.

“There is need to build ICT infrastructure in the counties that will help in business, governance and service delivery,” he said during a meeting of the ICT Board in Nairobi.

Matiang’i said that the ministry is committed to enhance and strengthen the national ICT master plan that will include cyber security and digital payments in governments and will launch it in the next 100 days.

“The ICT master plan framework was developed a while back by some of my colleagues. We are trying to improve it now and develop it further to include new frameworks,” he explained.

Matiang’i said that an ICT summit meant to bring together over 400 ICT stakeholders in Mombasa next week will further discuss how county governments can use technology in developing plans and future predictions.

“The summit will work on making service delivery in our counties more efficient with the use of ICT,” he said.

He asked county government to collaborate with the national government to actualise the development programs.

“We need to ensure that ICT becomes a part and parcel of our lives, since it’s very important. We must have conversation with the county government because national government cannot do everything,” he explained.

He further said that cases of cyber security need to be looked into as they affect investors’ decisions. “No investors are willing to operate in a country without cyber security.”

He asked the private sector to come on board to make these opportunities real and possible for the country.

The Kenya ICT Board is carrying out a Kenya Transparency Communication Infrastructure Project (KTCIP) which aims at generating growth and employment by leveraging ICT and Public Private Partnerships to create IT enabled services industry.

This will contribute to improved efficiency and transparency of selected government functions through e-government applications.

This project dubbed ‘PASHA’ will be rolled out in all counties to ease access to government services.

The talks seek to inform policy making and the creation of institutional structures needed for effective management of the emerging petroleum upstream sector/FILE

The talks seek to inform policy making and the creation of institutional structures needed for effective management of the emerging petroleum upstream sector.

National Oil has identified a number of topics in the areas of oil and gas exploration and production which include petroleum revenue management, development of institutional and governance structures for a robust national oil industry, value addition across the petroleum supply chain and local content development.

The meetings will be held every two months and each forum will focus on an important thematic area relevant to the identified audience with key note speakers during these meetings being the petroleum experts drawn from within Kenya, the region and the world.

The stakeholders are drawn from a cross-section of institutions covering mainstream government ministries and departments, state corporations, private sector players, academia and civil society participated.

They are given an overview of the oil and gas exploration and production in Kenya and the region covering East Africa and parts of Southern Africa including the discoveries of natural gas in Tanzania and Mozambique, and oil in Uganda.

The development of SME’s in oil and gas exploration and production will be particularly important to the Kenyan economy going forward considering that currently, SME’s contribute close to 80 percent of employment opportunities in the country and account for over 20 percent of GDP.

Through these stakeholder engagements, National Oil is looking at guiding national dialogue on the recent oil and gas discoveries in the country beyond the current discussions centred mostly around revenue sharing and prepare the country for success once commerciality of the deposits is confirmed.