Following the massive success of her fourth studio album "Woman of Steel” and the music video for SHEKERE which featured multiple Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo; Yemi Alade gears up towards her fifth studio album with the release of a new single BOYZ.

The new song is a racy up-tempo track produced by Vtek, and marks Alade's first official release for 2020 and starts a new era for the diva. The Africa championing diva celebrates the male gender on the new high octane number.

Watch BOYZ music video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZxu1P6GlFQ

BOYZ lyric video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGRshkR-Noc

Stream BOYZ: https://music.apple.com/us/album/boyz-single/1513477811

BOYZ single gets a colourful and a performance charged music video which stars Nigerian Afro-pop star Seyi Shay and is directed by Paul Gambit.

The multiple award-winning African pop diva is already enjoying success with her music video for “Shekere” hitting 10 million views on YouTube within four months of its release. Yemi Alade is currently finishing up her untitled fifth studio album slated for a 2020 release.

By Marko Reis, Regional Manager - East Africa at Infobip

Modern customers are increasingly becoming information seekers rather than passive recipients of information. A great deal more is therefore required from organisations when it comes to the way in which the ‘brand’ communicates to its customer. Consequently, the demand for reliable, personalised content, made available on the channels of their choice has increased tremendously. All of which boils down to a significant increase in the need to improve the Customer Experience (CX).

In response, global organisations are recognising the importance of reaching their customers via holistic communication solutions that include channels such as WhatsApp Business API and other chat apps. However, many of these solutions are underpinned by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and machine learning.

Kenya is a gateway to the rest of East Africa for a number of international companies penetrating these markets. For many organisations SMS is often still the first port of call when choosing a communication channel. However, this a more conventional approach and contemporary channels that enable richer communication are now available to Kenyan organisations and need to be taken into consideration.

There has been uptake of AI and machine learning in Kenya, but not has much that is needed to automate and revolutionise business communications in various industries. Although several start-ups have introduced AI into their solutions, we will only see real growth in future. This means that organisations need to start preparing for this technology and look towards a communications platform that can provide them with a wholistic approach that incorporates AI and machine learning.

Demand for credible platforms

Despite this, there is also a demand to provide a credible platform, which can sustain business expansion and different end user requests, ultimately enhancing CX, especially among companies that deal with a lot of customer interaction.

A technology is needed that can bolster communication automation across channels and ensure that the customer’s intentions are understood. Here, chat apps such as WhatsApp Business API can be leveraged. However, only once this channel is coupled with chatbot technology, will customer intentions be truly be understood without the need for human intervention.

Are chatbots the answer to our communication woes?

As a result, chatbots offer a holistic approach to resolving some of the pain points many organisations experience related to operating large call centres that typically require significant resources and are costly to run. Call centre agents can therefore start to avoid basic and repetitive customer queries and instead focus on executing functions that are more valuable to the business.

An automated communication approach allows them to develop a chatbot for FAQs that can essentially answer any customer queries, especially if coupled with AI and machine learning capabilities.

The chatbot can learn through answering those questions and therefore becomes more expansive and adapts to how people ask questions, until it can understand natural language. At this point the end user will not even be aware that they are chatting with a bot. If the chat bot encounters a question it can’t understand, or is too complex to answer, the query can seamlessly be redirected to a call centre agent.

This is ultimately an end-to-end solution that resolves pain points of the call centres, as well as providing customers with more specific information and a faster way to communicate with the organisation.

The need to embrace

Kenyan enterprises need to embrace such holistic approaches to communication. An increasing number of global companies are turning to data-driven customer experiences, which are constantly evolving to become newer, better and more impactful. It is important for organisations to get on board and realise how critical it is to implement specific solutions that meets customers’ needs, can analyse their behaviour and engage meaningfully with them.

Innovative and forward-thinking companies, that are bold and agile enough to seize the opportunity, will up the stakes on conversational commerce by deploying automated communication solutions to communicate and transact with their customers.

By Andrew Dawson

In the digital age, data is a currency all on its own. The retail sector has lagged in leveraging the value of real time data, due to a number of factors. However, given the current economic climate, they can no longer afford the luxury of remaining in the dark. The power of data is revealed through near real-time analytics, and it can deliver incredible benefits for the retail sector.

Harnessing the power of daily sales and stock on hand data is the missing link in enabling Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing – the panacea where manufacturers produce just the right number of goods that are delivered at the right time to the right place to find their way into the hands of the right consumers.

 Visibility is the key

The daily sales and stock data in retail holds a powerful repository of information, if it can be further enhanced by getting sales through the tills as each transaction happens this data flow, will provide powerful insight into the daily movement of SKUs, categories and sub-categories, to obtain a live view into what is being sold in real-time.

This will allow the retail chains to finally understand product mixes with high levels of accuracy. 

Armed with real-time data analytics, they are able to know exactly what is being purchased at what time, and in what combination with other products. If you can align a loyalty plan to identify and profile the shopper making the transactions then it becomes a game changer in customer experience strategies and the key to finally truly understanding consumer buying patterns, identifying the effectiveness of promotions, understanding basket combinations and gaining insight into exactly when consumers are purchasing certain products.

Streaming analytics enables JIT manufacturing

With the power of streaming analytics, manufacturers are empowered to understand exactly what products are selling in what volumes, right down to specific flavours or pack sizes and in what retail outlets.

With machine learning and advanced analytics, it is possible to build predictive models to start mapping product sales patterns to periods of the month, particular days etc. Additional external data such as changing weather patterns, event calendars will also influence sales patterns and if there is enough historic data it is possible to map the influence of the external patterns to predict the expected influence on future events. This is information that can help manufacturers gear production to cater very precisely to consumer demand.

In today’s challenging market, every cent is critical to the bottom line. This granular level of data analytics is no longer a nice to have, but an absolute essential in ensuring that production planning is optimised. It is also critical to empowering purchasers with factual data to ensure they buy and stock what consumers want, when they want it, and to understanding which competitors are picking up the market when stock runs short.

 Adjusting behaviours on the fly

“Streaming analytics” is the future of real data insight in the retail sector. The first step is to gain line of sight into the market at a ground level, and then the second phase is to understand what can be done with the data.

For partners on the ground, such as merchandisers, store reps and retail specialists, this level of granular data helps to identify challenges such as being under or over stocked versus the expected “days of cover” for that product, or reduced sales versus the category average, all of which make a direct impact to the bottom line.

Data insight is also vital in ensuring that promotions are effective, that operations are competitive, and that any issues can be swiftly identified and promptly dealt with. Deviation tracking, using real-time analytics with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, is the key to tackling these challenges. In the current climate, real-time functionality is critical, as after-the-fact analytics is simply too little, too late.

If ever there was a time for getting real-time data analytics right in the manufacturing and retail sector, it is now. The world is shifting faster than ever, and the future is all but impossible to predict. Harnessing the power of data in real-time is crucial to helping the manufacturing and retail sector survive in a challenging market.

The writer is the Managing Director at Cognizance Processing.

Kenya film classification board C.E.O Ezekiel Mutua has linked the increasing number of teen pregnancies to vulgar vernacular music.

Reacting to a report which was released recently revealing a sudden surge in reported teen pregnancies within Machakos County, Mutua argued there's a co-relation between dirty content and morality among the youth.

''In 2017, a survey by KFCB on the effects of vulgar vernacular music on the youth captured this reality. Machakos County topped for vulgarity'' said Mutua.

Adding ''Even the bands had sexualised stage names such as Katombi, Maima, Vuusya Ungu and such other profanity. In the survey contacted by our lead Consultant Ben Mulwa, the Board raised alarm on how the Kamba vernacular music normalised teenage sex, rape and objectification of women''.

The report released on Tuesday by Machakos Children’s Officer Salome Muthama showed 4,000 school-going children had been impregnated since mid-March.

Mutua blamed politicians, Djs, radio stations and public service vehicles for promoting such music.

Mutua charged ''What has been discouraging is to see that most political leaders ignored our crusade and would hire these bands to perform the same dirty songs we had banned in their functions, thus making a mockery of our efforts. Vernacular radio stations and public service vehicles too played this filth with wanton abandon"

Mutua called for support from Kenyans to help in the fight against vulgar music saying many young girls are at risk of being destroyed.

''Let those immoral vernacular radio stations who promote obscenity be stopped. Let the DJs be stopped playing such unpalatable content in mixed company or where children are likely to be listening. Let our PSVs be stopped playing dirty content. Let's work together to address this problem once and for all." he said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has said Kenya will advance the pan-Africanist agenda of global peace, solidarity and multilateralism if elected to join the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Citing Kenya's long history of contributing troops to peacekeeping interventions, the President said Kenya has the right credentials to represent the African continent in the UNSC.

The Head of State spoke last night during a virtual campaign meeting with permanent representatives of various countries to the United Nations hosted by Kenya ahead of UNSC elections set for today.

Kenya is the African Union endorsed candidate for the non-permanent seat on the security council to represent Eastern Africa. Kenya is vying for the regional slot against the Republic of Djibouti.

"A vote for Kenya is a vote for peace. A vote for Kenya is a vote for global solidarity. A vote for Kenya is a vote for multilateralism," President Kenyatta rallied the envoys.

He told the representatives that Kenya's experience as the host nation of UN-Habitat and UNEP global headquarters places the country in an advantaged position to champion the world's sustainable development agenda.

"I speak to you from Nairobi. Your only global capital in the South where the UN resides taking care of our environment and our habitat," President Kenyatta said.

"I speak to you from Nairobi, the capital where we recently hosted one of the first blue economy conferences bringing the nations of the world together to see how we can not only preserve our oceans for future generations but how we can exploit them in a sustainable manner for present generations," he added.

The President thanked the African Union for endorsing Kenya's bid for the security council slot saying, if elected, the country will use the privileged position to advance a pan-Africanist agenda for peace, multilateralism and global solidarity.

"I want to begin by first and foremost thanking the African Union and all African nations for the support and the believe in Kenya being able to advocate the African cause, the cause of Pan-Africanism, the cause of peace, the cause of global solidarity, the call for multilateralism," he said.

The Head of State persuaded the representatives to vote for Kenya based on the country's track record of democracy, respect for human rights and solidarity.

"I want to give you Kenya's story. Kenya's story is one that believes and trusts that together we are stronger. One that believes that through democracy, through respect for human life and through unity, more can be achieved than individually.

"We want you to believe in us. We want you to trust in us. We want you to see our track record over the years. Stand with us as Kenya stands with you," the President lobbied.

Commenting on Kenya's contribution to  global peace and stability, President Kenyatta said the country's peace keeping missions have been to every part of the globe where they "joined hands with others to bring peace and, bring communities and nations together".

Responding to a concern raised by Singapore's representative Burhan Gafoor on security gaps in the world's cyber space, President Kenyatta said, Kenya will lobby the security council to enact a binding cyber security treaty if elected.

Foreign Affairs CS Raychelle Omamo urged the representatives to vote for Kenya saying the country seeks to join the security council so as to contribute positively to global peace and security.

"Kenya's candidature is anchored in the enduring hope that together we can create a better world," CS Omamo said.

The New York based envoys affirmed their support for Kenya’s candidature saying the country has an impressive track record as an able and dependable partner.

They said Kenya has the capacity to deliver for Africa and the world in the UNSC.

Algeria's Sofiane Mimouni supported Kenya's bid saying the country "will bring valuable contribution for a more balanced and principled action" in the security council.

Mombasa businessman and politician Suleiman Shahbal has for the first time publicly confirmed he will be seeking to succeed Hassan Joho as Mombasa Governor in 2022.

Addressing members of the press at Sparki Primary School after launching his education website where KCPE and KCSE students can access past papers, Shahbal maintained that he is still a member of the Jubilee party defending his closeness with ODM party leader Raila Odinga and Governor Hassan Joho who is also the party (ODM) deputy party leader.

''It is too early at the moment to talk about succession politics with two and half years to go before the 2022 general election but be sure I'm in the race with the of God and people of Mombasa" said Shahbal.

Shahbal's closeness with Joho has raised eyebrows with some quarters suggesting that he is Joho's preferred successor an issue that he quickly refuted.

“Can you believe that in all our meetings, we have never discussed politics" argued Shahbal.

He however noted that this is not time for politics saying he is busy helping the county government fight the coronavirus.

This will be the third time that Shahbal will be going for the seat after doing so in in 2013 and 2017.

Others who are also said to be interested in succeeding Joho are Kisauni Mp Ali Mbogo and his Mvita counterpart Abdulswamad Nassir.

Medical Insurer AAR Insurance Kenya has partnered with e-health service providers MyDawa and CheckUps to deliver medication to clients at home as they stay safe from Covid-19.

The free home delivery service dubbed ‘Health at your Doorstep’ will limit trips by AAR customers to hospitals and pharmacy outlets for medication, especially patients with chronic illnesses, who require regular supply of medication.  

AAR clients will not have to spend too much time in hospital or shopping around for medication as they can simply order via their phone and the medication delivered to their doorstep. The company has over 200,000 customers spread across the country.

One simply sends photos of original prescription and claim form to CheckUps via WhatsApp number 0703665191 or log in to MyDawa website or app, upload the original prescription and then follow the prompts.  

AAR Insurance Kenya Managing Director, Nixon Shigoli, says the medical insurer understands that its customers need to adhere to Covid-19 health guidelines which include staying indoors and working from home.  

“We want to make it easier for all our clients to comply with the health guidelines especially those with chronic conditions who are at higher risk of contracting Covid-19. We are encouraging our customers to use these apps to get their medication and limit trips to the hospital and chemist shops,” said Mr. Shigoli. 

Health experts caution that persons with underlying conditions like diabetes, cancer, hypertension, HIV/Aids and other co-morbid illnesses are at a higher risk of being infected with Covid-19. 

Mr. Shigoli added that AAR Insurance Kenya is keen on the health and well-being of its customers and employees and has put in place measures to help them stay safe during this time of Covid-19.  

The partnership with MyDawa and CheckUps is also part of AAR Insurance Kenya’s ongoing digital transformation strategy anchored on delivering value to customers.  

“This partnership marks an important step in our digital transformation journey to empower our clients to make critical decisions regarding their health. Our goal with this strategy is to create an enabling environment for our clients to enjoy end-to-end services through their mobile phones and other devices,” explained Mr. Shigoli. 

He also said AAR was revamping its digital capabilities to enhance innovation, efficiency and transparency across its business processes. 

Launched in 2017, MyDawa is an innovative e-health platform owned by ION Kenya that enables patients purchase a wide range of prescription and over-the-counter drugs online. 

CheckUps, an online medical teleconsultation service offered by Nairobi-based CheckUps Medical Center, also offers home delivery for prescription medicine.  

e-Health has been identified as a way of improving healthcare delivery in Kenya by harnessing ICT. The World Health Organization defines e-Health as ‘the combined use of electronic communication and information technology in the health sector.’ 

e-Health also means delivery of quality and efficient healthcare by ensuring the right health information is provided to the right person at the right place and time in a secure, electronic form.