Eric Achola is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Telkom Kenya, one of Kenya's Telcos. He has been working with Telkom Kenya for approximately 3 years. I met him today to discuss what I thought would be a podcast conversation around several new offerings from Telkom Kenya like the Changa Bundle which offers an unprecedented 100GB of data for up to 5 users on a shared basis for only Kes. 1,500 a month as well as this morning's buy now pay later (BNPL) partnership launch with Lipa Later where customers can purchase smartphones on 3-month or 12-month payment plans. However, Eric took me in a whole different direction where we talked about his life and extensive marketing career with only a small part of this podcast being dedicated to anything about Telkom Kenya. 

Simply put, Eric surprised me with his candid and open conversation about his life as a seasoned marketer, entrepreneur, and innovator. Eric grew up from an early age in a few countries around the world before settling in Kenya. He worked as a marketer in new and old companies such as Diageo, East African Breweries, IPSOS Kenya, Unilever, Safaricom, Coca-Cola, Safaricom, M-Kopa, and a few others in Kenya and across Africa in countries like Angola, Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, etc. Eric has done the rounds before he ended up at Telkom Kenya where he is doing interesting things to shake up the status quo in Kenya's telecommunications sector. Eric says it as it is in this podcast so be prepared for some surprises when you have a listen!

This is an interview that I had yesterday afternoon with Addis Alemayehou, the founder and chairman of Ethiopia's Kazana Group. The Kazana Group currently has a portfolio of over 13 companies operating in marketing, communications, advertisement, fintech, telecom, manufacturing, logistics, technologies, investment management, and advisory services. Kazana Group's mission is to promote economic prosperity by supporting companies in Africa to make impactful changes and solve critical problems in the lives of communities around them. Kazana Group also believes in empowering African entrepreneurs as they are principal stakeholders in the impetus towards inclusive growth and development.

Addis has an interesting background in that he actually grew up in Nairobi in Kenya and as a result, even the name 'kazana' is actually Kiswahili for 'striving hard'. Addis moved back to Ethiopia around 21 years ago and was behind launching Ethiopia's first English language radio station after spending time learning from the late Chris Kirubi and his team at Kenya's Capital FM. Addis then started a marketing agency and gradually expanded the number of businesses that eventually came to form the Kazana Group. Addis also launched a TV station in Ethiopia thereafter where they dubbed over international content in Amharic that became very successful leading to it being acquired by France's Canal Plus. 

Addis is behind a startup called Mafuta in Kenya that provides loans for fuel to taxi drivers in Kenya where they are currently running a pilot with over 1,000 drivers. Mafuta aims to solve the problem of helping them fuel their cars even when they don't have cash. At the same time, Addis is this week in Nairobi signing a partnership agreement with Kenya's Strathmore Business School through his Capital Business School to offer their executive programs in Ethiopia. Going forward, Addis is keen on supporting technology startups in Ethiopia and Kenya with young entrepreneurs and will be raising a multimillion-dollar fund for this purpose later this year. Have a listen to learn more about Addis' amazing entrepreneurial journey and the state of the digital ecosystem in Ethiopia including the impending launch of Safaricom Ethiopia. 

This is an interview I had yesterday evening with Matt Koidin, VP and General Manager of Pocket at Mozilla as well as Carolyn O'Hara, senior director of content discovery for Pocket at Mozilla. Matt was a member of the founding team of Pocket, joining in 2011 as CTO and Head of Operations. He was integral to the Mozilla acquisition of Pocket in 2017, and today is responsible for the entire Pocket platform. Carolyn is the senior director of content discovery for Pocket where she and her team oversee Pocket's recommendations across our apps, emails, and integrations within the Firefox browser.

Pocket is officially launching in Kenya this morning. What Pocket does as both a web-based service that is part of Mozilla's Firefox web browser and a mobile app is that it enables users to save a variety of content (such as blogs, news sources, web pages, and videos) to one place and access it later from any device. Pocket is currently used by over 10 million users globally and Kenya is the first major market in Africa where the service is being specifically tailored for local content and users. More specifically, Mozilla has partnered with Kenya’s Aga Khan University and Pocket to spotlight exceptional content and curators in Kenya which can be accessed from https://getpocket.com/stori-zetu. Have listen to hear more about Pocket's plans for Kenya going forward. 

This is an interview I had not too long ago with Bulent Boytorun who is the Founder and CEO of CryptoSasa, Kenya's and East Africa's first locally based crypto exchange. Bulent has been working CryptoSasa for the better part of the last couple of years when he saw a gap in how the whole crypto market was operating in this part of the world given that cryptocurrencies are normally traded on global exchanges. These crypto exchanges have not been developed to serve consumers and businesses in markets like Kenya and Africa so there are aspects that make them expensive to use and also not ideal for a market where mobile money dominates digital transactions. 

In building and eventually fully launching CryptoSasa, Bullet hopes to transform Kenya's and Africa's crypto market for consumers and businesses at scale for a myriad of use cases such as global trade, remittances, and investing. Bulent wants to CryptoSasa to become a vehicle that will ultimately democratize and popularize crypto as a mainstream thing for anyone and everyone. In his view, crypto needs to become something that we can all participate in at scale and do so easily, simply, and affordably. Listen to the podcast to get a sense of the sheer scale of ambition that Bulent has for CryptoSasa in Kenya and the rest of Africa.  

This is an interview I had late last week in Nairobi with Doug Hunter who heads up Customer and Ecosystem Enablement for SYSPRO Africa. Doug s responsible for Support, Consulting, and Education/User-Enablement services to SYSPRO's channel partners and customers within Sub-Saharan Africa. SYSPRO is a major player in Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP systems used by many businesses in Kenya and East Africa with a focus on manufacturing and distribution. 

Doug and I spoke at length on all aspects of all things ERP both positive and challenging based on his perspectives of having worked in this space for over three decades. Doug knows what works and what doesn't when it comes to all things ERP where he spends most of his time ensuring SYSPRO's solutions are 'right-sized' for many of their customers in Kenya and East Africa. 

At heart, Doug, a Scotsman who emigrated to South Africa, is a manufacturing/logistics business professional - rather than an IT techie, having directly managed different manufacturing operations and supply chains. His passion now is to help such companies discover and implement innovation using people, processes, and appropriate business IT.

This was an interesting conversation I had a couple of months ago with Belinda Jubilant Wera who is the Head of Digital Care & Automation at Vodacom Tanzania. She took me through her career changes prior to and during her time at Vodacom Tanzania and also how they are using digital channels such as chatbots and voice biometrics to ensure enhanced customer service. 

She also gave me a sense of how Vodacom Tanzania has been navigating digital transformation initiatives due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this has changed how they engage with customers at this juncture. I hope you enjoy this highly insightful conversation on how customer service is being radically enhanced via digital transformation on the Pure Digital Passion podcast with Moses Kemibaro! 

This is an interview I had with Jean-Christian Bergeron, CEO of RUBIS East Africa on the launch of the RUBIS brand in Kenya following the acquisitions of Kenol Kobil and Gulf Energy in 2020 which has 230+ fuel stations in the region as well as their digital transformation as a business. 

RUBIS is using digital technologies to transform the utility and convenience of its offerings such as having fuel stations that offer free WIFI, their cloud-linked fuel card, and a mobile app that has been downloaded over 20,000 as of this recording. Jean-Christian indicated that they plan to have 20% of their revenues from digital services. 

In addition, we also spoke on how they see RUBIS being positioned for renewable energies and electrification in the future. I hope you enjoy listening to our brief but interesting conversation here on the Pure Digital Passion podcast with Moses Kemibaro!

This is an interview I had with Andy Halsall, the Founder and CEO of poa! Internet, an ISP in Kenya that has deliberately targetted the underserved low-income market in Nairobi and the rest of Kenya. poa! Internet was established in 2016 and to date has grown significantly with 12,000 paying home customers and tens of thousands of WIFI customers. In January 2022, poa! Internet secured US$ 28M in a Series C funding round led by Africa50, bringing the total amount it has raised to date to US$36M.

In our conversation, Andy shared with me how the business got started and how they plan to grow now that they have received significant funding. In addition, we also spoke about some of the many challenges and learnings that they have had along the way as they rolled out poa! Internet into many low-income areas of Nairobi and its environs. I hope you enjoy our conversation here on the Pure Digital Passion podcast with Moses Kemibaro. This is also our tenth podcast episode since we started so its a nice milestone too!

This is an interview I had with Greg Murray, Founder & CEO of KOKO Networks, a bioethanol cookers startup that has over 350,000 customers in Kenya. KOKO Networks builds and deploys dense networks of cloud-connected "KOKOpoints" inside local corner stores, which serve as consumer access points for goods and services delivered in partnership with major suppliers. 

KOKO networks' main offering is a consumer solution of a liquid ethanol cooking fuel, which delivers significant cost savings and quality of life improvements in the multi-billion dollar market for urban cooking fuel. Greg shared his personal journey and that of KOKO networks from where they have come from and where they are today. Enjoy the conversation here on Pure Digital Passion - The Moses Kemibaro Podcast! 

In this interview with Omosalewa Adeyemi and Kanyinsola Ajibade, we get to understand more about the origins of Flutterwave, their massive growth to date as well as massive funding rounds they seem to be attracting that have led the business to have a valuation of US$ 3 Billion which is practically unheard of in the context of technology or fintech startups in Africa. 

We get to have an in-depth conversation about the scope of the business today as well as its latest innovations and its plans for the next few years. One thing is clear - that Flutterwave is not resting on its laurels and it has big plans to transform not just Africa but the rest of the world through its myriad of offerings from a fintech perspective. Enjoy the conversation here on Pure Digital Passion - The Moses Kemibaro Podcast!