Category: 3-SometimeTechTalk

Turns out Ghana’s top cop— Inspector General of Police John Kudalor thinks that blocking social media access across the country might be necessary to ensure Ghana’s national security on election day in November 2016. Mr Kudalor reckons that Ghana might do well to learn from the example set by other countries on the continent and around the world that have take similar steps in the recent past— Uganda no doubt being top of mind. It's likely that the Inspector General’s comments might have been made to test public sentiment on the issue ahead of the polls. However, if the chill we're picking up on Twitter is anything to go by, Ghanaians don’t seem to be terribly concerned at the prospect of having to survive 24 hours or so without access to Facebook and Twitter come November 7th. Ah, well… Meanwhile, in place of our discussion segment on the African Tech Round-up this week, we feature part of a recent in-depth conversation Andile Masuku had with Stephen van Coller, who is the Chief Executive for Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa. Listen in to hear Stephen tell Andile how Barclays Plc’s imminent plans to shed its investments in Africa will impact the business he runs, and why he is confident that fintech startups on the continent will never completely disrupt incumbents within the financial services industry. Bonus: Look out for a comment made by Nigeria’s leading podcaster, Andre Blaze Henshaw, on why he reckons that podcasting as a medium is going to be huge in the media scene of the future. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Show Notes: https://github.com/PHPUgly/podcast/blob/master/shows/ep12.md Ep12 You are listening to the PHPUgly podcast: episode12, recorded Thursday, May 26th, 2016. Today we talk about * Our latest Laravel Meetups * Do you prefer being a jack of all trades, or specialized? (Full stack or PHP dev) * Are certifications worth it? * Dealing with sys/devops

Brian Anderson is the Head of Sales and Business Development at Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a NYSE-listed firm specialising in banking and payments technology as well as consulting and outsourcing solutions— which acquired one of the world’s leading financial software and technology services companies SunGard in 2015. The company services 20,000 clients in 130 countries and has 55,000 employees and $9.3 billion in revenue. Brian speaks to Andile Masuku about the company's next big idea targetting developing markets in Africa-- an online stokvel (savings club) solution.

Late last week a violent attack on two Uber partner vehicles in the Sandton Central Business District led to the injury of three police officers who attended the scene to calm things down, and also resulted in the damage of two law enforcement vehicles. The assault on the Uber partners’ cars is said to have been carried out by a group of meter taxi drivers unhappy with Uber’s disruption of their livelihood. One man has reportedly been arrested in connection with the incident. Meanwhile, the quiet chat with Brian Anderson featured in this week’s African Tech Round-up in place of our regular debate segment takes on a decidedly more civil tone. Brian is the Head of Sales and Business Development for Africa at NYSE-listed banking and payments technology firm, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS)— the company that acquired financial software company SunGuard late last year. Listen in to hear Brian talk to Andile Masuku about an ambitious new platform that FIS is poised to launch to help promote financial inclusion on the continent. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Show notes: https://github.com/PHPUgly/podcast/blob/master/shows/ep11.md Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/phpugly/episode11 Topics * Our latest SDPHP Meetups * PHP Zend co-founder enlists for AWS big-data link * The Joel Test * Silex hits 2.0 * PPM and PHP 7.1 * Why do people hate on PHP? * The hosts Follow us on Twitter @PHPUgly Email us at Podacast@phpugly.com

Vodacom is finally pulling the plug on their disastrous six-year attempt to roll out M-Pesa in South Africa. (The service will be shut down on June 30th 2016.) Funny thing is, Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub has blamed his company’s diabolical failure to meet their target of enlisting at least 10 million active users on South Africa’s relatively well-established banking industry. (By the end of 2015 they had only managed to onboard a paltry 76,000 active users.) However, Joosub’s assertion does not sit well with our guest on this week’s episode of the African Tech Round-up— the brilliant and insightful, Dominique Collett. Dominique knows a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t in terms of mobile money innovation on the continent. Following a successful exit at the incredibly successful fintech startup she co-founded-- Tyme (acquired by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for a rumoured ±USD30 million), Dominique has gone on to become a financial services investor and innovation architect who is now a Senior Investment Executive at Rand Merchant Insurance Holdings (RMI), as well as the Head of Alpha Code, RMI’s nippy financial services incubator/accelerator. Listen in to this week's discussion to hear Tefo Mohapi, Andile Masuku and Dominique ponder what lies ahead for Africa’s mobile money scene. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Show notes: https://github.com/PHPUgly/podcast/blob/master/shows/ep10.md PHPUgly - Episode 10 recorded May 14, 2016 Topics Breaking up with a client Laravel News Becoming the Official Laravel Blog Github New Pricing Model JetBrains Security Flaws Is PHP-Fig reall breaking up? The hosts Eric Van Johnson Twitter / Github / Blog / About.me Tom Rideout Twitter / Github / About.me John Congdon Twitter / Github Follow us on Twitter @PHPUgly Email us at Podacast@phpugly.com