HiPipo Money

One of these days while having a chat with a friend, I learnt how he lost 18 dollars while attempting to make an online book purchase. He paid to a website that never existed as the actual book selling store! Following his loss and the skepticism with which he views online transactions now, he may not use this mode of buying sooner.   There are many Ugandans and other people around the world who view online transactions as a straight way for innocent unsuspecting citizens to loose their money.

The fear of losing money online is also coupled with other fears; In economies with weak consumer protection laws, online shoppers have little recourse if they’ve been sold a faulty good. So when they buy something, people prefer to deal with the seller face-to-face, to judge whether or not they are credible.  Despite of these fears, if we go by the MasterCard Mobile Readiness Index, that ranked Kenya among the top 5 countries whose populations are ready to make mobile payments for person to person , point of sale, and mcommerce, we can reliably assume that the population in Africa, is slowly getting comfortable with using a phone to make payment and hence we are not far from the  true ecommerce and mcomerce era.  

As we embrace ecommerce and mcommerce in Uganda and the rest of Africa, security is still a major challenge whether in the developed world on in developing countries. Ecommerce and Mcommerce security will increasing be areas of concern in Uganda and the rest of Africa.

There have been some kind of horror stories of people getting ripped off online or worse yet, having their identity stolen due to an online transaction. In order to protect yourself, here are some of the tips to consider.

• Use your home computer or you own phone when shopping online. Equip this computer/phone with the latest web browser and have a good anti-virus and spy ware program. This is much safer than using a computer at an Internet cafe or the local library.
• Check the connection. If you have a secure connection you should not see an open padlock or broken key symbol on your Internet connection browser. If you see one of these symbols then you should not be entering any financial information because you are not on a secure site. Someone else could intercept your information. Always verify that you have a secure connection.
• When you are going to a site to shop then go there directly by typing in the address. Do not click on an web address that is linked on a message. It doesn’t matter if you know the person who sent you the message, manually type that address in.
• Do you use a third-party payment company such as Pay Pal? This is something to consider. You could also have a low limit credit/debit card that you use for your online transactions. If something does happen then you will limit your losses.
• Buyer beware! If you are browsing auction sites or unauthorized retail sites then be careful of the too good to be true sales. If it is a true designer item or highly popular electronic device then a huge drop in price is not likely. Be aware that there are a lot of people out there prepared to pay close to full price for the real item so what you are looking at is likely a fake.
• Your emails are not private. Others can intercept your email. Do not send financial, personal or confidential information by un encrypted email.
• Check your statements. Your bank statement can be viewed immediately, you do not have to wait for a print out at the end of the month. The same can be said for credit card transactions.

So sad, so soon , before the end of week 2 in Big Brother Africa StarGame house, Nigerian duo Ola and Chris has quit the house today, 18^th May.

Ola and Chris will miss the chance to compete for the StarGame USD 300 000 prize!

In their Diary Session today, Ola and Chris sat with heavy hearts, prompting Big Brother to ask them what was wrong with them.

Ola broke the news by telling Biggie that after consultation with the House Doctor, he would like to Voluntarily Exit the Big Brother House. He said that he has thought about it and since the medication he is on does not seem to be working effectively, would like to seek medical attention outside of the Big Brother House. His health problem relate to high blood pressure.

An agreeing Chris added that he understands Ola’s problem completely. Saying, “Yes, this is a game. However, we can’t play with our lives.” “Health is wealth”, Ola added.

The two were instructed by Biggie to leave the Diary Room and speak to their fellow Housemates, to explain the situation.

The two Nigerian Housemates have to leave the House with immediate effect, seeing as their Voluntary Exit has been prompted by a serious medical condition that needs urgent attention.

This is definitely sad news for the Ola, Chris, Friends, fans and the Entire Nigerian fraternity as they will not compete for BBA7 title anymore. However, given the fact that Nigeria has always been one of the highly competing sides in the previous seasons. This might give hope for other representatives to compete favorably.

We wish you well Ola and Chris.

Ola Bakare is Lagos resident and interior designer, he is 6’9” tall.

Chris is a single Fashion designer and has a degree in Human Kinetics.

Stay right on HiPipo 5Star for the latest updates about Big Brother Africa StarGame.

From the days when one had to hand-code HTML and PHP scripts in order to get a slick, fully functional website, Content Management Systems (CMS) over the last decade have improved and eased website building. The most popular CMS are Joomla, Drupal and WordPress that come with tens of thousands of add-on tools created by very active developer communities.  

These CSM applications have a lot of similarities. They are all written in the PHP programming language, are licensed under the free GNU General Public License (GPL), and all depend on the MySQL database to hold and manage the actual content within a website.

With almost the same platform requirements (PHP, MySQL, Apache) to use, the challenge comes in making a choice of which CMS is appropriate for your website’s purpose.  Below are some of the aspects to ponder upon as you make that choice.

Conclusions

All of the CMSes are very good and play to different strengths. If one is a beginner, WordPress is the simplest to jump into the CMS world. The themes and plug-ins are diverse and numerous, and this is a very good starter CMS that can scale quite well into a more a complex site.

Joomla is good for sites that are a bit more complex and are going to be managed by someone with stronger technical skills. For this type of situation, Joomla is perfect: plenty of extensions, easier to learn and enough templates to make site design worries moot.

If you are considering building a much more complex site that needs much flexibility, Drupal is the KING. Though it’s harder to learn, it has much more flexibility to scale a site in terms of complexity. It also has the ability to scale up into very complex sites to be used for a variety of business needs.

Despite the existence of these strong CMSes, that reduce the cost to own a website, many companies and brands in Uganda have not yet made use of this as an opportunity to set up an online presence.   For consultancy with any of the CMSes and for setting up your website, check out HiPipo Digital Media Services. 

It has long been a challenge for Ugandans without bank accounts to transact online and also those that do travel aboard have faced several risks related with carrying cash. The process of acquiring and maintaining a bank account has for long had little attraction to many average Ugandans.  With so much lacking in the Uganda banking sector, Mobile Money has come and has been embraced pretty fast.  Banks have been challenged to come up with solutions that cater for the unbanked.  Prepaid Debit Cards are here as one of the solutions. Though the idea of Prepaid Debit Cards is not founded in Uganda, United Bank of Africa (UBA) Uganda is one of the banks that have brought Prepaid Debit Cards.

In the USA, the primary market for prepaid debit cards are unbanked people who typically may have poor credit ratings, who do not use banks or credit unions for their financial transactions or people that are not yet permitted to transact with credit cards such as those less that 18yrs.

In Uganda, it is less a question of credit standing but a question of a big number of unbanked population which at one time or the other would need the service of a VISA branded card to transact online or as they travel.

The advantages of prepaid debit cards include being safer than carrying cash, worldwide functionality due to Visa and MasterCard merchant acceptance, not having to worry about paying some bank account charges, the ability for anyone over the age of 18 to apply and be accepted without regard to credit quality and the ability to directly deposit paychecks and government benefits onto the card for a free.

It is been typical in our largely cash economy that for someone to pay you with a cheque you will have the burden of opening a bank account. This will change with prepaid debit cards. All you need is go to the bank with the cheque, arrange this card and your money will be deposited on this card. For several months after your cheque is cashed through your prepaid debit card, you possibly may not need to use the card and won’t be burdened with some charges such as the monthly bank account charges.

The cards such as what UBA is offering typically come with features such as ability to Purchase at Point of Sell, Purchase on WEB, ATM Cash withdrawal and Point of Sale cash Advance.

Despite of the seaming ease to get and use the prepaid debit cards, there still will be some bank charges which a customer will have to weigh with what they need the card for in comparison to the charges of maintaining a bank account.

A Job has never been anything and no one should lie to you. When you apply for a Job it’s because you need it and through it you will have personal satisfaction. First and most commonly you will be able to meet your needs, pay your bills because you earn something from that job.

In most cases, for one to acquire a job, they must first go through a Test(s)/Interview(s) in order for the employer to certify that you are actually the right individual to take on the job.

There is really no secret to getting a job if the following things are at play:

i) You’re qualified for the position.

ii) You’re confident that you could do the job.

iii) You are comfortable talking to strangers.

For most people with common sense, ‘i’ and ‘ii’ are must hold qualities.  Much as many might luck the confidence, but they know it by common sense that the first 2 are a must.  This does not rule out the fact that you can apply for a job ahead of your qualifications though these are rare cases. Unfortunately, for confidence, many people run into trouble.

Keeping that in mind, here are three very simple things anyone can do to impress an interviewer;

1. Be memorable, say or do something memorable — in a good way

If it were a technical interview, do something out the range of your interviewer expectations in a good way. Something that I rarely done by people of your qualification. It might be out of profession but clearly in line of your understanding and reasoning. You might say something about the company you applied to that the interviewer(s) don’t know about and would need to know even more. They will wonder how you got to know something they must know but don’t and will most probably want to know more things that you know and they don’t know and you’ll stand out.

2. Pay attention to every little Detail on your way in to the interview

Right from the main entrance of the interview venue, this will most probably be the company premises, apart from employers that hire interviewer agencies which carry out interview exercises wherever they wish. But look here, take notice of everything you see and the little details will help you understand the place and people you meet at the interview better.

They might be art paintings, flowers , company rules , motto, mission and vision pinned somewhere, read and look at them critically , get to know their colors , architecture  etc , you will get into the interview in a better position to answer as required. Make sure you don’t fear what you see.

Right in the middle of the interview , you can speak about a few of those details you saw on your way, make sure you don’t take much time on this and never talk about that amazing story you told your friends the previous night!

3. Research

How will you convince me when you know nothing about my life, character, likes and dislikes? You must be able to carry out extensive research about the company, your job requirements and any other important facts that will help you look different at the interview.

If you have the opportunity to know about the person to interview you, as well take some time to know more about them, their interests, career, when they think you know them and you truly know something good about them, they will be more comfortable with you and you will thus be at a leveled ground.

This is the most important tip you should follow before going for any interview. Research will help kill a lot of fear and you will have knowledge plus confidence to respond to all questions as asked.

Wish YOU the best.

According to the Inmobi report for the quarter ending February 2012, Nokia still leads in the mobile ad impression across Africa though it is important to observe that  Nokia’s market share of the ad impression declined from what it was for the previous quarter that ended November 2011.

Inmobi reports that it received 35 billion mobile adverts impression across Africa during the quarter.  Growth in Smartphone impressions saw an increase of 66% whereas overall growth was an increase of 45%.

The RIM BlackBerry 8520 was the handset with the larger share of impression, 7.7%.  RIM Market share of impression increased during the quarter.

The Manufacturer’s share of impressions was

1.       Nokia – 58%

2.       Samsung – 17%

3.       RIM – 12%

4.       Sony Ericson – 5%

5.       LG – 3%

6.     Other – 4%

We think the inmobi figures(see image) that show a decline in impression on Nokia devices signals the bigger problem that Nokia is about to face in the market it has lead for over a decade. What do you think? 

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MasterCard Worldwide unveiled the MasterCard Mobile Payments Readiness Index (MPRI), an analysis of 34 countries and their readiness to use three types of mobile payments: person to person (P2P), mobile web commerce (m-commerce) and mobile contactless payments at the point of sale (POS). The MPRI found that while no two nations are the same, consumer readiness is the critical success factor to drive mobile payments adoption. Kenya ranks among the top five countries globally in being ready to adopt mobile payments technology. Kenya comes after Singapore, Canada and United States.    89% of Kenyans were found to be familiar with mobile payments whereas 68% of the Kenyans were making P2P payments frequently.

The factors that were measured include

1.       Consumer Readiness; Measured how familiar with, how willing to use, and how frequently consumers are currently using all three types of mobile payments.

2.       Environment; Measured economic, technological, and demographic factors within a market.

3.       Financial Services; Measured the effectiveness and penetration of consumer financial products.

4.       Infrastructure; Measured the sophistication and penetration of the mobile phone industry and Near Field Communication (NFC) terminalization.

5.       Mobile Commerce Clusters; Measured partnerships among banks, mobile networks, and governments.

6.Regulation; Measured legal and regulatory structures and how they affect businesses.

SOUTH AFRICA

According to the report, South Africa received a score of 29.1 on the MasterCard Mobile Payments Readiness Index, a number mainly driven by lack of partnerships as well as lagging Infrastructure and overall Environment scores. It’s important to note that Consumer Readiness scores were higher than average primarily due to familiarity with and willingness to use P2P payments, though familiarity is relatively high among all payment types.

Key facts about South Africa were that

1.       There are no existing partnerships between banks and telecoms in South Africa

2.       Only 12% of South Africans have access to the Internet

3.       26% of South Africans are willing to use P2P payments

MasterCard reports that in South Africa, there are no existing partnerships among banks, telecoms, and payments companies other than small programs by South African telecoms that mainly focus on SMS transfers. The regulatory environment is burdensome in South Africa; however, other areas of the overall environment require attention before any party can seriously attempt to mount a move to mobile payments.

In its report MasterCard concludes that the market infrastructure in South Africa will require some work in order to adequately handle mobile payments. While consumers show willingness to use their mobile devices for all payment types, the biggest opportunity within South Africa is likely in improving the mobile experience for P2P payments, as it appears to hold the greatest interest among consumers.

KENYA

MasterCard states that It’s no secret why Kenya, ranking 83rd as an economy, right after Guatemala and before Puerto Rico, according to the CIA Factbook, should be in the company of big, developed, and integrated markets like the United States and Canada, and city-state powerhouses like Singapore. The success of M-Pesa has created an alternative payment network in Kenya, making it, in terms of sheer usage, one of the most advanced markets in the world. In Kenya, the MasterCard Mobile Payments Readiness Index story is less about payment protocol than it is about the levels of usage and awareness M-Pesa has fostered there. Key facts about Kenya include

1.       Low Environment, Infrastructure, and Financial Services scores are part of the reason for M-Pesa’s success

2.       M-Pesa is closed loop; users must be Safaricom customers

3.       Kenya has the world’s highest rate of P2P payments familiarity at 89% and a reported usage level of 70%

Environment and infrastructure are issues in Kenya, but they need to be parsed carefully. The success that mobile money has had in these early days is attributable, in part, to a lack of a traditional infrastructure and alternative conventional payment media. Mobile suggested itself as a solution to a population deeply in need of a fast and secure method of payment.

There’s another consideration. M-Pesa is closed loop; this means that only M-Pesa (Safaricom) customers, consumers and merchants can send or receive payments from each other. So it’s early days in Kenya in more than one respect.

MasterCard further states that it’s Kenyan consumers who have powered the East African nation to its position on the Index. Not only are Kenyan consumers leading the world in usage of P2P mobile payments, the success of M-Pesa has increased the awareness of all types of mobile payments.

It concludes about Kenya that the success of mobile payments in Kenya is remarkable and can serve as a blueprint for payments adoption in the rest of the emerging world, where safety and inclusion are key goals. Nevertheless, Kenya is not leveraging the full range of solutions available for mobile payments. A further developed infrastructure can build on the solid foundation already in place.

UGANDA

A comparison of Kenya and South Africa shows that South Africa readiness is way lower than Kenya readiness.  A question is then asked of how ready is Uganda? Uganda was not part of this study but with the current liberalized mobile money trends in Uganda, we would expect Uganda to perform better than South Africa in readiness though most likely lower than Kenya the pioneers of mobile money with M-Pesa.

This pearl of Africa is full of constructive brains, if they are well made use of, Uganda would be a much better place by now.

Recently, The Team, Cipher 256 of three students from Makerere University Kampala (MUK) invented a pregnancy scan machine that has already won an award, at the 2012 Microsoft East and Southern Africa Imagine Cup.

Aaron Tushabe, Joshua Okello and Josiah Kavuma, all members of the University’s College of Computing and Information Technology (CIT), invented WinSenga, a hand-held device that can scan a pregnant woman’s womb to monitor baby movements and detect ectopic pregnancy or abnormal heart beats.

This device will help ease testing task in private and public hospital that has been previously done manually. Now, a trained medical personnel in a school, hospital or clinic will make use of this device to diagnose for pregnancy , and keep records for future use, as the devices automatically records any entry.

WinSenga is made of a traditional funnel-like pinard horn which midwives and gynecologists typically use to listen to fetal sounds. The horn is connected to a smart phone by an external microphone which is strategically placed at the flat end of the horn. According to information available on Makerere University’s website, the phone contains an application that has a sound recording module and sound analysis module which will produce a report detailing the position of the baby during the different trimesters, the age of the baby and the fetal heart rate. When the horn is pressed on the abdomen, the phone screen displays data on the condition and location of the fetus.

Currently, midwives use the traditional pinard to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Though they might not always hear everything or get enough details about the baby. WinSenga will aid the doctors to get better results and thus provide appropriate health care.

The device can help you determine age of the fetus, weight, positioning and breathing pattern of the growing baby. This would help doctors have a better picture of what precautions they have to take for any case of pregnancy.

The three partners invented the WinSenga as an entry for the 2012 Microsoft East and Southern Africa Imagine Cup competition. It took the top position. WinSenga will go on to compete in the Imagine Cup Worldwide finals to be held in Sydney, Australia in July.

According to Tushabe one of the founders, they intend to put WinSenga device of market in July after the Imagine Cup Wordwide finals, it will be sold at retail price of $3,000 per piece.

Suddenly begging for Goldie‘s kisses! Didn’t Prezzo say he was married?

Prezzo and Goldie are getting too close for comfort despite the fact that Prezzo has been bragging about his wife.  Just before midnight on Monday, Prezzo and Goldie cozied in the patio, giggling and promising each other trust amongst other things.

Prezzo felt he deserved a kiss from Goldie and when she gave him a quick perk on the cheek, Prezzo cried for more.

Meanwhile, nominated for possible eviction Sierra Leone Housemates reflected on their feelings pending Sunday’s Eviction Show.  While the rest of the Housemates were having a music session, singing out of tune to the guitar, Zainab and Dalphin were hung on Nominations.

Dalphin felt that Downville was rather funny now that she was nominated but Zainab differed. “I don’t feel any different. I want to be here but I want to see my boyfriend too so, either way, I’m down with it,” Zainab said.