30 million mobile phone users in Kenya soon able to keep their number when changing providers

Dutch Provide Kenya With Number Portability
From PR Newswire /APO - Monday, 10 May 2010:

DELFT, The Netherlands and NAIROBI, Kenya, May 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Within a couple of months 30 million mobile users in Kenya are able to keep their mobile phone number when changing providers. The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has chosen the Dutch company PortingXS to provide number portability to the East-African country.

Until now, changing providers in Africa without losing your mobile phone number was only possible in Morocco, Egypt and South-Africa. Kenya is one of the leading African countries when it comes to mobile technology, even allowing its 38 million inhabitants to make financial transactions through their mobile phones, but it lacked the service of number portability.

To offer mobile users more freedom of choice and enhance competition and consumer convenience, Kenya started a tender for number portability in October last year. Of the six firms that made a bid – some African, some European – PortingXS came out as best. According to CEO Ronald Vlasman, PortingXS not only due to economical reasons, but also because his company will provide services from a local office in Nairobi and will train local students to employ them.

Kenya has 30 million mobile users. The main providers are Safaricom (78 percent), Zain Kenya (17 percent), Orange (4 percent) and Yu (1 percent). Changing providers is difficult for clients, because they lose their number in the process.

PortingXS will start number portability services in a few months, depending on the consultations with national providers and the CCK. “It’s our first giant step into the African continent, but definitely not our last,” CEO Ronald Vlasman states. “There are talks with surrounding and other African countries to implement number portability as we speak and we hope we can provide our services there as well.”

In the Netherlands, PortingXS provides services to two third of the operators. Two years ago the company stepped into the international market and it handles number portability on the isles of Guernsey, Jersey and The Isle of Man.

Kenya: President Pushes for More Chinese Investment

Kenya: President Pushes for More Chinese Investment
From Daily Nation via AllAfrica, Sunday, 02 May 2010:

Shanghai — Kenyans can expect more involvement through funding and investment in development projects by China, with President Kibaki's visit to the country, where he invited the Chinese business people to invest in the country.

President Kibaki held talks with officials of China-Africa Development (CAD) Fund who paid him a courtesy call, on Sunday, during which the team, led by the chief executive officer, Mr Chi Jian Xin, informed him on its willingness to partner with private and public companies.

This would be in supporting projects that can be funded through the official bilateral framework between Kenya and China. Among the projects pointed out for consideration, High-grand Falls and Coal-powered electricity generation projects. Later, the President met with Pan Jilu, President of Hydro-China Guiyang Corporation.

The company, a Hydropower and wind power generation, transmission and distribution Company, has been involved in Nandi Multi-purpose Hydro Power project along the Yala River, Bubisa wind power generation project in Marsabit and Ewaso Nyiro South Multipurpose project.

President Kibaki also met and held discussions with Mr Zhang Ren Jun, Senior Vice President of ZTE Corporation. ZTE is a global Telecommunications, Equipment and Networks provider which has been engaged in Western Kenya and North Rift Fibre Optical Cabling extending to the Southern Sudan border.

President Kibaki encouraged the Chinesese business community to invest in Kenya, assuring them that the government is doing everything possible to guarantee a friendly environment. He directed the ministries of Finance, Regional Development and Energy to organise consultative meetings with companies interested in Kenya's development needs and work out modalities of implementing identified projects.

President Kibaki also opened the Kenya Stand in the African Pavilion and attended the official opening of the Expo 2010 Shanghai, China. He also held bilateral talks with the host, President Hu Jintao, during which agreements on funding of Vision 2030 flagship projects were reached.

Among the projects the two leaders agreed upon is the construction of the Lamu Port as well as new areas of development cooperation including health and education where more scholarships will be given for Kenyans to study in China. During the bilateral talks, President Hu Jintao announced the extension of a Sh1.2 billion grant towards Kenya's development projects.

National Survey Shows Kenyan Internet Market Heading Towards 'Critical Mass'

National Survey Shows Kenyan Internet Market Heading Towards 'Critical Mass'
From Angola Press, Saturday, 30 January 2010:

(London) - The latest national survey from market research company Synovate shows Kenya's Internet market is growing fast and on the basis of this growth will soon reach "critical mass". The growth in users is coming from both urban and rural areas and is predominantly amongst the young and well educated.

The total sample for this random survey was 1,500 people, with 500 of those in a boost sample from across the major districts of Kenya. Therefore the coverage is nationally representative of adults 15 and above and has a sampling margin of error of + or - 3%. It makes comparisons with a similar survey it carried out in 2007.

On the basis of this sample, Synovate estimates that there are now 3.5 million Internet users in Kenya. However, daily Internet use has grown from 2% of the respondents in 2007 to 5% in 2009 and weekly use from 5% to 12% over the same period. The daily use figure is
the crucial one as it shows users who are finding that that they cannot do without Internet services.

If the weekly Internet use is broken down on an urban vs rural basis, urban use grew from 22% of respondents in 2007 to 30% in 2009. Rural use grew from 4% to 9% over the same period. These results confirm a lot of anecdotal evidence that has been reaching us about young people using the Government's new Internet centres and cyber cafes in rural areas.

The lower income groups recorded a much more fast paced growth in internet access.

However Internet penetration within middle class and below is still very low, making it the group with the highest growth potential. And following the expected drop in Internet costs LSM 4-10s should provide the highest growth in usage. At least half the non-users across all social categories said they would be interested in using the Internet if they had access.

In terms of age, 50% of the respondents using Internet were aged 15-34 with 21% in the 18-24 age bracket. The upcoming generation of Kenyans will be regular users of the Internet and it will form as much part of their lives as mobile phones. Over 56% of the Internet using respondents were college or University educated. Therefore those countries with better education levels in Africa will show markedly higher Internet penetration levels.