American Satirical website mocks Prof Mutharika and Malawi Government

Bold Move! The popular American satirical website, Clickhole, surprisingly published a story mocking Malawian President, Prof Peter wa Mutharika and the Malawi government. In a story titled, Bold Move: Malawi Just Called Julia Roberts Their National Treasure.

The story mockingly claims that Prof Mutharika posted on his Twitter page that the award winning American Actress, Julia Roberts is a Malawian National Treasure. Clickhole went ahead to post photos of the tweets.

The satirical site further claims that the Malawian leader called Malawians are hard working because Julia Roberts, a Malawian, became successful.

In the same post, Clickhole posted a picture of Julia Roberts 'dancing' Likwata with Malawian Yao women. The picture is clearly photoshopped.

A check at Prof Mutharika's twitter page shows that he last posted a tweet on 15 May 2014. He has not been active on Twitter using this twitter handle. The other 'Malawi government' twitter handle has a wrong spelling (@malwiGvt) and is not available on Twitter.

It is not yet clear as to why Clickhole chose Malawi and its leader for this post. Clickhole is owned by another popular political satirical, The Onion.

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Lilongwe's Kufumbi minibus terminal in bad shape

If you stay in areas 36, 22, 23, 24, Biwi, Kawale, Chilinde and surrounding areas, chances are that you might have boarded a minibus at a bus terminal popularly known as 'Kufumbi'. Even worse you use this depot everyday to connect to other areas like 25, 49, 47, and old town. Assuming you are not staying in the mentioned areas but you use the main depot to board long distance buses, it is possible you have experienced the worst conditions you can imagine as a commuter.

'Kufumbi' (dust) stage is as dusty as its name suggests. It is about 200 meters away from the main bus depot and the only nearest minibus stage for the areas 25, 49, and surrounding areas. The place is in a very bad shape and not worthy to be used as a minibus terminal. There are very big holes on the ground (big potholes).

A lot of minibuses struggle to find space and even to go out of the terminal once they are filled. It takes ages for one minibus to find its way out of the terminal.

Even drivers struggle to properly drive their minibuses in a tightly packed area like 'Kufumbi'. There are even special skilled drivers who help others to properly drive out of the mess. It is a very big challenge to commuters who use this terminal as they mostly find themselves late for work or sometimes end up very dirty from the dust. The rainy season will be even worse as the ground will be muddy and slipery.

Amidst all this mess, there are officals from the Minibus Owners Association who collect money from the minibuses daily. Nobody has taken an initiative to maintain this area or relocated the minibus terminal.

There is a terminal nearby meant for the same minbuses which is also packed at times but minibus drivers prefer to use 'Kufumbi' because it is near the depot.

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How can Mobile Technology address the health sector issues in Malawi? Join the #jmacmw mobile app dev challenge

Malawi’s first technology and innovation hub, mHub with sponsorship from MyJobo.com is announcing the start of a mobile application development competition called ‘Jobonology Mobile App Challenge (JMAC).

The competition seeks to motivate Malawian software developers to design an application that can address problems faced in the various sectors in the country and Africa. This competition is focusing on addressing challenges facing the health sector in Malawi. The Theme of the Challenge is “How can Mobile Technology address the health sector issues in Malawi?” The winner of JMAC will be given seed money of USD2000 and will be nested in mHub to further develop the application into a proper business through technical assistance and support from local and international resources.

The Jobonology Mobile App Challenge will run for 10 weeks starting from 1st May 2015 to 10th July 2015. Below are some of the details of the competition:

ELIGIBILITY:

The competition is open to individuals, teams of individuals (not more than 3), Malawian, aged not more than 35, resident in Malawi.

TIMELINE:

The competition will run for 10 Weeks from 1 May 2015. The first two weeks will be for submitting ideas. A link will be opened on 14th May 2015 to allow developers to submit their finished mobile applications.

HOW TO ENTER:

Participants will submit their idea of a Mobile Application at www.jmacmw.com After presenting the idea of the mobile app, the participants will develop the application within a period of 8 Weeks. The finished mobile application will then be submitted to mHub through a link to be
provided.

PRIZE:

The best mobile application (s) will be given seed money of USD2000 and will be nested and incubated in Mhub. Myjobo.com will provide support to the winning idea (s) to develop them into proper businesses utilizing its international network.

PRIZE PRESENTATION:

The best 5 participants will present their applications in front of judges and an audience on a date and venue to be announced. An overall winner will also be announced at the same event. The presentations will be video recorded.

THE SPONSORS:

Myjobo.com is Malawi’s largest platform that connects people with jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities. The platform promotes the concept of Jobonology and facilitates individuals to maximize their potential in any area of interest and earn a living. Myjobo.com runs the Jobonology Mobile Apps Challenge to identify skilled Malawians who are ready to get their ideas to full potential to address development issues facing Malawi and Africa in general.

Myjobo.com will run a series of Challenges in various sectors such as Health, Education, Agriculture and other sectors in collaboration with Mhub. Winners will get seed money and will benefit from Myjobo.com’s international network of developers and advisers to get the idea into a business. Winners will be nested
at mHub’s incubator in Lilongwe.

THE ORGANISERS:

mHub is a unique open technology hub in Lilongwe where students, fresh graduates, young technology entrepreneurs and innovators come to work on their ideas and turn them into viable business models. The hub provides technical assistance and a community of experienced mentors who provide both technical and business assistance to the upcoming entrepreneurs

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Blantyre Tech Fest

Malawi's first and only technology hub and incubation space, @mhubmw has organised a Tech Fest in Blantyre on 17th April 2015. It will take place at College of Medicine, RSC Conference Room from 8 am to 1 pm.

Various IT Entreprenuers will showcase the projects they have developed. There are games, android apps, web applications and many other IT products on display.

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TECH FEST MALAWI - When Technology meet Innovation

The first ever Tech-fest in Malawi is happening this Thursday.
At the Tech-fest, techprenuers will get a chance to showcase their innovative products,view other products and interact with fellow techies,the media and corporate world.

Are you an up and coming techie looking for a spring-board to launch your product?Do you want to be involved and showcase your project at the tech-fest?

Send us a profile of your skill-set and projects to techfest@mhubmw.com

#mhub is here to help you techies!

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BHO! A Malawian chat is born!

Are you tired of downloading Whatsapp every few months? Do you own a feature phone that is not compatible with other chats like WeChat? What if you had a chat that understood your local language? Bho! chat is the answer to all these questions.

Developed by a 19 year old National College of Information Technology Student (NACIT) student, Bho! is a new way for Malawians to chat instantly. Bho! allows users to send instant messages from their phone browsers to friends in a similar way like Whatsapp, WeChat or Telegram. Innocent Bvalani decided to develop a chat that works in all internet enabled phones including the Chinese brands which are very common in the Malawian market.

Bho! does almost everything that other chats do only that it works on the phone browser instead of downloading a dedicated application into your phone. It is also very compatible with almost every internet enabled phone unlike other chats which only work on specific operating systems or platforms.

In an interview, Innocent Bvalani said that he had in mind the poorest people in Malawi who cannot afford a smartphone.He said he wanted every Malawian to enjoy the use of instant chatting. He also included an option to send pictures or videos. Bho! also gives the user an option to use English or Chichewa as the main language in its settings.

To register with Bho! a user should visit http://www.malawibridge.com/bho/ on their phone browser and register with their name and phone number. A confirmation code is sent as a text to their phone. After confirming in their browser, they can start chatting with their already registered friends or invite their friends by entering their number on the invite space. Users can also search for their friends using their name or phone number.

Bvalani previously developed his own social network, Bridge, which attracted over 1300 users but he could not continue supporting it. He funds his developments from his pockets with the help of family members. He will however embark on a project of selling his idea to the corporate world to help him make it grow. Bho! will soon have an android application which is being developed.

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