yes but its expensive, we have local payment solutions begging to get adopted to the web - Kenya was first with mobile banking/payments, this cow should be milked by Wanjiku, Smith can buy the milk for post processing:-) Them (VISA/Mastercard) localizing is great I concur, what I'm advocating for is expanded choice for the kenyan/eastafrican consumer...think about it Visa won't make sense to pay for small items, master card won't make it easy to set up merchant accounts - I've gone through that process, its a pain - we'll end up with merchant account brokers - its not for regular garagarias to ati set up their site and start selling stuff (for now)....Im calling for a mix of the two (local and so called expat/foreign whatchagonnacallit solutions).... Also going by the trends, even master card and visa are steering in the mobile direction...more people have phones in africa than cards or even bank accts - go figure...you don't have to reinvent the wheel...just pick the most cost efective ...if developing one turns out cheaper then Id say go for it...... http://www.mastercard.com/us/company/en/newsroom/pr_mc_mobile_moneysend_plat... http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/banking-payments/4033.html http://www.gomonews.com/mastercard-finally-brings-moneysend-mobile-payment-t... http://www.corporate.visa.com/md/nr/press310.jsp Incidentally check out who bought a stake at obopay and start realizing this issues we're discussing are pretty much within our borders:-)and its a wide open market - and if we start now,maybe just maybe Wesley gets to have customers before the big shots get here..... http://www.essar.com/Telecom/pr/2008_04_28.htm Gitau On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 6:50 PM, Mark Mwangi <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:
The fact that visa n mastercard are localising their products is brilliant. . . Am of the thought that we should not be re-inventing the wheek . . Because visa have a workin solution we shouldnt rush to duplicate it in the name of local solutions . . Alternatively use the available platform and build on it. . . As in we shouldnt try to reinvent the internet and all other technologies just so as to make it locally made. . . .What mastercard n co. Should have is cck n .Gov breathing down their necks to use local staff in implementation etc such that we use their expertise and improve on it with our abundant local skill pool . . . . Just my thoughts . .
On 9/16/09, John Gitau <jgitau@gmail.com> wrote:
see right there is the problem, we are all here discussing paypal and visa and I know master card just threw their leg through the door....very credible sources have me believe they will all soon start merchandising locally (it will as usual be owned by foreigners:-)) by getting this fiber what we seem to have now is a faster path to a foreign mall (hotmail,yahoo,facebook,cnn etc etc)....we're exporting lots of capital...and time that could be used to develop local solutions...heck we have universities hosting mail abroad..ha!
I liked the guy who said we create a generic payment solution that WORKS FOR US.....even a bad one to start with will be fine by me...
....... all our users and radio shows discussing facebook as their 'meeting place' is not the way to go and in this respect I honestly sometimes wish the fiber was delayed by a year or so to see if at least local content picks up before....
and by the way contrary to what everyone thinks, while the bandwidth costs do get to go down, the revenues for most of this ISP's are definately going to take a hit a huge hit.....its time we started opening up new revenue streams .....
Gitau
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 4:09 PM, Jonas | Lamu Software <jonas@lamusoftware.com> wrote:
An alternative to Paypal is 2checkout. http://www.2checkout.com/ It is just Paypal that refuses payments to Kenya.
For the software payment solution ... Why not create what Kenya really needs. A generic online payment solution. Focusing on just software does not really make sense since there is no actual payment solution at all? _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general
-- **Gitau _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general
-- Regards,
Mark Mwangi
http://mwangy.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general
-- **Gitau