Which telecom company offers the Best Customer Service?

Nandimobile is currently offering a customized version of it award winning Gripeline service to the organizers of the Ghana Telecom Summit 2011 for the purposes of collating votes for the telecom company in Ghana with the best customer service. The organizers of the summit will award the winner on the 29th April at a function in La Palm Hotel in Accra. Among the different categories, the Best Customer Service Category (bcsc) is the only one open to the general public.

The Ghana Telecom Summit Ghana ICT & Telecom Summit 2011 is designed to explore the critical business, service and technology strategies needed to ensure market competitiveness and exploit emerging opportunities for increased growth and profitability in Ghana ICT market. The main even will be held at the KACE-AITI on the 28th April.

From today, Nandimobile will announce the company leading in the voting, daily. Individuals can vote (ie. MTN, Expresso, Airtel, Tigo and Vodafone) by sending their choice to 1945 preceding with the keyword BCSC. Eg bcsc Safaricom to short code 1945.

Innovation Week 2011 - Marketing Innovation

From March 28th to April 1st, the Ghana-India KOFI Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT organised the second Innovation Week under the theme 'Marketing Innovation'. This program sought to bring to the attention of the general public the various 'Facebook Entrepreneurs' who were in one way or the other making a difference in technology in Ghana.

The event gave many start-ups the platform to expose their innovations and inspired the other attendees who needed some motivation to start something on their own. I was privileged to represent my company, Nandimobile at the conference where I introduced Gripeline. Other entrepreneurs who spiced up the week included Esi Cleland of Afrochic, Nana Kwadwo Duah of Oxygen, Nana Kofi Acquah a pro photographer, Sefakor Gbewonyo of Sepha Designs, Nnenna of Nnenna.org and blogger MacJordan Degadjor. For me this event offered me the opportunity to learn a lot more from fellow entrepreneurs as well as share my views on various topics discussed.

I took much interest in the “father of the ring tone”, Ralph Simon's presentation. He inspired all attendees to look beyond the borders of Ghana and aim at achieving what is being achieved in more technologically advanced nations. According to him, the regional barriers we create an needless since technology knows no physical boundaries. Western markets can be accessed just as they accessed ours and those of other regions. I must congratulate Dorothy Gordon, Linda Kosi and the rest of the organizing team for putting together such an event. I hope more other stakeholders in Ghana's ICT development will learn from such initiative and provide more of these platforms for Ghana-made start-ups.

Meltwater Start-ups at Launch Conference 2011

The Meltwater Business Incubator officially opened in Sept 2010, and for almost all the start-ups in it, 2011 looked promising and challenging as well. We were excited to learn from management that we had been invited by Jason Calacanis, to be a part of Launch 2011 (formerly TechCrunch 50).

A great part of the Meltwater training program involves preparing the trainees for the global market and the culture of pitching one's idea to investors and other interested individuals either in an 'elevator pitch' style or with more detailed Powerpoint presentation. This opportunity was therefore a good one for us, since it offered us the chance to put into practice what had been learnt in the 2-year MEST training program.

At the Launch Conference that took place in San Francisco on Feb 23rd and 24th, 2011, Streemio, Retailtower and NandiMobile were the tech-companies from Africa rubbing shoulders with other start-ups from US, Europe and Asia. For some of us, that was our very first time in the US, nonetheless, we were prepared to deliver nothing but our very best. All three companies from the Meltwater incubator offered world class software and technologies that targeted different markets and focused on serving different customers;

• Streemio is a mobile music streaming service providing on-demand access to music on the go.

• Retail Tower provides software solutions to online retailers, allowing them to manage their inventory across multiple channels from one platform.

• NandiMobile focuses on delivering technologies that enable businesses to leverage the high mobile penetration in Africa to provide better customer relationships.

At the conference we got the opportunity to present our business ideas to over 1,500 attendees, got very good feedback from experienced and successful software entrepreneurs and of course we didn't miss the opportunity to added more contacts to our every-growing network entrepreneurs.

In the end, NandiMobile got the opportunity to present its Gripeline service on stage after which the grand jury awarded the company with the ''Best Bussiness Award'' in the Launch Pad division. This is a success story we are glad to share with other tech-start-ups, from Africa especially. With this, we hope we have added more credence to what the founder and CEO of Meltwater, Jorn Lyseggen likes to say - ''With the right amount of support, guidance and encouragement, ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things”.

Meltwater Foundation Startup Nandimobile Named “Best Business” at LAUNCH Conference

ACCRA – March 7, 2011 – Nandimobile Ltd, a technology startup co-founded by three graduates of theMeltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), was granted the “Best Business” award at theLAUNCH Conference in San Francisco, where more than 100 startups from around the world presented and debuted their products and services.

Nandimobile, located in Accra, Ghana, provides mobile solutions for customer support and marketing. The company was founded in July 2010 by Edward Tagoe, Anne Amuzu and Michael Dakwa, and is supported by the Meltwater Foundation, which is funded by the Meltwater Group. Nandimobile’s on-demand Software as a Service suite, Nandiclient, arms businesses with tools for delivering customer support and information services to mobile phones of customers through SMS and WAP channels. The suite includes a customer support service, Gripeline, and a marketing service, Infoline.

“The judges thought Gripeline was elegant and solved a real problem,” said Jason Calacanis, founder of LAUNCH. “Every mobile phone has the ability to text, but not every restaurant or store has the ability to easily receive them. It was refreshing to see a solution that wasn’t based on a developer spending $75,000 to build an iPhone app that required five steps to use – not to mention a $1,500 commitment a year from consumers.”

“We are honored to receive this award and that we had the opportunity to showcase our product at the LAUNCH Conference,” said Anne Amuzu, chief executive officer of Nandimobile. “We are eager to continue to perfect our offering and build our customer base in Africa and internationally.”

“Sometimes people speak of SMS as a lesser platform but I actually think it’s the ideal platform for this service because it’s global,” said Chris Sacca, venture investor and company advisor to Nandimobile at the LAUNCH Conference. “I think people who have attempted this concept have made it too complicated with separate apps and platforms, and I think SMS is exactly the way to do it. Excellent.”

“Nandimobile’s recognition at last week’s LAUNCH Conference further exemplifies the talent and potential of MEST graduates,” said Jorn Lyseggen, CEO and founder of Meltwater Group. “Meltwater is proud to continue to support the ventures of young African entrepreneurs like Nandimobile.”

About MEST

The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology is a non-profit training and mentoring program created to help young Africans to become software entrepreneurs. Founded in 2008, MEST aims to provide its students with the skills required to establish software companies in the global marketplace and thereby creating jobs and wealth locally in Africa.

Students receive two years of fully sponsored training in software development, business fundamentals and entrepreneurship. MEST also administrates an incubator and a seed fund dedicated to help the MEST graduates convert their business ideas into viable companies in the global marketplace. The MEST program is fully funded by the Meltwater Foundation. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.org/

About Meltwater Foundation

The Meltwater Foundation is the non-profit arm of Meltwater Group. Since its start in January 2007, it has launched the MEST program (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology) in Accra, Ghana, dedicated to the encouragement and training of budding African software entrepreneurs. The Meltwater Foundation is fully funded by the Meltwater Group. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.org/about/

About Meltwater Group

The Meltwater Group is a privately held software company founded in Norway in 2001, serving more than 18,000 clients through 55 offices located across North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. Meltwater is committed to challenging existing business models by introducing disruptive technologies.? The Meltwater Group delivers B2B solutions based on search engine technology, cloud computing and talent management software. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.com.

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Contacts:

Amma Baffoe

Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology

+233 (0)20 201 4363

amma.baffoe@meltwater.org

Barcamp Accra 2010 Press Release

BarCampAccra 2010, ad-hoc gathering where attendees meet for discussions, demos and
networking, will take place on October 2nd, 2010 at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) campus at 20 Aluguntuguntu Street in East Legon, Accra. The theme is be “Creating wealth and employment in a challenging environment”. Following the successes of BarCamp Ghana '08 and BarCamp Ghana '09, regional BarCamp events will be organized in selected regions in Ghana to enable as many people as possible partake in BarCamps before the main national event in December.

On December 22, 2008, over a hundred young Ghanaians met in Accra for BarCamp Ghana
'08 to exchange ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation and development for a rising
Ghana.BarCamp Ghana '09 followed on December 21, 2009, in Accra, under the theme
"Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers". BarCamp Accra 2010 will bring
together stakeholders in Accra to for a day of dialogue, demos and discussions about how to navigate the challenges of doing business and building ventures in Accra.

BarCamps all over the world have brought together individuals and organizations to
collaborate on various projects and businesses. BarCamp Accra ’10 is a FREE event for
anyone who is interested in using their skills, talent, and resources to benefit Ghana and Africa as a whole. This year, the focus is on telling stories and discussing ways of how entrepreneurs and businessmen can create wealth in a burgeoning Accra metropolis faced with a myriad of challenges.

Panelists and speakers will include Eve Andersson of Google, Esi Ansah of Ashesi
University, Derrydean Dadzie of DreamOval, Shika Acolatse of Enablis, Esi Cleland of
AfroChic, Emmanuel Dogbevi of Ghana Busines News amongst others. There will be
sessions organized by Google representatives and as well as other breakout sessions on various topics and interests as put forth by the attendees.

Register/RSVP today at the BarCamp Accra Eventbrite website. You may also contact the
BarCamp Accra team through this website for sponsorship opportunities. If you are
interested in organizing a breakout session, let us know, especially if you have special
needs.

BarCamp Accra 2010 is sponsored by the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology
(MEST), WorldWideWeb Foundation, Google, GhanaThink Foundation and NandiMobile.
Our media partners are CitiFm, Ghana Business News and Radio Universe. The customer
support hotline is 0543-288099. You can send questions, comments, and feedback by SMS
and get responses.

See you there!

www.barcampghana.org

NandiMobile - Empowering Connections!

Very soon, Ghanaians will heave a sigh of relief as they will be provided with an opportunity to get closer to companies that offer products and services in the country. NandiMobile is a technology company that offers channels with its Gripeline and Infoline services for businesses in Africa to offer customer support and business information to their customers via mobile.

With the Gripeline service businesses are now just an SMS away from their customers. Users with mobile phones can complain, comment, give feedback or ask a question and of course obtain a response from the other end.

It is also the company’s objective to make business information and details easily accessible to a majority of the population. NandiMobile through its Infoline service will offer the Ghanaian public the opportunity to access such information via mobile just by sending a keyword to a short code. By leveraging the high mobile penetration in Africa, NandiMobile seeks to become a pan-African company that will re-define global customer service experience by using simple and accessible technologies.

NandiMobile is but one of the many companies in the Meltwater Incubator funded by the Meltwater Foundation. With a strong and dedicated management team, the company will create customer service technologies that will enable businesses connect to their customers through their mobile phones and easily engage, inform and manage their customer relationships. Pay the company a visit on their website and watch out for the launch of the services in September!