Tandaa Symposium..Cool Facts

Tandaa Symposium..some might have reservations about it but i think it is a wonderful forum for  Kenyans to redefine their purpose in tech space. Great info..great ideas..great networking space..and great meetup.  Yesterday  i had the pleasure to attend the Tandaa sysmposium held at Nailab . Well i was late and so i missed the morning session but I still learned a lot. Cool.. here we go:

Nanofinance

Did you know about NanoFinance? According to @majiwater twitter update even Google can’t define “NanoFinance”  here

Kamal Budhabhatti the CEO of Craft Silicon did a great job defining  NanoFinance. It is the  next tier after MicroFinance. Small lending for a short period of time like what is done by Safaricom Okoa Jahazi (Okopa credo.) Take it from Safaricom  perspective and you realize why Kamal believes that NanoFinance and MicroFinance if well handled is more profitable than commercial banks. Safaricom has over 17 million subscribers, if for example just 500,000 people use the Okoa Jahazi in a day..that would mean 500,000*5= Ksh.2,500,000.

Fund Raising

Fund raising for whichever course is not an easy task, and that  is not only confined in Kenya. In recent times, SMS was used effectively to raise fund for Haiti Earthquake disaster, but it seems that was an exception. SMS fund raising campaigns are not getting any love from those who have used it in Kenya. Operators -imposed costs take a way almost everything. Unless one aligned himself/herself with Media houses, it is an excecise in futility.

Mpesa has proved to be a better fund raising tool according to Wang’ombe Joseph, head of Bloodlink Foundation. Just Mpesa it…Those who are raising funds from friends and relatives.

India Blood Donation Database

Very interesting and necessary database. Not in Kenya but  Kenyan’s techies  could learn a lot from  India. http://www.friendstosupport.org. The site list 62,000 voluntary blood donors in four years.  It basically makes it easy for the blood donation.  Among others it list the willing donors, the hospitals or health centers where the blood are needed including the blood type. Brilliant.

Vision 2030

As explained by Mugo Kibati.. Agriculture, Tourism, Manufacturing, Trade, Finance & IT services are the 6 pillars of development in Kenya. Vision 2030 content was heavily borrowed from Malaysia.  The demographics of Malaysia best fit Kenya,  in terms of population and size.

For Vision 2030 to be become a reality there are many things which have to change in Kenya

1. The change in attitude: If it is your job do it  better than your neighbour and in time. Example of Chinese contractors vs Kenyan contractors…. How about if all Kenyans were shipped to Japan and Japanese shipped to Kenya, what would be the status of those two countries in 20 years time?

2. Staying to the course. Universities should concentrate on providing world class education and leave the other things like business to the entrepreneurs. Then there is the issue of research and development!! Which university in Kenya is really doing that? If there is any what is their achievement so far?

3. Reading Culture… So it is open secret that most Kenyans forget about books immediately they step out of the door of the Lerning institutions. Mbugua told me that it is called burn the books culture.a.k.a academic bonfires.

4. Education System: Never been a fan of 8.4.4 system but i hear it is going to be changed.. Let all say amen . I hope they are not maintaining the nonsense of so and so who came to Africa and was the first man to discover Mount Kenya..what a crap!!

Overall we have had many visions before, many of which were thrown to the dustbin. God help Vision 2030!

Local Innovation..Mkesho

Mkesho the much talked about partnership between Safaricom and Equity Bank was actually done by 25 year old Kenyan.. Many of us did not know that.. So who is this guy? where is he hiding na majina kamili anaitwa nani?

Finally, here are some pics …

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Kennedy Kachwanya1087 Posts

--- Kennedy Kachwanya is a technology blogger interested in mobile phones both smart and dumb, mobile apps, mobile money, social media, startups ecosystem and digital Savannah. New media must not forget the strength of old tech.

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