Lebara and WorldRemit, two leading brands serving international residents, have entered into a strategic partnership making WorldRemit the exclusive global money transfer partner of Lebara, including transfers to over 40 African countries.

The deal allows over 3 million Lebara Mobile and Lebara Money users to use WorldRemit’s digital money transfer service seamlessly, directly from the Lebara app and website. With more than half of WorldRemit’s transfers now going to Africa, this partnership will support the company’s plan to serve 5 million customers connected to the continent by 2020.

Lebara customers living in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and Netherlands will benefit from WorldRemit’s extensive payout network in over 145 countries. This will provide a more convenient and lower cost alternative to the 90% of migrants who still send money through offline routes.

As part of the deal, WorldRemit will also benefit from co-branding in Lebara’s full retail estate stores and advertising in Lebara Mobile sim packs sold in 260,000 stores across Western Europe.

Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO at WorldRemit said: “We are delighted to be partnering with one of the world’s premier MVNO brands targeting international residents in Europe, giving its users access to our mobile-first service. With more than 260,000 points of sale, Lebara’s visibility and brand awareness complement WorldRemit’s strong digital capability. This partnership will introduce our safe, fast and low-cost remittance service to millions of new customers.

“WorldRemit has been working with telecommunication partners on the receive side, but this is our first strategic partnership with a mobile operator on the send side. We look forward to strengthening our leading position in the market with equally ambitious partnerships in the future.”

Graeme Oxby, CEO of Lebara Group adds: “This initiative is in response to a growing need for our valued customer base. Many of Lebara’s customers send money home to relatives and friends and we are delighted to be able to partner with WorldRemit to offer a simple to use and highly cost-effective service”.

“Lebara mobile’s leadership position in the growing international residents market in Europe, coupled with a surge in smartphone users, creates an ideal platform for launching new and exciting services through partnerships. Our partners get unique access to a customer base which few other mobile companies can match.”

WorldRemit handles a growing share of the $600 billion migrant money transfer market – better known as remittances. Known for its mobile-first approach, one-third of its transactions go to mobile money accounts; it currently handles 74% of international money transfers to mobile money accounts globally.

WorldRemit’s digital model allows customers to complete their transactions in just a few taps from a smartphone. Worldremit customers make more than 1 million transactions every month, using its app or website.

WorldRemit was advised by William Blair in this transaction as its financial advisor.

This is a Press Release From APO Group on behalf of WorldRemit

The groundbreaking Ecobank Mobile App, a single, unified financial services application across 33 African countries, has processed 9 million transactions worth over $1 billion since launch less than 18 months ago.

With over 4 million users, the Ecobank Mobile App is available to all, enabling users to open an Ecobank Xpress™ Account instantly on their mobile device (providing an easy route to financial inclusion for the previously unbanked). There are now over 4 million Ecobank Xpress™ Account holders on the Ecobank Mobile App and USSD platforms. Other bank customers may onboard the Ecobank Mobile App with their MasterCard or Visa cards while Ecobank customers do so using their card or retail internet banking credentials.

Users of the Ecobank Mobile App are able to transfer money instantly within Ecobank locally or across Africa using Ecobank Rapidtransfer™, a unique service that is faster and more affordable than competing options. Consumers may also make transfers to other local bank accounts, mobile wallets and to Visa cardholders using Visa Direct on the Ecobank Mobile App. The App offers easy payments using Ecobankpay Scan+Pay through Masterpass, mVisa and Mcsh, and has options to pay utility bills, school fees, subscriptions, make donations, buy airtime instantly and generate payment tokens using Ecobank Xpress™ Cash to do cardless ATM withdrawals or at an Ecobank Xpress™ Point (agent locations).

Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO explained that Ecobank’s strategic mission is built around using mobile banking to deliver innovative, efficient and cost-effective services to those who have typically sat outside of the formal economy, and therefore goes far beyond the reach of the traditional branch and ATM networks. He noted that they had processed almost as many transactions on the Ecobank Mobile App in the first few months this year as they did in the second half of 2017.

“Customers can enjoy 24/7/365 access to financial services from the convenience of their mobile devices with the Ecobank Mobile App,” he said. “We have brought world-class functionality to consumers in the 33 countries in Africa where Ecobank operates.”

Patrick Akinwuntan, Ecobank’s Group Executive, Consumer Banking says that Ecobank is committed to providing easy access to financial services for all Africans, leveraging the ubiquity of mobile phones via the bank’s Mobile App and at Ecobank Xpress™ Point agents wherever physical interaction is necessary especially for cash deposits.

“We aim to be the leading consumer financial services franchise in Africa and have developed a range of products and services relevant to meeting the daily banking, financing, investment and transactional needs of our customers,” said Mr. Akinwuntan. “The Ecobank Mobile App provides easy access to these services anytime and anywhere and we are very pleased with the fast and increasing uptake.”

The Ecobank Mobile App is available for download from the Google Play Store or Apple Store.

Kwesé TV and MTN Uganda are pleased to announce a new partnership which will provide Kwesé TV and MTN subscribers with a simple and convenient way to pay and renew their subscriptions services using MTN Mobile Money.  

Speaking during the official launch of the partnership Kwesé TV Uganda Country Manager Herbert Mucunguzi expressed that the partnership enables Kwesé TV subscribers to renew their subscriptions at their own convenience thereby enhancing customer experience.

“We are continuously reshaping our business looking for ways to provide efficient, convenient and simple services for our subscribers, thus partnerships such as these are of great strategic importance to Kwesé. Accessing premium sports, news, kids, lifestyle, faith and general entertainment programming has never been easier and we are proud to lead the evolution,” expressed Mucunguzi.

To pay their 3-day, 7-day or monthly subscription fees, MTN subscribers with Kwesé TV subscription can follow a few easy steps; dial *165# on their mobile devices, select option 4 for Payments, then select Kwesé TV under the Pay TV options. From here subscribers can simply enter their Kwesé account number followed by the amount they wish to pay and confirm payment to continue enjoying Kwesé’s premium programming line-up.

Since the launch of Kwesé TV in October 2017, Ugandan audiences have enjoyed endless hours of well-known and exclusive internationally acclaimed channels and programming encompassing all popular programming genres. From world class kids’ entertainment in DreamWorks and Toonami, to edgy millennial entertainment in VICELAND and REVOLT. Premium American sports in the NBA and NFL, to the most comprehensive and diverse news line-up which includes CNN International, Sky News, Africa News and Al Jazeera to name a few, Kwesé TV caters to every viewing appetite.

But perhaps Kwesé’s biggest game-changing aspect is its industry first pay-as-you-watch flexible payment options which give subscribers the choice between purchasing 3-day, 7-day and monthly subscription packages to Kwesé’s full bouquet. Never before has premium content such as this been available from as little as 17000 UGX* with the added convenience of paying for its subscription through MTN Mobile Money.

The pan-African broadcaster and Telecommunications Company have already penned a similar partnership that covers over eight African countries. The extension of this partnership in Uganda further strengthens the collaboration between the two entities.

Olivier Prentout, the Chief Marketing Officer for MTN Uganda welcomed the partnership, noting that, “MTN Uganda’s mission is to make the lives of our customers brighter. We are in the business of continuously seeking partnerships and services aligned to this mission; to benefit the customers as the end users. Kwese TV brings to our screens world class entertainment while MTN Mobile Money brings to the table ease of customer payments, convenience to the customer and quick turnaround time in reconnection for uninterrupted viewing via MTN Mobile Money. Welcome aboard, Kwese!”

MTN Uganda’s midweek data offer dubbed “Gaga Wednesday” that had users get up to 4GB of data at slashed prices for 24 Hours is set to end this week. The much loved offer that had most users waiting for Wednesdays to have a feel of MTN’s 4G internet speeds shall come to an end after this Wednesday, a source told Guru8.

The Promotion started last year with a 1GB bundle at just UGX 3,000 but due to competition and high demand, it was raised to about 4GB going for UGX 2,500. All customers had to do was wait every Wednesday of the week and to buy Gaga bundle for themselves or for another number using the My MTN App

You would ask yourself, for a promotion this successful, why would MTN decide to end it?

Well, most promotions have a lifespan of 3 months and Gaga being such a great promotion for MTN, it was actually extended twice. However, MTN will finally pull the plug on the Gaga Offer after about 6 months of running.

Furthermore, the primary aim of the MTN Gaga Offer was to increase My MTN App downloads and from what we have collected, the downloads increased from 50,000 to 100,000 app downloads and are still soaring.

It wasn’t established how many GBs will be given to users to wrap up the offer this Wednesday but it’s expected to be a mega offer that MTN Uganda is lining up. Brace yourselves for the final lap.

TECNO under TRANSSION HOLDINGS, launched the first 24MP clear selfie camera smartphone – TECNO CAMON X Pro in Africa. TECNO also teamed up with world’s premier internet company Google, to launch a range of smartphones on Android™ Oreo™ System (Go edition) at its 2018 Global Spring launch which took place at the prestigious Eko Hotel and suite, Victoria Island Lagos.

Andy YAN, Vice President of TRANSSION HOLIDINGS reiterated the brands innovative culture from its formative years till date. He dissected the challenges of emerging markets, their realities and TECNO’s commitment to continually rollout innovative products that are very competitive and accessible to the end users. “At TECNO, we do not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach in developing our products. We take insights from our consumers’ habits, preferences and needs to develop the next groundbreaking product that fits perfectly into their lifestyle and consequently displaces the competition”.

“We are not strangers to the business climes in Africa and other emerging markets of the world,” Stephen HA, Managing Director of TECNO Mobile, added. “in fact, our insights about these markets inform our creativity and define our competitive edge.”

TECNO CAMON X Pro: 24MP Clearer Selfie with Live FACE ID

The CAMON X Pro debuts a 24MP + 16MP front and rear cameras with an increased image definition of 30% over that of the CAMON CX to ensure that images are clear and sharp. It dons a 6-inch FHD screen with industry leading 18:9 full view screen, 64GB ROM, 4GB RAM and superfast face recognition technology (featured by FACE ID access).

With a dual ISP image processor, the device can process actions a lot faster as both processors work synchronously together compared to the previous generations of the CAMON. Dark state and noise reduction on the CAMON X has been upgraded by 20% with the memory color function so as to ensure natural color reduction while balancing the color so it can be more pleasant for users to capture incredibly stunning pictures. With portrait background bokeh, the background virtualization function of both CAMON X and X Pro produce strikingly beautiful selfies with little interference from the background.

“You cannot say you have built a next generation smartphone if the device dons a regular camera regardless of its stellar design and features. Smartphone photography is the newest trend and several startup businesses depend on the proficiency of their mobile phone camera to grow their businesses. Thus, the latest CAMON duos are designed to deliver unimaginable precision and appeal to the consumer – a proposition we are proud of. ” Philex MENG, CMO of TECNO Mobile said.

Nowadays, smartphones have become a major part of our lives and form part of our style. The CAMON X and CAMON X Pro debuts a new Face ID technology that can be used to unlock the phone when lighting up the screen. By grasping the face information, the Face ID has 50ms recognition rate and is more functional that the fingerprint identification feature. Also, the HiOS UI identifies components causing heating in the background and quickly cools off the phone through a series of methods such as background cleaning.

Compared with the previous generation products, both in speed and power consumption has been significantly improved by leveraging Mediatek’s helio P23.“Everyone expects their new smartphone to do more and better, that’s why MediaTek designed the Helio P23 chipset to enable mobile phones to capture better, connect better and share more..”says Rami Osman, Director MEA for Sales and Marketing at MediaTek, a global leader of high performance and power efficient chipsets. Commenting on the collaboration with TECNO, Mr. Osman adds:“running on a chipset with 2 Ghz speed, 16 nano meter silicon, and a dedicated hardware for image signal processing will give CAMON X and X Pro longer battery life with fantastic photo and video capture experience, and that’s what we do best… combining high-end features with affordability.”

TECNO F Series: Built For Speed by Google Android™ Oreo™ System

At the launch, TECNO Mobile also unveiled a new smartphone series called the F Series. This TECNO’s mid-range smartphones comes with impressive processing memory and commendable cameras. The TECNO F series dons full display IPS Touchscreen, 2MP front cameras for F1 and F2, and 5MP front cameras for POP1 (F3). All of them are with wide degree Selfie Panorama which will enable users rotate the device from side-to-side in order to take stunning wide-angle selfies.

TECNO F series are powered by Android™ Oreo™ (Go Edition) which is optimized to offer consumers a number of benefits including a smooth and fast experience tailored to devices with 1GB of RAM or less, new and reimagined Google apps for entry-level smartphones including GoogleTM Go, YouTube Go, and the Google Assistant for Android (Go edition) and an enhanced data efficiency.

Sagar Kamdar, Director, Product Management, Android, said: “Android Oreo (Go edition) is specifically optimised to bring the magic of Google and Android to smartphones with limited memory and processing power. We’re excited to see TRANSSION group take the next step towards bringing computing to more people by launching Android Oreo (Go edition) phones on its brand.”

“We are also delighted to announce our partnership with Google. As the mobile industry continue to evolve and consumers continue to ask for more, we are certain with our expertise and resourceful partnerships with the likes of Google, we will be able to effectively cater for the needs of mobile phone consumers in emerging markets” Arif Chowdhury, Group Vice President TRANSSION concluded.

The F Series will ship in early-April to Nigeria and The CAMON X series will ship in mid-April to mobile phone markets across the world and the prices will be based on the local market rates.

Snapchat recently lost almost $800 million after singer Rihanna condemned its offensive advert. In an Instagram post, Rihanna called out the app for making light of domestic violence. One will assume Snapchat did not see the multiple deleting of accounts coming. Facebook faces a similar crisis following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Apparently, data from over 50 million Facebook profiles was secretly scraped and mined for voter insights in the U.S election.

Over the years, Facebook has had to answer to threats to user privacy and this by far has sparked the strongest outrage from users. The question though is if it is as easy as implied in a hashtag #DeleteFacebook to let go of the most popular social platform. Unarguably the most used platform, are businesses willing to tangle free of the prospective customers the platform offers? Are you willing to let go of the social connections you have made since you signed up for your account?  

Brian Acton, the co-founder of WhatsApp which was bought by Facebook in 2014 came out in an online post urging people to delete their accounts and apps. Whatever his reasons are, deleting Facebook may in one way or another lead to the downfall of WhatsApp not forgetting the gross financial losses Facebook is already facing.

While we may ignore the politics behind this uproar, we cannot ignore are the issue of user privacy which is at stake. I cannot tell if the other options like Twitter and Telegram promise better security but I have heard Telegram is not that bad after all.

If deleting Facebook, WhatsApp and their affiliations is not your go to, there are other options for you to explore such as spending less time on the apps for the sake of your privacy. Now is when you review those permissions you have given Facebook before.

If you have always wanted to leave Facebook, this is your time: Click Here

This is a Guest Blog by Kahuubire Pauline

Don’t you just love how technology makes life easier every second of every day?

I mean you can now have access to a personal assistant ready with directions to that get away place you have always wanted to visit, ready to call anyone on request and able to give you weather forecasts so your plans are not messed up. Yes, all that can be done in just one simple step: Siri, should I carry an umbrella tomorrow? Thank me later.

With technology came the Amazon Kindle a device that enables users to browse, buy, download and read e-books, magazines and newspapers via a wireless connection to the Kindle Store. What that meant for the student, business guru and avid reader is you do not have to carry tons of books around. And now you can add newsletters to that collection of publications you can access on your Kindle thanks to the N2Kindle platform.

What N2Kindle does is it lets you read your newsletters on your Kindle immediately they get to your inbox. Here’s a prospect of you enjoying your daily dose of information without having to switch between numerous apps.

All you have to do is sign up as a user with your Kindle email address and a personal N2Kindle address is created for you to be able to sign up for newsletters. The rest is history. You will only sit back and relax as technology automatically converts your newsletter to a Kindly friendly layout, forwards it to your email address and ka-boom, newsletter on your Kindle.

N2Kindle gives you the chance to test the product first in a 30 day trial. If impressed, the service goes for 1€ a month. Before your smile fades, N2Kindle also offers a free service when you share N2Kindle with friends – just two friends.

This is a Guest Blog by Kahuubire Pauline

Taxify, Europe and Africa’s fastest-growing ride-sharing platform, has unveiled a new XL feature on the platform. The feature is an addition to help simplify travel within and around Kampala.

“The XL feature is one of the options that Taxify has created for those riding/travelling in big groups. We currently have a standard category that accommodates a maximum of four people and a boda category that can carry one. The XL category will give people the option of travelling in groups of up to 6.” said Shivachi Muleji, Regional Manager East Africa.

Drivers of the XL category vehicles have to go through the same training as drivers of the
standard category. They are also required to have a driving permit and National ID. The vehicles must be manufactured from 2000 onwards and have a third party insurance sticker covering 6 people.

“We will maintain the same level of service and driver quality to ensure that our customers feel safe and enjoy their experience while using Taxify, ” added Shivachi.
Happy drivers offer a great experience for riders, therefore Taxify believes in treating its drivers with respect, allowing them to earn more than what they receive on any other platform, and providing a range of features that help them work in the way that suits them best. Taxify XL will launch at a 10% discount with fares at 2,500 UGX Base fare, 150 UGX per Minute, 850 UGX per KM and 6000 UGX Minimum Fare. Taxify will compensate the drivers with bonuses to compensate for the discounted price. Taxify takes a commission of 15%.

“The XL feature will help those who want to travel as a group or family without spending a lot of money,” concluded Shivachi.

This is a Press Release from Taxify Uganda

The upgraded version of Ecobank’s (www.Ecobank.com) revolutionary mobile app has attracted 3 million new customers in just 6 months, taking the total number of users to 4 million.

The app builds on the core functionality that saw the original version applauded as a game changer for African banking by using digital technology to combat many of the financial inclusion barriers faced by those on the continent. This includes the dearth of rural branches, affordability of products, high transaction costs and minimum opening balance requirements.

Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO, says Ecobank’s strategic mission is built around using mobile banking to deliver innovative, efficient and cost-effective services to those who have typically sat outside of the formal economy, and therefore goes far beyond the reach of the traditional branch and ATM networks. Subsequently, while the app won one million customers in its first year of launch, upgraded features have seen the rate of sign-ups treble in half of the time. So far this year, app usage has been growing at an average 700k new customers per month.

“Customers can use the app on their mobile to instantly open Ecobank Xpress Account™, which doesn’t have any account fees, paperwork or minimum balance requirements, or to send and receive money across 33 African countries,” he explains. “Therefore, our app not only removes the barriers that have financially excluded so many Africans but offers next generation functionality to help them send money, make withdrawals or pay for goods and services.”

Patrick Akinwuntan, Ecobank’s Group Executive, Consumer Banking, says that Ecobank is committed to providing all Africans with access to financial services, but doing so in a way that conjoins functionality with convenient, accessible and efficient banking channels, such as the rollout of Ecobank Xpress ^™ Point Agents.

“We want to be the digital bank of choice for all Africans,” he said. “Functionality is one thing – giving our customers unrivalled convenience is another. The Ecobank Xpress ^™ Point Agents that can now be found in your local neighbourhood enable you to deposit money into your app-based Ecobank Xpress Account™ and begin to make digital payments on the app using Ecobankpay. You can also withdraw funds in local currency that may have been sent to you from friends or relatives using our innovative instant transfer or Xpress Cash capabilities.”

The Ecobank Mobile App is available for download from the Google Play Store or Apple Store.