E-Business
Demo Africa Selects 40 Projects for 2013 Launchpad
40 projects have been selected for launchpad at this year’s DEMO Africa conference, according to the organizers.
300 technology startups from 24 African countries applied for this year’s DEMO Africa conference.
50 percent of the total entries fell under the Mobile and Social Media/Computing category, and 20 percent were placed in the Cloud Computing and Enterprise Systems category.
Speaking during a press conference, Mbugua Njihia, the coordinator, DEMO Africa conference said 19 out of the total 40 projects selected to launch on the 24th and 25th of October 2013, at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi are based on the consumer segment.
The projects mostly focused on social media, cloud services, mobile, consumer and enterprise. However Njihia noted a shift towards mobile telephony as a financially viable solution among the entries, as well as the impact of mobile phone penetration within the continent.
Harry Hare, the executive producer of DEMO Africa said the conference is not a start up competition; it’s a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their projects to investors and technology buyers; though most of the project entries are focused to the consumers creating a gap in the enterprise business sector.
Last year, DEMO Africa Alumni raised USD 8 million in terms of capital, partnership and business after pitching their projects to investors.
SasaAfrika raised 750,000 Euros and Lipisha raised $300,000. Hare said that most of the 2013 DEMO Africa projects are up and running and the owners are looking for funds to elevate these projects to the next level.
“I believe this is a sign that Africans view mobile telephony as an opportunity to solve problems for the consumers on the continent in a financially viable way. This mirrors the increase in mobile penetration across Africa and signals the potential for mobile networks to help many on the continent create wealth and play a role in reducing poverty,” said Muchiri Nyaggah, one of the DEMO Africa Judges.
Mr. Nyaggah added that the entries demonstrated the increased need for investment in ICT education to ensure the demand created for mobile solutions are not only exploited by firms from other parts of the world but by indigenous innovators as well.
The role of DEMO Africa is however to offer coaching and support to entrepreneurs in redefining their business models.
The conference has attracted investors from all over the world though last year, DEMO Africa was faced with a challenge of bring local investors on-board. Hare says most of them focused on traditional investments like real estate and not technology.
The 2013 DEMO Africa application process took 3 months and a month for adjudication. A total of 12 judges from Sub Saharan Africa participated in the judging process.
Out of the 40, South Africa will launch 12 start-ups, Kenya will launch nine while Nigeria and Egypt will launch four and five start-ups respectively.
Tanzania had two qualifying start-ups while Ghana, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Uganda and Morocco will each have one project launching at the DEMO Stage.
The judges looked for products that resonate in a few minutes’ entrepreneurs were required to sell their products to an investor in the shortest time possible at the elevator pitch.
They focused on solutions that addressed local problems and have a commercial element i.e. how the business model will make money.
Now on its 2nd year, the event has already captured the interest of global giants such as Intel, Microsoft, and Nokia, with the finalists getting a chance to present their ideas to potential investors at the forum.
DEMO Africa is the flagship initiative of the Liberating Innovation in Opportunity Nations in Africa (LIONS@frica) Partnership.
The DEMO Africa event provides a platform for innovative ideas and local tech start-ups looking for opportunity to nurture their skills and get exposure on the global stage.
E-Business
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
E-Business
NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
E-Business
NITDA, API Partner Against Harmful Online Content

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in partnership with the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), has convened a one-day workshop in Abuja to advance dialogue on the draft Online Harm Protection (OHP) Bill to confront harmful online content.
The bill, a rights-based, locally rooted, and multi-stakeholder initiative, is aimed at addressing the challenges of the digital age.
The event, which held yesterday, brought together government officials, civil society, academics, digital platforms, and legal experts to shape a policy framework designed to combat online ills such as cyberbullying, disinformation, hate speech, digital exploitation, and gender-based violence, while safeguarding democratic freedoms and digital inclusion.
In his keynote remarks, Kashifu Inuwa, director general, NITDA urged a paradigm shift in the way society engages with digital technologies.
“For almost two decades, we have viewed digital technology through a consumer lens. But these technologies are not just products and services. They are transforming how we live, work, and interact. They shape our politics, our society, and our democracy,” he said.
Warning against unaccountable digital power in the hands of private corporations, the DG likened the digital journey to the tale of Alice in Wonderland, where initial fascination with innovation has given way to deeper concerns about privacy, autonomy, and manipulation by big tech platforms.
“We thought we were using Google, but now we realise Google is using us. Social media, once a tool of expression, has become a tool of surveillance and influence,” Inuwa noted.
He, therefore, emphasised the urgency of developing a democratic and accountable framework. He explained that following the 2021 Twitter ban, NITDA facilitated dialogue between the government and platform operators, leading to a Code of Practice that stressed Nigeria’s sovereignty and legal standards.
According to him, the same process birthed the multi-stakeholder steering committee and the OHP White Paper in December 2024, laying the foundation for the current legislative push.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Victoria Manya, co-founder, API, observed the moral and civic necessity of the bill.
Her words: “The internet did not break society, it merely revealed its unfiltered version. Every day, Nigerians are exposed to harassment, disinformation, exploitation, and even algorithmic violence. The OHP Bill is not a war on the Internet. It is a peace offering to its users, a social contract for a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and democratic.
“We cannot answer the question of algorithmic power with unchecked state control. We must answer it with shared, rights-based governance. This bill must not be written for the people, but with them.”
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