Airtel and FirstBank Sign MoU on Mobile Money Service

The landscape of e-banking services in Nigeria is set to witness a major shift as two leading companies in banking and telecom sectors of the economy, FirstBank of Nigeria Plc (FirstBank) and Airtel Networks Limited have agreed to combine their strengths to provide seamless mobile money services to millions of Nigerians.

Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two companies recently in Lagos, the two companies promised to combine their strengths to provide secure, convenient and user-friendly mobile banking services to unbanked people throughout via mobile phones.

Mobile banking is the use of mobile phones to remotely access bank accounts, primarily for account inquiry, mobile transfer, retail payments, micro insurance, savings remittances, mobile top-up, utility bill payments and government collections among others.

In his speech, The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Rajan Swaroop, said, "Partnering First Bank to bring mobile financial services to all corners of country further demonstrates Airtel's commitment to Nigeria and supports the concept of borderless mobile telecoms services across the country.

“Indeed, we are excited to partner with one of the biggest financial institutions in the country. This partnership will, without a doubt, assist us in realizing our vision of empowering more Nigerians with innovative and affordable mobile financial services. At Airtel Nigeria, we are committed to creating value propositions that will delight, enrich and benefit our customers regardless of their income level and location.”

Commenting on the initiative, FirstBank’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bisi Onasanya said mobile banking is hinged on three planks which are defined in terms of financial inclusion for the unbanked and the underbanked, person to person transaction in terms of sending and receiving money as well as retail payment for the purchase of goods and services. He added that “With over 600 branches and thousands of business partner outlets in strategic proximity to the people, coupled with over 1,500 ATMs including cash deposit ATMs, cardless and biometric ATMs, over 5million active accounts and more than 1,200 Point of Sale terminals, FirstBank has always been at the forefront of innovative financial services solutions.

In addition to the mobile money services, Onasanya said FirstBank has in place a world-class IT infrastructure to drive its e-payment services across transaction touch points. These services, according to him, include: Internet banking services, FirstOnline, FirstBank Visa Gold Credit Card, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sale Terminals (POS) FirstBank MasterCard, FirstBank Classic Card, FirstBank Naira MasterCard and Cash Deposit ATMs amongst others.

The Group Managing Director further assured that FirstBank will continue to lead the innovation drive in mobile banking through progressive and robust upgrades that will enable mobile money customers perform actions such as salary lodgement, pension and other types of payments and disbursements. Onasanya further affirmed that with a rich heritage, dependability and innovative dynamism, FirstBank is naturally the best partner for any telecom company to provide this novel initiative.

The mobile money initiative, an integral part of the broad objectives of the FSS 20:2020 was conceived by the Central Bank of Nigeria because of its critical nature to achieving a “cashless society which is fundamental to the nation’s goal of becoming one of the top 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020.

New Android 5.0 'Jelly Bean' debuts Q2

Barely have users of devices running Google's Android OS had their fill of "Ice Cream Sandwich" when another flavor of the OS - "Jelly Bean" may be coming soon. Taiwan-based tech site DigiTimes cited supply chain makers as saying Android 5.0, codenamed "Jelly Bean," may launch as early as the second quarter of 2012.

 "Android 5.0 will be further optimized for tablet PCs, while Google will also integrate its Chrome system functions to push dual-operating system designs. Brand vendors can either choose to adopt only Android 5.0 or add Android 5.0 to Windows 8 devices with the ability to switch between the two OSes without the need to shut down the computer," DigiTimes said.

It said the quick switch to Android 5.0 may have been due to slow adoption of Android 4.0, "Ice Cream Sandwich." Besides, it said Microsoft will likely launch Windows 8 in the third quarter of 2012.

 "Google is likely to launch Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) in the second quarter and appeal for adopting Android 5.0 and Windows 8 in the same tablet PC, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers," DigiTimes said.

It also said that with Android 5.0, Google also wishes to earn another chance to enter the notebook and netbook markets. "However, since Android 4.0 did not perform as well as expected, several of Google's downstream partners are turning conservative about Android 5.0," it added. 

A separate article on PC World noted most Android phones do not even have Ice Cream Sandwich yet, and big delays for the upgrade are expected from manufacturers like Motorola.

But PC World also said Android 5.0 may promise some "really intriguing features," including integration with Chrome.

"The recent release of Chrome for Android tells me that Google may finally be ready to take Chrome OS seriously. If Android 5.0 Jelly Bean is really going to make Chrome work as a product, it'll port Chrome OS to mobile devices, sync between desktops, tablets, and smartphones, and take full advantage of the Chrome browser's expanding lineup of games and productivity apps. Maybe Google will even lob off the hydra head of Android fragmentation, kill the Android brand completely, and start using Chrome as its marquee style," it said.

Samsung Electronics launch another engineering academy in Kenya...plans for Nigeria

Samsung Electronics has launched the second engineering academy in Nairobi. The company launched the first one in South Africa and they plan to train over 10,000 engineers by 2015 to support various customers in the region.

In 2003, Samsung Electronics had over 1.3 million products in Kenya, by 2004 it had 2.5 million products, the number of products in the Kenyan market continues to grow and there is a need to train more technical support engineers. To this, the state of the art engineering academy is meant to train engineers that will push innovation in Kenya and offer service support of a wide range of Samsung products.

“Technology innovation is key to the development of Kenya’s economy in line with Vision 2030”, says His Excellency Chan-Woo Kim, Korea Ambassador to Kenya. He adds that the academy is not only a knowledge hub but will also create job opportunities in Kenya.

120 students, selected from Samsung E-learning Centers located at PC Kinyanjui and Kabete Technical, will attend the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy and receive hands-on, practical skills training at no cost, enabling them to move into well-paying jobs after they graduate. After they complete their training at the Academy, Samsung will also assist students in kick-starting their careers by giving them the opportunity to intern and thereafter work and serve as independent service technicians or employees in their retail channel outlets in the region.

In conjunction with the launch of the Academy, Samsung East Africa also opened a Customer Service Plaza in the same building, which will provide a one-stop shop for service, repair and inquiries on all Samsung products as part of the company’s continued efforts to improve customer service in the region. It will also provide students at the Engineering Academy with first-hand experience of how customer and product repairs are managed.

“We believe we can best achieve our goal of positively impacting the communities in which we operate by connecting our CSR initiatives to our history and core business,” says Samsung Business Leader, Robert Ngeru. “Our aim is to promote co-operation, innovation and the exchange of new ideas in technology so that our products and technologies continue to respond to the real needs and conditions of the continent. To reach our business goals, we need a skilled workforce of technicians and exclusive service experts to differentiate Samsung as a quality service-oriented company. We also need to sustain our level of innovation, which can only be achieved if we invest in education to facilitate thought-leadership in Africa”.

Recently the pilot phase of the program officially ended as the first class of students graduated from the first Engineering Academy in Africa in Boksburg, South Africa; which was launched in March 2011. The ceremony was an important milestone for the students, Samsung and the African electronics industry, signifying the program’s success and the ‘green light’ for its rollout in other Africa countries. Samsung plans to launch the third Academy in Nigeria in the first quarter of this year.

Notes Ngeru, “We envision a future where products are designed by engineers in Africa, manufactured in Africa and tailored to meet the needs of consumers in Africa. Today’s launch of the second Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy is going to help us realise this vision and ensure that the wealth of opportunity that exists in the region is shared by all”.

The academies are a part of the company’s global ‘Hope for Children’ initiative, which places a strategic focus on bringing attention to the worldwide need for childhood education and healthcare in an effort to improve communities worldwide.

Nigerian Insurance Body Introduce Database System

In a bid to eliminate fake insurance, unethical practice and also instituting a robust industry database in Nigeria's insurance industry, the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), on Thursday unveiled the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID).

Disclosing this in Lagos to enumerate some of its achievements in 2011, the Chairman of NIA, Mr. Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi, said the information technology based system will facilitate easy collation and dissemination of statistical and also serves as a vehicle for easy identification of genuine insurance documents by relevant authorized persons.

He also disclosed that 500,000 Mobile handheld devices will be disbursed to law enforcement agencies nationwide for stop-check verification of motorists’ vehicle insurance status.

According to him, the data base will reduce incidences of fraudulent insurance transactions and policies most especially for motor and marine policies and also help to monitor and authenticate insurance transactions documents in the country.

The NIA Chairman, who doubles as the Group Managing Director of Lasaco Insurance Plc, said that the data base will also go a long way in reducing red tape and corruption by integrating with the vehicle registration system of the Federal Road Safety commission (FRSC), the Police, and other relevant government agencies.

He noted that the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) and the law enforcement agencies in the country had all signified sufficient interest in ensuring the acceptance of the system as the industry’s database. He said that policy holders can now check their motor insurance policy status via SMS and the Internet.

But in a new twist to the landmark move,  majority of the insurance companies have refused to embrace the common data base of the Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA. These companies are not ready to submit information on their business for use by the database because they are afraid of losing their businesses to other competitors.

Consequently, there are fears that the proposed Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID) solution being put in place by NIA for the nation’s insurance industry looks set to fail and may never become a reality as the required data to make it work has not been forthcoming.

The centralised database intended to be a repository of all the insurance industry data, was scheduled to go live during the third quarter of year 2011, but the latest information is that the project has hit a brick wall. Although the Chairman, Information Technology Committee of NIA, Olawale Adedokun, in the committee’s report to members of the association in June 2011 had informed that the system was currently undergoing pilot test run, the NIA appeared to be handicapped as the operators were not cooperating with the association.

The operators argued that since the NIA failed to make the market agreement of ratings work, the ability of the self regulatory body to successfully coordinate the database project is in doubt.

Considering the cut-throat competition in the industry which has made the operators to indulge in the unethical practical of rate cutting, the operators expressed fears that disclosing information on their business to other insurers would amount to giving them opportunity to hijack their businesses.

Courteville Investment, listed in the Commercial/Services Sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is partnering the NIA to provide the database solution.

Courteville’s Executive Director, Strategy and Projects, Femi Niyi, said “Courteville Investment Plc has been contracted as an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider to design, develop and manage a centralised database solution for NIA.”

Apart from serving as authentic repository of the nation’s insurance industry data, the system is also intended to support the production of Insurance Certificates (initially for Motor and Marine) that are verifiable and traceable at the point of issuance and also at any point during its life cycle to the centralised database.

Another aim of the centralised database is to provide mechanisms for the verification of Insurance Certificates issued or presented as evidence of insurance for Motor and Marine at the first instance and then other classes of insurance.

Besides, it is expected that the solution will help in providing qualitative analysis of industry performance and serve as source of historical data for benchmarking, while also enabling the financial information of NIA members to be rendered electronically for ease of analysis.

By the time the centralised Insurance Database Solution becomes fully operational, it is expected that it will help in eradicating fake insurances, minimise multiple fraudulent claims and most importantly provide authentic, qualitative and comprehensive data on insurance for national policy formulation.