MPESA vs SOKOTELE

Yesterday, I spoke with someone in the M-PESA administration and today, someone from Sokotele came visiting at our offices.

What is MPESA?
MPESA is a financial service offered by Safaricom, Kenya's leading mobile phone operator, that allows a user with an appropriate SIM card to transfer money to other people with or without an MPESA account. Sort of like South Africa's Mzansi. The lowest transaction cost ranges between Kshs. 50 to Kshs. 75 divided in different proportions between the sender and the recipient.

What is Sokotele?
Sokotele is Celtel's counter to MPesa. It is based on a handheld device, which we can call the Sokotele gadget, giveto agents for a one time refundable fee of Kshs. 30,000 with a depreciation of around 2% per year. It can be used for making calls (like simu ya jamii), printing airtime vouchers and money transfer. To become an agent, you need to open an account with KREP Bank, which is willing to give you a loan of Kshs. 15,000 for buying the Sokotele gadget.

The transaction cost is Kshs. 120 levied on the sender for each lot of Kshs. 5,000.

How do they compare?

• Mpesa is SIM card based, while Sokotele is based on a device owned by an agent.You need a special SIM card to use MPESA (the green variety). You do not need a SIM card for Sokotele. You do not even need to have a phone.
• Mpesa is being marketed intensively to the mass market while Sokotele, which was launched much later is still working on the distribution. I was however, very impressed by Rachel, the lady who came to discuss Sokotele with us. I wish Mpesa would do that because this being a new product, alot of education needs to be done even to their potential agents.
• Sokotele charges a flat transaction cost of Kshs. 120 per transaction while MPesa has a guacamolli of prices based on the nature of transaction.
• The minimum you can send on Sokotele is Kshs. 500 and the maximum is Kshs. 5000
• The minimum you can send with Mpesa is Kshs. 100 and the maximum is Kshs. 35,000.

In our next blog we will discuss the opportunities that are being made possible by these two services.

A more expensive university system is good for Kenya

The recent announcement that university education will cost upto Kshs. 700,000 per year has caused alot of uproar.

The way i see it, education serves three major functions in Kenya.
1. A means for getting work
2. A status symbol
3. Institutions for the pursuit of knowledge

The way it is right now, everyone wants to get a degree for the status it profers rather than the value it adds. As a result the jobs market is full of graduates who are doing clerical work for which they ought not to have sought degrees. Within such a context, a degree is too high a price to pay especially considering that many Kenyans are poor and education already is the highest expense in the country.

What we need to do is to expand and improve the middle level educational facilities and sell to Kenyans the idea that a diploma is pretty good - one can attain a good living without a degree! It is also imperative that there be a clear progression from the middle levels through to the highest levels of education.

CCK Drops 30% rule

It is commendable that the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has dropped the requirement that companies must have 30% local shareholding before they are issued with licences.

However, why is the CCK predisposed towards foreign companies. If Flashcom and Popote could start locally (i suppose they are locally owned), the other announcement they should be making is that they will be giving Kenyans equal access to the telcoms investment arena as they are giving multinationals.

Raila's "Failed State" Gaffe

While launching his presidential bid on May 6th 2007, Raila Odinga mentioned that Kenya should not be compared to failed states such as Somalia and Rwanda. While I agree with him that Kenya should not measure their aspirations against their neighbours, his tone of voice also betrayed a lowly view of these nations.

As it were, Somalia has a better economy than Zimbabwe and possibly the most affordable telecommunications infrastructure in this region, beating Kenya by far. Rwanda is deemed to be Africa's ICT king in waiting. Uganda is our largest export destination. It seems we thrive on these so-called "failed states".

If his presidency would be characterized by such lowliness towards our neighbours, it might as well predispose us to failure

on the Kenya National Land Policy

I spent the last week reading through the draft National Land Policy and had the following impressions:

1. It is good that finally there is some intent to merge the Indian Transfer of Propert Act (ITPA - 1882) , Registered Lands Act (RLA 1963) and RTA (1920) with a more homogeneous Act. I just hope the next act will be designed to cater for our land needs till 2107.
2. The future, the future! The policy is more focused on redressing the historical injustices than in preventing future injustices. Some of these issues result from the fact that ours is an agrarian economy. Very little attention has gone into urban land use, mining and other activities that will be definitive in the future
3. Surveying - as a land surveyor, i must say the policy offers very little reform other than technlogical reforms. Nothing has been done to the profession that has supervised the current and historical land issues. Nothing is mentioned of training, institutional reform and the flow of technology into our land systems - though the policy itself is full of many buzz words
4. The policy proposes minimum land sizes but no maximums!

On the aggregate, i think the policy sets us on the right footing. Since it has taken us 125 years before we considered modifying the ITPA, i wonder if we can go another 125 years under this policy ...

On Net Neutrality

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all IP packets are created equal, that they are endowed by their Protocol with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are equal transmission, certain destiny and the pursuit of Purpose.