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Negotiated fares taxi hailing app inDriver, targets more African cities

July 22, 2019

Online ride hailing service, inDriver, which allows passengers to negotiate the fare with drivers, has begun recruiting drivers in Harare for the service, which it intends to launch in the capital towards the end of this month. inDriver, which is headquartered in New York, has 26 million users in more than 200 cities throughout the world. The service is already operating in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The inDriver app is used by passengers and drivers to be linked up and negotiate fares. The app can also be used…

Payment app Venmo has 40 million users, parent company PayPal discloses

July 1, 2019 olivia Craig

Popular payment app Venmo has ushered in 40 million users to the platform, its parent company PayPal announced on Wednesday. This is the first time PayPal has disclosed user numbers for the millennial-focused, peer-to-peer app. In its first-quarter earnings report, PayPal said it now has a total 277 million total customer accounts — including 22 million merchant accounts. Total payment volume for Venmo grew 73% year over year to $21 billion in the first quarter, the company said. PayPal said Venmo is still on pace to do $100 billion in…

Swvl, Egyptian bus bokking app raises $42 million for expansion into more African countries

June 20, 2019

Swvl, an Egyptian app for booking buses, has raised $42 million as it looks to expand into other parts of Africa, including Nigeria. The two-year-old company, which started in Cairo and also operates in Alexandria and Nairobi in Kenya, got the money from venture-capital firms including Sweden’s Vostok, Dubai-based BECO Capital, China’s MSA and Endeavor Catalyst, based in New York. “The plan is to be in at least two or three more African cities by the end of the year,’’ Mostafa Kandil, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive officer, said…

A world of new possibilities from Mobile apps to the blind and visually impaired

June 13, 2019June 13, 2019 olivia Craig

Ask anyone who was around before smartphones, and they’ll tell you life was different. But for Nutsiri “Earth” Kidkul, who went blind eight years ago, life-changing doesn’t begin to describe the impact of mobile apps. Before specialized apps came along, Kidkul would have to plan and prepare much more for basic tasks like grocery shopping, traveling or reading documents. What’s more, Kidkul often needed assistance from other people to go about her day. “I was always at the mercy of their time or schedule,” Kidkul says. Kidkul uses, for example,…

Unregulated digital apps loans, consumer protection among emerging issues that require attention- CBK Kenya Study

April 4, 2019 Editor

The 2019 FinAccess Household Survey report presents results of data collected during October – December 2018 covering 11,000 households across the country. The survey targeted individuals aged 16 years and above, from scientifically selected households, designed to provide significant estimates at the national and regional level and by residence (rural and urban areas). The 2019 survey focussed more on the usage, quality and impact/welfare dimensions of measuring financial inclusion. In addition, the questionnaire incorporated a needs-based framework to the measure the relevance of financial services and products; financial health and…

MTN launches ‘world first’ WhatsApp-based Airtime Top-up service

March 26, 2019March 26, 2019 olivia Craig

MTN says it will become the first mobile network in the world to let customers buy airtime and data bundles and check their balances directly on Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp. The service, MTN Chat, will help customers manage their accounts “off a secure and convenient platform they already know and love”, said Mapula Bodibe, MTN SA’s consumer business executive. “It’s imperative that companies focus on improving self-service experiences to retain and grow customers and this is an important step for MTN,” Bodibe said. Calling it a world first for the…

Miss.Africa Digital Celebrates International Women’s Day With its Annual Seed Fund Application Drive

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019 Staff Writer

DCA Trust celebrated the Women’s Day by launching the 2019 Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund Application Drive. Parallel to my advocacy on the philosophy of positive “tech disruption”, and how it has the ability to create a welcome change in our societies, if we regularly engage in doing something out of our comfort zone for our mind, body and spirit, I’m a great believer that we will find ourselves in a much better space as human beings, as well as be more effective in our work.” 2019: Year of work-life-balance, –…

MPESA option now available on Aliexpress App

March 12, 2019March 12, 2019 olivia Craig

Shopping online can seem like a daunting task to some people, especially considering the limited payment options and security issues that bog online transactions. Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform, AliExpress, has slowly but steadily gained popularity in Kenya as the platform opens up the Chinese vast goods market to Kenyans. International shopping in Kenya has mainly relied on third-party services such a Vitumob or Something Random, that aim to connect locals to the well-established platforms like Amazon but recently we have seen these shopping websites make an effort to directly reach their…