Safaricom IPO Set To Go!

Breaking News -The Kenyan Court of Appeal has today in a court ruling delivered by Justice Emmanuel Okubasu,Justice Erastus Githinji and Justice Onyango Otieno declined an application fronted by the opposition to forestall the sale of Kenya's most biggest Company and communication giant Safaricom!It is now hoped that the shares will be offered anytime next week before the General elections on December 27th .

The current establishment has for long sought to publicly sale the shares of the telecommunication giant however members of the opposition have alleged that there currently is no sufficient legal framework available to sanction the sale (the opposition have been pushing for the coming into force of the Privatization Act passed in 2005 to come into force.The same has not been gazetted for it to take effect) and that the hurried sale by the current regime is malicious and a tittered with corruption. The Court of appeal in unprecedented move claimed that it has no jurisdiction in the issue(if the Kenyan Court of Appeal lacks Jurisdiction then who does?).I do not want to fault the Judgment having not had the opportunity to scrutinize it!But i hope that the learned justices acted uberimae fidei (in utmost good faith) and looked keenly and sufficiently at all the legal parameters.

Seeing this latest development,no doubt ,for the Kenyan populace,its going to be a tough year with the festive season,elections,new year, fees... etc but if the IPO is under "microwave speed" sold to the public through the Nairobi Stock Exchange(NSE) make sure you buy some!

MTV's New Social Network Website!

Social networks have rapidly gained prominence in the internet industry in the last three years.The popular MTV company has also joined the bandwagon having recently launched its issue based and youth oriented social network site at www.think.mtv.com .The site was launched with the joint coordination and effort of various philanthropic societies such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation,Goldhirsh foundation,MCJ foundation among others.

The site which had been under beta testing since November 2005 and is aimed to be a pro -social initiative to empower young people on issues of fundamental concern especially in relation to education,sexuality,morality,human rights,health,discrimination,politics and global concerns.Its emphasis initially targeted low income and minority students who hardly finish high school or join college.The site aims at offering these groups information and resources to enable them see the benefits of pursuing a college degree course and accessing higher education as a means of empowerment.The site provides facts and information on the importance of graduating high school and resources on gaining access to college.The users are able to exchange ideas,video, and other forms of media.

In an attempt to get more youths involved in politics the group recently recruited 51 young citizen journalists in its "Choose or Loose Political Campaigns Coverage " in order for them to collate information on the USA 2008 elections throughout the country with weekly reports that will include short videos, blogs and animation that will be featured in the site.This initiative is being partly funded by the John S and James L Knight foundation,a private journalism foundation based in Miami.

The MTV Think site boasts a membership of over 5,000 individuals and though initially intended and tailor made to suit the US market is now increasingly gaining a world wide audience with membership including some African youths and bloggers.Indeed the youth are taking a pro active stance using the blogosphere to address issues of fundamental concern to them and social networks are providing such a platform.Make Money online with eBay

Inverse Foreign Investment !

Kai .A.Wulff the C.E.O of Kenya Data Networks(KDN) is certainly a great mind to reckon with and his recent TV interview on KTN Business weekly program helped me appreciate the kind of mindset and determination that Africans should adopt in order to propel the continent to greater prosperity!Mr Kai Wulff was being interviewed by Aly Satchu Khan(proprietor of www.rich.co.ke) the host of the weekly TV program.

I especially appreciate his captivating and inspiring encouragement to local entrepreneurs that its time Africans thought of being innovative enough to develop their own services,products and businesses that end up not only competing with the the leading firms in the world but also buying them out!It is this thought that i dub "inverse foreign investment".Rather than wait for a business to grow big and be acquired by American or foreign firms, the thought should be to come up with an entity that can make in roads in foreign markets or match up with the best!

The case of Bill Gates ,Larry Page and Sergey Brin is basically an encouraging point and illustrates to many of the young African Intellectuals pursuing advanced higher education in the different universities that anything is achievable with proper strategy.All it takes is a little creativity,diligence,innovativeness and persistence in order to be successful. It is hardly believable that Google Inc was formed in a Stanford dorm room in 1998 by two bright young lads who were hardly 30 years old and now command's one of the fastest growing multi national I.T. firm.

The German born Mr Kai Wulff means what he says and has an impressive background to back up his claims having owned and been, the CEO of an I.T firm at the age of 16years.Mr Wulff encouraged young entrepreneurs to embrace the concept of "creativity by default".Meaning that one can come up with a product or service that initially flops but that shouldn't be the be it and be all but rather a learning point of reference.Persistence pays.

KDN is Kenya's leading broadband solutions I.T.C firm and was licensed by the Communications Commission of Kenya in 2003 as a Public Data Network Provider .The firm has set a remarkable presence in the region as a data communications provider and is set for further heights.
The firm is set to invest a massive Kshs 12.5 billion in laying out a national fibre optics cable system.This will immensely improve internet and intranet connectivity within the region.The company has already laid over 500 kilometers of fibre optic cable in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Thika and is set to cover more grounds in readiness for the international East African submarine cable system backbone(EASSy) set to reach Mombasa in 2009.The KDN network serves as the ideal broadband access system for servicing business customers of all sizes, including banks, universities and corporations, offering them one point of access for all their business communication services, including Internet access, virtual private networks (VPNs), commercial leased lines, ethernet, and frame relay, all with enhanced capacity and wide coverage.

KDN believes that wireless broadband is the most efficient and cost effective way to ensure affordable communication services for the greatest number of Kenya's population, both residential and commercial users and has set measures to tap this market.Infact they recently ordered their first 300 Xnet Viper multi-radio systems from Hopling Technologies. The Xnet Viper mesh node is specially designed for citywide deployments and offers superior features that make it the best choice for large-scale integrated municipality mobility solutions.It further enables the network to provide wireless internet connectivity to anyone,anywhere at any time. This move confered upon them the prestigious capacity and title of being a Value Added Reseller (VAR) by Connection N&C Corporation (CN&C). KDN activities set the future stage and capacity for Kenya to become the premier destination for I.T outsourcing in Africa in the coming few years.

With that kind of mentality we certainly need more Kai Wulff's in Kenya and other emerging economies!