VOL 23 | ISSUE14 | FEBRUARY 2022 EDITION
JUMIA KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF E-COMMERCE
Inside >>
KSHS.300 | USHS.9,000 | TSHS.6,000 | RWF.2,200 | OTHER USD.9
Cloud Security: Important Trends to Know JUMIA KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF E-COMMERCE VULNERABILITY AND HUMANITY The Broken Rung: Get To The Top Early
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>> Contents VOL 23 | ISSUE 14| february 2022 EDITION
CIO AFRICA EDITORIAL TEAM PUBLISHER Harry Hare
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
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>> GUEST EDITOR
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>> THE ROUNDUP
Andrew Karanja
Commercial Director Aliza Thobani
Editor-in-Chief Carol Odero
WRITERS Kevin Namunwa Steve Mbego Tasha Francis
TECH COLUMNISTS Robert Yawe Michael Michie
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>> THE LEAD
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>> Thinking aloud
MARKETING MANAGER Vanessa Obura
EVENTS MANAGER Ellen Magembe
OPERATIONS MANAGER Naomi Kangethe
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FINANCE MANAGER Teddy Mukabane
EVENT EXECUTIVES Mellisa Dorsila Joan Jepkosgei Justin Maganga Felix Moturi
>> cio100 recap
Virtual & Hybrid Events Coordinator Stacey Njeri
PHOTOGRAPHY Arthur Kuwashima
BUSINESS CONSULTANT Njambi Waruhiu
EVENTS PLAN LEAD Bonface Shikuku
ADMIN STAFF
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Videlis Syovata Priscilla Egehitsa Daniel Mwaha
TRAINING Rose Waguthi
CREATIVE DESIGN Samuel g. Ndung’u
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www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA
>> HARD TALK
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>> HERNOVATION
Business | Technology | Leadership Leverage the CIO East Africa digital services to build stronger business relationships with the most valued customers and prospects.
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>> Contributors
CAROL ODERO Editor-in-Chief
>> EXECUTIVE TEAM
Harry Hare Chairman & Publisher
Andrew Karanja Director
>> ACCOUNTS
>> SALES TEAM
Teddy Mukabane Finance Manager
Vanessa Obura Marketing Manager
Aliza Thobani Commercial Director
Robert Yawe CEO, SYNAptech Technologies
>> ADMIN
NGENGI KAMAU SENIOR ACCOUNT Manager
BILLY OMINGO ACCOUNT Manager
Kevin Namunwa STAFF Writer
Steve Mbego STAFF Writer
Tasha Francis Editorial Intern
MICHAEL MICHIE Head of IT, TripleOKLaw
Ambrose Gahene Tech Writer
Arthur Kuwashima Lead Photographer
>> OPERATIONS
>> HYBRID EVENTS >> CREATIVE TEAM
Naomi Kangethe HEAD OF OPERATIONS
Stacey Njeri Virtual & Hybrid Events Coordinator
Videlis Syovata administrator
SAM NDUNG’U CREATIVE DIRECTION/ GRAPHIC DESIGN
IAN WAGGA Digital Marketing/ Graphic Design
>> EVENTS TEAM
Ellen Magembe Events Manager
Mellisa Dorsila Events Assistant
PUBLISHED BY:
Joan Jepkosgei Account Executive
Justin Maganga Account Executive
PRINTED BY:
Felix Moturi Audience Generation Executive
Purity Kamau Accounts Assistant
Contacts eDevelopment House 604 Limuru Road Old Muthaiga P O Box 49475 00100 Nairobi, Kenya +254 725 855 249 Email: info@cioAFRICA.co
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SHIRU WAWERU EVENTS SUPPORT
Ian Obukwa Event Support
MARY KARIITHI Event Support
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The content of CIO Africa is protected by copyright law, full details of which are available from the publisher. While great care has been taken in the receipt and handling of material, production and accuracy of content in this magazine, the publisher will not accept any responsility for any errors, loss or ommisions which may occur.
>> LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF
NEW BEGINNINGS ARE OFTEN DISGUISED AS PAINFUL ENDINGS “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – Genesis 1:1 When I was 9, my then English teacher whose name I cannot recall for the life of me, tasked the class to write 5 things about a cow. I came home, told my Mum – she was a high English and History teacher at the time – about this ‘thing’ I was supposed to write about. My older brother overheard this conversation and in his very Zen, infinite, 13- year-old wisdom, calmly taught me how to write a composition. “Don’t say obvious things such as ‘a cow gives us milk. A cow has four legs.’ Use our imagination and write something no one else would think about.” And I have followed that advice since. And here we are. Words have power. We know how childish sticks and stones will break my bones/but words will never hurt me really is. Words hurt. Words build empires. Just take a look at the apocrypha. Words make babies. Words make businesses, Kings and Queens rise and fall. Words, they are things that say what we think or feel. They are things that draw us closer and intimately, or they can so very easily destroy. Words make people cry. They give people life. Words, they have power. As an editor cum writer, I live and die by my words.
I am resistant to any force that takes my power with words away. But even I have to agree people are assessed – a nicer way of saying judged – by their actions. It is one thing so say, “I’ll do it,” and quite another to actually do it. Doing it gives you a promotion, better assignments and yes, more money. Now, at the beginning of the year, people have returned to their jobs. It is the era of The Great Resignation. In America, 4 million people left their jobs in July 2021. This is affecting the C-Suite too. With the ongoing pandemic, leaders are having to address physical and mental health concerns, managing remote staff and address the impact COVID is having on their employees.
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As CIOs, you must be above average communicators. You can’t simply geek out in a corner and grunt. CIOs, after all, need to translate tech to CEOs and on occasion, to CFOs whether it is before, during or after the purchasing of technologies. You need to communicate this with your team. You need words to state your case. And the first rule of leadership tends to be communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Even if you have to overcommunicate. CIOs are increasingly getting pegged as C-Suite leaders. That means dealing with senior management and top leadership issues.
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In Conversation With God, An Uncommon Dialogue, God tells Neal Donald Walsh, the author, that words are the least effective method of communicating. Instead, it is the non-verbal cues we need to observe. But we have chosen to lean heavily on words, making them mean more than perhaps they should.
Communicating is the only way to get that raise, that promotion, that job, that great employee, get that work done. But communication, though it counts for a whole lot, is only the beginning of leadership. And as Lao Tzu said above, when one door opens, there is an end. At the tip of that end, is a new beginning. Now, are you ready for 2022? www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA
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>> THINKING ALOUD
Michael Michie
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VULNERABILITY
AND HUMANITY
Last year at the CIO Africa CIO100 Symposium & Awards I had the pleasure of a conversation that started randomly between Kelly Bentley, (Co-Founder & Chief Rebel, The Rebel Element), Tania Ngima, (Inaugural Member – Technical Committee at Kenya National Innovation Agency (KENIA), and myself reshape my thinking about technology. While I was trying to figure out the perfect anatomy of a financial app, trying to make these apps as sticky as games, they opened my eyes to something else on the other side. While I was trying to figure this all out, I had unintentionally left out a very critical part of my equation; the human. I looked at the human component purely from the perspective of how they would
Rarely do you find tech that will go out of its way to stop you from excessive use, harmful use or careless use. Well, you can mention a few things that have such safety and wellness controls and most of them would be games. Games that try to reward you for putting down the controller to go smell the roses for period. Games that ask you to take a break after extensive gameplay periods. The effects of our tech beyond their core function are rarely thought through and maybe 2022 should be the year we think about from the human perspective. At tech building is where it starts, with finding the fun in failure and this loop of fail and try again is sweet it can lead to new discoveries with a lot of value. However, there is another thing missing, and that is vulnerability. The vulnerability that what you are building could be abused and you can play a role in stopping that abuse. While we need to build tech to perform certain business functions and return results to the business, we need to consider the strain it has on those who build it and that it’s built with people who are vulnerable enough to accept that the tech can be abused and will work to build the tech to be safer for humanity, reduce chances of abuse.
For instance, a financial services app would warn users of the dangers reckless spending, debt traps from excessive borrowing and encourage financial literacy. A social media app would be built without an infinite scrolling feature, one that is built with mental health banners and stop to allow users to get away from the instant gratification that such applications create.
Additionally, those building the tech need to be in environments that create a safe mental space and allow them to fail and then become vulnerable through their work. If those building tech can be in a space where as a team they can be vulnerable, then they can be honest about what potential harm their tech has and how best to address it and still meet business objectives. Having tutorials for complex functions on tech would also help create a community that is comfortable with learning how to use new tech as opposed to the beaten down line of “keep it simple” or “users will be able to figure it out.” Building tech should not always be about being the next and best, capturing data, maximising transactions and repeatability of use. Tech should be built by teams that express vulnerability to ensure that the tech is safe for humanity. In 2021, we wanted more accessibility in tech. In 2022, we move a step further to vulnerability and humanity.
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A few years back I wrote an article about finding the fun in failure. About the beauty of breaking some eggs to make an omelette, allowing ourselves to be okay with trying and failing, learning from that lesson and picking ourselves up to try again and again. This year, I think we should focus on the people tech affects and how it affects them.
use the tech, the long-term implications of the use of tech were not factored in. When I factored it in, I was shocked by how much it changed my perspective.
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Technology has become centre stage for us. It has consumed us. We build new tech, apps, websites, technology driver services and products, and that demand for these and more is booming. When do we catch our breath and smell the roses?
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