Bloomberg’s Former Head Of Mobile Oke Okaro On How Smartphones Will Fuel Innovation In Africa

Nigerian-born Oke Okaro, 41, is a product visionary, award winning technologist and pioneer in the U.S. mobile and connected devices industry. Okaro has been at the forefront of the U.S. mobile data/content industry since 2001 when he worked on the first wave of mobile apps in the U.S. and the rollout of the first mobile app development and distribution platform, BREW (binary runtime for wireless) – 7 years before the Apple AppStore. Over the years, Okaro has established a distinguished track record as an innovator by creating multiple pioneering, industry leading and award winning mobile products that have transformed established businesses and built new ones at ESPN Inc and Bloomberg L.P. The mobile products Okaro created are used by more than 60 million unique users every month and generate over $1B in annual revenues.

10 African Tech Innovations That Are Solving African Problems

Ten African innovators have been nominated for cash prizes because they came up with products that respond to a need or challenge within their communities.

Winners will be chosen in Morocco May 13 at the African Innovation Foundation’s annual Innovation Prize for Africa Awards, PCTech reports.

The awards are not only showcasing Africa’s ability to innovate to address its own challenges, but also celebrating Africa’s ingenuity, said McLean Sibanda, chairman of the Innovation Prize Africa 2015 selection panel.

Is Facebook The Internet In Africa? 65% Of Nigerians Think So

A recent survey by mobile surveying company Geopoll and World Wide Worx showed that 65 percent of Nigerians think “Facebook is the internet”, while 9 percent of the social media site users in the west African country said they had “never used the internet”.

The Mobile Africa 2015 study, which surveyed 3, 500 mobile phone users in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, showed that Internet browsing via phones stood at 40 per cent across these five major markets on the continent.

With over 100 million monthly active users in Africa, Facebook has been enticing users in the region with free connections by subsidizing access to its site for African users.

Research Shows Mobile Phone Ownership In Africa Rivals US

A recent report underscores the proliferation of cell phone use in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the Pew Research Center survey, Africa has all but skipped the “landline stage of development.”

The growth has been exponential.

In 2002, only one tenth of the populations of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Ghana owned a mobile phone, said Pew.

“Across the seven countries surveyed, roughly two-thirds or more say they own a cell phone,” according to Pew. “Ownership is especially high in South Africa and Nigeria, where about nine-in-ten have a cell phone.”

Audi just invented fuel made from CO2 and water

The new ‘e-diesel’ has a zero net carbon footprint, being created through high-temperature electrolysis powered from renewable sources.

An Audi research facility in Dresden, Germany, has managed to create the first batches of diesel fuel with a net-zero carbon footprint — made from carbon dioxide (CO2), water and renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power.

Germany’s government has welcomed the new technology, created in partnership with a greentech company called Sunfire. Johanna Wanka, Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research, even test drove the fuel and called it, “a crucial contribution to climate protection and the efficient use of resources,”

London Academy Rewards African Engineering Innovation

Finalists from Zambia, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania have been announced in the first Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, and they’re competing for a 455,000 rand ($37,700 US)  prize, according to a report in htxt.

The prize is awarded by the London-based Royal Academy of Engineering.

Ernst Pretorius, 43, of Pretoria, South Africa, invented and patented the Draadsitter (Afrikaans for fence sitter), which detects tampering on fences of up to 800 metres long and sets off an alarm. He said his innovation will help combat rhino poaching. It is battery operated and weather proof.

Vice-President Osinbajo Locked Out Of President Buhari’s Security Meeting

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was ‘locked out’ of President Muhammadu Buhari’s meeting with the National Security Adviser on the orders of the President.
Trent is reporting that a top Government source who pleaded anonymity disclosed on Wednesday that Vice-President Osinbajo was refused ‘security clearance’ to attend the meeting as a result of security concerns by the Commander-in-Chief allegedly over what he described as a “very sensitive meeting”.

According to the source, it was the thinking of the President that it was too early in the day to bring Vice-President Osinbajo into the President’s first security briefing.

Make No Mistake, the FIFA War is Not About Football or Corruption

The FBI’s move against seven FIFA officials on charges of corruption is seen by most countries as a desperate Western effort to isolate Russia and re-open the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. 

Rio de Janeiro: Forget the analogies about football being more important than life and religion. The Beautiful Game has always been all about politics among nations – on and off the pitch. And now, it’s reaching Cold War levels.

3,000 sex workers arrested in Abuja

Three thousand commercial sex workers have been arrested by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Special Task Team on City Cleaning and Management in the last 90 days.

They have been handed over to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) for prosecution and rehabilitation.

The task team also arrested 2,534 street hawkers and beggars. One hundred and two strayed animals were removed from illegal cattle markets in Gudu and other parts of the city during the period.

The team impounded 4,790 commercial motorcycles, 883 Keke Napep, 645 unpainted commercial vehicles and 84 illegal commercial buses.

Facebook and Google's new privacy announcements may seem huge but they still have a ways to go

Yesterday Facebook and Google made two seemingly huge announcements about privacy. Facebook launched a new feature that allows users to add encryption keys to their profiles. Using these keys, the company can now send users who opt in encrypted notifications. This means that external snoopers will not be able to see the notification messages being sent to the users' emails.

Google announced new features to ensure users privacy settings are where they want them to be. 

On the one hand, big technology companies are responding to mounting fears of widespread privacy invasion. Hacking is no longer a fringe concern. On the other hand, privacy experts don't think either of these initiatives will amount to much.

Tim Cook just sent a powerful warning to the US government

Apple CEO Tim Cook at a Monday award ceremony reaffirmed his support for strong encryption, TechCrunch reports, slamming law-enforcement plans to undermine it as "incredibly dangerous."

Cook's pro-privacy speech came just days after Facebook introduced support for the technology on its social network for the first time.

Strong encryption has become a contentious issue and a source of rising tensions between the US government and the tech community.

The term refers to data masked in such a way that it cannot be understood by anyone who does not have the correct key to decrypt it. It can help internet users keep their sensitive communications safe online, but some people believe it poses a potential security risk, as it cannot be decrypted by authorities even with a search warrant.

Following revelations by exiled whistle-blower Edward Snowden over the past few years of mass government surveillance, big tech companies have increasingly incorporated strong encryption into their products.

Breaking: Nigerian Senate Passes 46 Bills In Less Than 10 Mins

The Senate Wednesday passed 46 bills into law in less than ten minutes. The passage was done immediatly the bills were presented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang.

But the passage of the bills caused an uproar in the upper chamber, even after the voice vote by the presiding officer and Senate President, David Mark, who announced, ” the Ayes have it.”

Senator Mark, told those who were not satisfied with the passage of the bills to come tomorrow, being the next legislative day with their names and signatures for consideration.

Before the bills were passed, the Senate had suspended Order 79 (1) of the Senate Standing Orders and deemed all the Bills as having passed first, second and third readings on the floor of the Senate.

Details soon

Senators, Reps to leave with 109 jeeps, 360 exotic cars

Senators and members of the House of Representatives will go home with the operational vehicles of the National Assembly currently in their possession as the 7th Assembly winds down on Friday.

Each of the 109 senators has a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, commonly referred to as ‘jeep’, assigned to them for “operational” purposes like carrying out committee and oversight duties.

The story is the same at the House, where each member has a 2011 model Toyota Camry attached to them for operational duties.

Apart from the operational vehicles, principal officers, including the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, have   additional vehicles assigned to them.

Mourinho praises Mikel, slams Ruben

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has named Mikel Obi as one of the outstanding players in the Blues 1-0 victory over hosts Sydney FC in their post-season friendly in Australia on Tuesday.

Mikel, who did not enjoy enough first-team appearance with the London club in their last season’s campaign, played in the entire duration of the game, but teenage defender Temitayo Aina was on the bench throughout.

Loic Remy gave the visitors the only goal of the game via a left-footed strike at the ANZ Stadium, but Mourinho never underplayed the role of Mikel in the encounter.

“I’m happy with the performance of my senior players because it’s been a long season, in fact very long,” Mourinho said on Chelsea’s website.

U-20 W’Cup: Flying Eagles coach may drop Iheanacho, Success

Midfielder Kelechi Iheanacho and striker Isaac Success could be dropped to the bench for Nigeria’s second game against Korea DPR at the Fifa U20 World Cup in New Zealand on Thursday.

Both started in the 2-4 loss to Brazil on Monday morning but coach Manu Garba is expected to make changes to his starting line up when they face the Asians, according to a report by Africanfootball.com.

Success, who scored Nigeria’s first goal, is likely to be replaced by Bernard Bulbwa who will partner Taiwo Awoniyi upfront. 

Iheanacho, who has received criticism for his display, would be replaced by Enyimba’s Kingsley Sokari.

According to the report, injured Ifeanyi Mathew is also expected to be replaced by Akinjide Idowu while the coach has kept faith with goalkeeper Joseph Enaholo whose blunders resulted in Brazil’s late flourish. 

NEPAD workers protest Jonathan assistant’s reappointment

There was commotion at the Nigerian headquarters of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development on Tuesday as workers of the agency engaged in fisticuffs, while protesting against the alleged reappointment of the Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, as NEPAD’s Coordinator/Chief Executive.

The peaceful protest at the agency degenerated into fisticuffs as some of the workers loyal to Njeze tried to stop the larger number of the employees from going outside the premises of the organisation.

Our correspondent gathered that the special adviser, whose job was meant to end at the expiration of the tenure of the former President, called some directors of the agency last Thursday to announce her new portfolio as the coordinator.

S’Korea confirms five new MERS virus cases

South Korea has confirmed five more cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, bringing to 30 the number of infected people since the outbreak began in the country two weeks ago.

Seoul reported its first two deaths from MERSon Tuesday, fuelling fear in the country which has reported the most cases outside the Middle East, where the disease first appeared.

The country has quarantined or isolated about 1,300 people for possible MERS infection.

More than 200 schools, most in the province of Gyeonggi around the capital, and where the first death occurred on Monday, were shut for the week, the education ministry said.

Breaking News: Blatter under investigation by US authorities – Report

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is being investigated by US authorities as part of their corruption inquiry into football’s governing body, The New York Times has reported.

Blatter, who announced on Tuesday that he will be resigning from his position , has not been directly implicated in the parallel US and Swiss criminal investigations into FIFA, which were announced last week.

Unidentified US law enforcement officials, however, told the NYT that “they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organisation” in a bid to build case against Blatter.

Buhari likely to head oil ministry in new cabinet

There are speculations that President Muhammadu Buhari will keep the petroleum minister portfolio for himself in the new cabinet rather than trust anyone else with the ministry, which currently contributes over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue.

Reuters quoted some close associates of the President as saying this on Tuesday.

One long-standing associate of Buhari, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the cabinet decision was still under wraps, said Nigeria’s oil sector was so dirty that nobody’s hands were clean enough to do the “surgical changes” needed.

Reuters also quoted another political associate as saying, “He will do it. It would be stupid to give that position to anyone else.”

Nigerian dies after hard drugs he was trying to smuggle out of Indonesia bursts inside his stomach

A 25 year old Nigerian man identified as Austin Chukwuna died on Sunday May 31st after the hard drugs he was smuggling out of Indonesia burst inside his stomach. According to Indonesian Police, Chukwuna had on Saturday May 30th lodged at a hotel close to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Indonesia possibly with the intent of flying out with the drugs inside him, when he suddenly ran out of the hotel on Sunday morning, screaming. Witnesses saw him run to the hotel car park like a lunatic, broke the glass of one of the cars and used it to cut himself as he tried to get the drug out of his system.

Dell unveils a range of affordable PCs ahead of Windows 10

While Dell managed to surprise us with its rather handsome XPS 15 -- the sibling of the thin-bezel XPS 13 laptop -- at Computex, it's also bringing us a range of both new and refresh models ahead of the Windows 10 launch. Starting off with the headliner we have the Inspiron 15 7000 series laptop (pictured above) that runs on Intel's quad-core Core i7H chip, and it's garnished with Waves MaxxAudio enhancement plus a "performance class" NVIDIA graphics processor with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, so you'll get some good gaming action on it. Most importantly, the machine's 15-inch FHD display has an optional 4K touchscreen upgrade that looks stunning, though it isn't clear as to how long that 74WHr battery can last for. The price? All we know so far is that it'll start from 5,999 yuan or about $970 when it launches in China on August 7th.