Becoming a well-known influencer to product marketers has become one of the most desired professions for upcoming Kenyan youths for some really good reasons. But the path to its success doesn’t have to always be marred with controversy or negative publicity. As much as there are those who’ve rose to become very expensive influencers in Kenya through disturbing controversies that often tarnish their reputations for good, it is possible to keep your good reputation and become a force to reckon in the field.

True, some well known individuals in the sector have managed to rise way above the fold in the shortest time possible, and this can be attributed to instances that have taken Kenyans on social media by surprise both in a good way or negatively. But becoming a professional influencer in Kenya ought to involve hard work and brilliant thinking just like any other profession.

Is becoming an influencer worthy of a profession in Kenya?

The simple answer to the above question is “YES”. Product manufacturers and service-oriented companies have grown to recognize the impact influencers have on their products and services. The segment had long been left to celebrities ranging from actors, TV hosts or musicians; but the popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram or even YouTube offers even more effective ways to market products and services.

There are many Kenyans out there who can now purchase a product just because someone they’re following or admire used the product or service. And to many companies, marketing an item is all about having the most impact on consumers decision, which is why becoming an influencer on social media mostly depends on the number of followers. Just like TV commercials, the whole point of using social media influencers is to reach as much audience as possible.

How to become a social media influencer in Kenya

1.      Identify your specialty or talent

Companies deploy Influencer marketing option by using top content creators, specialized in their respective niches, to help them improve brand awareness, increase traffic, and drive their brand’s message to desired target audience. There’s no better way to create moving content than doing what you really like most. Remember the recent discovery of azziad nasenya with her utawezana dance moves featured on tiktok, not knowing that whatever she was doing could at some point propel her to a privileged position, she become an overnight sensation for doing what she loved most. Since then her social media following has swollen to professional levels.

2.      Identify your comfortable platforms.

Secondly, identify your most preferred social media platform. In reference to Azziad Nasenya’s case, I didn’t even know there are that many Kenyans using tiktok until her videos went viral. So, it doesn’t really matter where you post your content as long as it relates to what you’re doing.

 I’d assume that most photographers would prefer Instagram as the platform is top notch in photography blogging, and at the same time most video reviewers would settle on YouTube. Facebook is unrivalled for general bloggers.

3.      Build a formidable following

Being a social media influencer is all about the following you build. As much as we’d love to associate with someone who posts stunning content, as an advertiser, I’d be willing to advertise my products or services with someone who has the most following of target audience than someone who just creates exemplary content.

There are various ways to build unsurmountable following on social media. You could create content and market it before becoming a marketer yourself. Ironically, the essence of becoming a social media influencer first involves marketing yourself first. If you’re a photographer or fashion designer for example, you’ll need to put your work out there by marketing. Post in relevant Facebook groups, invite your friends to like your page and even tell friends to invite their friends as well.

4.      Create a company portfolio and share with potential companies

It’ll be worthless to have an enormous social media following if it doesn’t positively impact your life and one way to use your influence is to monetize it. Reach out to companies and share your portfolio. Photographers could be very successful with phone makers that often tout their cameras as the best in the industry.

5.      And finally; ask yourself questions companies are looking to be answered

• Companies will be seeking to know if the influencer and his or her lifestyle fit their brand image
• Have you worked with any competitors?
• Who is this your current audience?
• Is the company’s target audience active on the platform/ channel
• How have you packaged your cost, do you fit client’s budget?
• Have you used any of client’s products and/ or services before?
• Do you have the kind of personality people would want to work with?
• As an influencer, what do you expect from the client

Safaricom and Dignitas have collaborated to donate tablets for students in Kawangware and Dandora in support of e-learning especially during this period when all institutions have closed their physical branches to embrace e-learning instead as a measure to curb the spread of covid-19. Safaricom through its foundation and Dignitas a non-governmental organization that works to provide access to education in Kenya’s urban slums seeks to promote e-learning to a thousand households drawn from the two slums through the distribution of the tablets.  

Most schools in the country have embarked on embracing technology as a means of curbing the spread of the current outbreak with most institutions offering classes online. Since the current outbreak almost caught everyone unaware, students from poor backgrounds or remote areas of the country that have little or no access to the internet thereby hanging on the disadvantaged segment in the country.

Elite schools have managed to make arrangements, some involving mobile service providers in the country to continue offering learning lessons through the internet so that most don’t miss out on the curriculum that is essential for them to pass their upcoming exams. However, not all students have the same financial muscle to own a tablet or computer for learning, let alone access to the internet.

 Speaking on the unveiling of free tablets, Safaricom foundation chairman joseph ogutu noted the current crisis had disrupted day-to-day learning in schools which has unfortunately left some students behind; especially those who cannot afford smart phones or tablets for online learning. He added the foundation was trying to bridge this divide not only through philanthropy like the free tablet initiative but also through products such as Shupavu 291 which is in partnership with Eneza and allows for access to learning and revision content via text messages and USSD.

The project aims to give tablets to student leaders and teachers from the two informal settlements who will use the devices to relay education content to other students both via SMS and through online platforms. 

Dignitas on its end through Executive Director Deborah Kimanthi said they were excited to be partnering with Safaricom Foundation during this crisis. She added the NGO believed that every child deserved the opportunity to thrive and succeed. However, many children rely on school for protection and well-being as well as learning. She also added their support to children in this season is aimed at protecting their well-being and promote learning at home so that all children could reach their potential.

Safaricom previously engaged Eneza Education, Longhorn Publishers and Viusasa Elimu to provide free access to educational content for primary and secondary school students studying from home.

 The partnership with Eneza Education allows students from grade 4 to form 4 access learning and revision content on the SMS-based Shupavu291 free of charge following a 60-day waiver of the daily KES 3 subscription fee. The platform can be accessed via USSD *291# or the short code 20851.

Learners with internet access can also access education content on Shupavu Web, Viusasa Elimu and the Longhorn E-learning portals through a free education bundle available on *544#

Chipper Cash, one of Africa’s leading fintech innovation that offers low cost and more advanced tech solution to send and or receive money across the African continent right on your mobile phone has zero-rated transaction fees on its platform to help customers combat with the covid-19 effects. With the current pandemic which has forced many under lockdown and by extension practice social distancing, several people are now looking for solutions that do not involve moving around such as visiting physical locations unless its absolutely necessary.

It’s one of the many firms that have so far taken measures to come up with solutions that least exposes customers to the current outbreak. Unlike the likes of western union of which on their own cannot effectively offer services without having to visit an agent unless using third party services like Mpesa, Chipper Cash allows customers to send and receive money across the African continent at no fee. This has tremendously promoted social distancing as well as the physical handling of cash.

The Chipper Cash innovation was born out of the Silicon Valley in San Francisco by Uganda’s Ham Serunjogi and Ghana’s Maijid Moujaled, having been inspired to offer fast and cheap mobile payment solutions in Africa, and was launched in October 2018. Africa continues to lead in the use of mobile based money transfer services with success stories in countries like Kenya where MPESA trounces all other services by significant margins.

Speaking on the development, the Co-founder and CEO of Chipper Cash, Ham Serunjogi pointed out that their education and life experiences abroad drove them to think of ways they could leverage growing up on the continent to create a major impact, leading to the birth of Chipper Cash.

Kenya continues to lead the world in the use of digital payments especially via mobile phones that have so far reached close to 70 percent of its population. Chipper Cash is therefore offering a platform to those who work across the continent and want a more convenient, simple and cheaper platform to send and receive cash.

Serunjogi also added that Chipper Cash was enabling Africans to transfer and receive money across Africa in a fast, free, and easy way right from their mobile phones. In addition, he also said they plan to expand the untapped opportunity in Kenya and continue bringing Africa together, one transaction at a time.

Chipper Cash is currently operational in Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, and South Africa and has over 1 million downloads from the Android Play Store. Also, over 3 million transactions have been successfully completed since its inception.

It allows customers in Kenya to make up to 2 million Kenyan Shillings per day worth of transactions or 15 million Kenyan Shillings per week. It can be downloaded from both the top app stores – Play Store for android devices or App Store for iOS devices.

Advantages of using Chipper Cash;

• Its currently free to download and has no transaction costs for local or cross-border transfers
• Users can purchase discounted airtime of 2% on most mobile networks across Africa
• You can send money to someone who doesn’t have a Chipper Cash account
• You can as well Send and receive money from any network
• Chipper Cash is easily linked to your contacts
• Refer your friends to Chipper Cash to expand your network of those you can send to and receive from for free

Kenya is on course to implement new intellectual property rights through the latest Intellectual Property Bill 2020 that’s aimed at spurring innovation in the country. Currently, the country is highly ranked as the second most innovative country in Africa and a home to a handsome of global innovations.

Items which can be classified under the intellectual property laws include innovations, copyrights as well as trademarks. Trademarks are basically those special marks that uniquely identify goods and services to a particular company. These marks may as well refer to brand names while on the other hand, copyrights are intended to safeguard artistic creations of the mind.

Copyrights are quite common in the entertainment industry with the likes of audio, visual, literary, computer graphics as well as audio-visual beneath the same copyright umbrella. The last segment of intellectual property includes patents, technology innovations and utility models which are all contained in the Industrial Property Act. There’s also a less common type of intellectual property that entails industrial designs as well as geographical indications.

At the moment, Kenya’s intellectual property laws are contained in several existing laws such as the Industrial Property Act which regulates patents, utility models and technology innovations, trademark laws that regulate trademarks and Copyrights which regulate the same and related rights. But there also existing some government organs that oversee the administration of the various classes of rights.

In the proposed intellectual property bill 2020, the laws therein intent to make changes to the current status by incorporating several pieces of legislation into one known as the Intellectual Property Act (IP Act). The act will then include different classes of legislations under one law and will also lead to the creation of one statutory body to administer intellectual property in Kenya, that is, the Intellectual Property Office.

Consolidation of the intellectual property laws comes with major advantages as is the case with other countries such as Rwanda that were drafted with assistance from the World Intellectual property Organization (WIPO). Consolidating laws into one as was done with previous laws regulating marriage has several benefits that comes into play especially during legal interpretations.

The proposed law accommodates for an intellectual policy and strategy which the old ones didn’t have. Any progressive legislative environment has to be supported by a strong policy to guide future changes in the law. The new proposals spells importance in the growth and development of Kenya’s economy. The functions of the regulatory authority have been expanded to accommodate fighting counterfeits and promotion of innovations. The regulatory body will not just administer the rights but also participate in enforcement.

As most companies resort to having employees work from home, there are some professions that this option would unequivocally appear on their list of alternatives. Surprisingly, some of these groups that can’t work from home are at the same time the most vulnerable in the current era. Take for example taxi drivers, they literally interact with a lot of strangers on a daily basis, whom by extension could be carrying an infectious disease such as the covid-19. Just like anyone else, taxi drivers such as Uber faces enormous amounts of distress during this period; from diminished earnings to increased risks of being infected.

As the saying goes, tough times calls for touch choices and uber drivers have devised a clever way to make those rides without the knowledge of Uber or in some cases vehicle owners. By using certain clever means on unsuspecting riders, they’re able to circumvent paying the mandatory twenty five percent fee they remit to uber on every trip they make.

And by extension the same tactics are used to withheld some earnings from car owners. Uber utilizes an app that connects riders to drivers. Riders have to input their pick up location and destination in the app where the app provides a estimate of the amount they’ll likely be required to pay. Under normal circumstances, Uber systems have become very efficient in a way that riders usually only pay the estimated amount except in rare cases such as traffic jams or road closures.

Faced with touch times that have led to meagre earnings, Uber drivers have found some loopholes in the online taxi hailing app that often allow them to make trips, collect cash without remitting the firms 25 percent share.  

Ways uber drivers use to avoid paying the 25 percent uber fee

1. Loyal customers that don’t request cabs via the app

Once you’ve taken a ride in an uber, there are some customers who might want to keep the driver on certain occasions. For example, there are many Kenyans who have partnered with some of uber drivers to drive them on specific days for various reasons. Whether its going to work or church or any occasion that require one to make regular trips at specific times.

• Cancelling a ride instead of starting it once the rider gets in

This is a peculiar method but still most of them do it all the time. this method works with the assumption that the rider already has an estimate of what the ride would cost. In some cases, drivers ask their customers if they’ve seen the amount they’ll need to pay just before cancelling. And after the trip is completed, uber drivers usually depend on their customer’s good will to pay even without receiving an official invoice.

• Requesting riders to cancel and pay the estimated amount.

This one is a bit straight forward and requires consent from the rider first just to make sure they’ll pay. Once you request a ride, the driver might request you to cancel the trip and just pay for the shown estimate amount.

• Submit a paid trip as unpaid

Lastly but not least, crooked drivers in some cases will say you dint pay cash for the trip even though you paid. This is more common to rides requested by someone else other than the rider. Uber requires riders to make an official complaint within three days. Therefore, these drivers base on the assumption that you won’t notice immediately especially if you rarely use the app.