5 Schools in Accra Receive ICT Equipment from Hubtel 

Hubtel, Ghana’s leading bulk messaging and e-commerce platform provider, has donated ICT equipment to 5 schools in the Greater Accra Region as part of the company’s social responsibility commitments. 

Hubtel is Ghana’s first tech company to become a member of the globally acclaimed Pledge 1% in 2017. By this, Hubtel pledged to give 1% of profits, 1% of products, and 1% of paid employee time towards charitable courses. 

According to the founders of Pledge 1%, “the initiative is a global movement to create a new normal in which giving back is integrated into the DNA of companies of all sizes. Pledge 1% encourages and challenges individuals and companies to Pledge 1% of equity, profit, product, and/or employee time for their communities.”   

The items donated to the 5 schools included laptops, projectors, projector screen stands, speakers, microphones, internet routers, and other computer peripherals. The schools were selected by employees of Hubtel after several visits to understand the challenges the schools face in the teaching and learning of information technology subjects. 

The first donation at the St Paul Primary & Junior High School, Kpehe – Accra New Town, was received by the assistant headmaster of the school. Also present were the Chairperson of the PTA and a section of the school pupils.  

Making the donations at St Paul Primary & JHS, Alex Bram, CEO of Hubtel emphasized that “We [Hubtel] ultimately want to transform the time for teaching and learning ICT into one filled with memorable moments and lots of fun. Schoolchildren should not be intimidated by technology.  What we are doing is to provide early access to quality computer education for these pupils. We wish to see more school children take computing programs at higher levels because we believe the illiterates of the future will be people who cannot use computers”. 

Other schools that received similar donations were Liberty Avenue 2 JHS at Adabraka, Dr. FV Nanka-Bruce Junior High at Korle-Gonno, the Nima Cluster of Schools, and the Bethel AME Zion JHS at Ashaiman.  

These schools either had one PC for teaching and learning or none at all. In coming to the aid of the schools, school officials expressed relief and gratitude for the donations. Mr Michael Owusu, Assistant Headmaster at the St Paul Primary and JHS speaking to journalists after the donations was beside himself with joy, ”It really feels special. For more than three years, we’ve made frantic efforts to acquire these items with little success. Now, our pupils can have a real chance to understand better what they are taught. This is a moment of pride for us”.

Hubtel was founded in May 2005 on the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. In its 14 years of operation, the company has carved a reputation as a trusted and admirable tech brand across Africa. Starting with a bulk SMS messaging platform, the company has evolved into the e-commerce space – offering businesses tools to enhance the customer shopping experience; in-store, online, and mobile.  

In becoming a signatory to Pledge 1%, Hubtel joined the ranks of Silicon Valley giants like Salesforce, Yahoo, Box, Glassdoor, DocuSign, and other leading companies in over 100 countries.

Many insightful themes grace this year’s Customer Service Week celebration.

At some point in our lives, we all get the opportunity of either rendering service or being attended to as customers. That highlights the importance of customer service to all of us.

Although it’s an official weeklong celebration, starting October 7^th – 11^th 2019, delivering exceptional service remains an all-year-round affair.

Great customer service is a powerful tool for any company.

Customers expect quick, consistent and outstanding service, starting from the moment they enter your store or visit your webstore, to when they pick up their purchases or receive their delivery.

Here are a few insights you can view about your customers on Hubtel:

• New Customers visiting your business for the first time.
• Returning Customers who have made more than one purchase.
• Average Customer Value on the average amount a customer has spent in your business.
• Average Visit Value on the average amount a customer will spend in your business during a visit.
• Inactive Customers who have churned in the last three (3) months.
• Dormant Customers who have churned in the last six (6) months.

Great companies aim to exceed customer expectations positively. These companies provide support for customers to know and track the status of orders and delivery. They also respond to feedback and ratings from their customers.

September 2019 Product Update

Customers. Sales. Reviews. Security

See what’s new in this update:

Feedback & Inbox

Know what your customers think and feel about your business

Invoice Additions

Add taxes, levies, or other service charges a customer may have to pay as part of a sale

API Security Alerts

API Customers now receive notifications on any unauthorized (HTTP 401 or HTTP 403) attempt on accounts

Filter by Expiry Date

Filter items based on expiry dates. This requires that you add expiry dates to items; as part of product details in Advanced Options

Stock History

See all stock reduction activities when items are sold in-store, online, and on mobile

Feedback & Inbox
• Receive and instantly respond to customer Ratings and Feedback.
• Your customers will receive your response and can also reply from their inbox.

Invoice Additions
• Set up invoice additions for your items per branch. This can either be included in or excluded from the price.
• All invoice additions are added to the sub-total for your customer to pay.

Callback URL Check
Your callback URL may be down or timeout once in a while. This may happen when Sending money, Receiving money, or using the Hubtel checkout.
Check the status of any of these activities whenever you miss a callback:
1. Your own client reference
2. The Hubtel Transaction ID or Checkout
3. The Network Providers transaction ID

API Self-service
Manage your API credentials yourself. Get things done on your integrations swiftly and securely with Setup API Keys now in your control.
Visit Hubtel Integration to Add, Change or Delete API Keys.

PSP Regulatory Act, 2019 (Act 987)
PCI DSS and ISO 27001 certifications in progress to meet all new minimum requirements for Payment Service Providers issued by the Bank of Ghana.

Key Features
Add the most essential and interesting key details about each item as part of the product details in Advanced Options.

eCommerce, even in its most basic form has been around for 40 years!

The history of e-commerce dates back even before the internet. How Did It All Begin?

1979 – Michael Aldrich ‘invented’ online shopping. Aldrich was an English inventor, innovator and entrepreneur, who is credited with developing the predecessor to online shopping.

The idea came about during a stroll with his wife, when Aldrich lamented about their weekly supermarket shopping expedition.

This conversation sparked an idea to hook a television to their supermarket to deliver the groceries.

Immediately after the discussion Aldrich quickly planned and implemented his idea.

In 1979, Aldrich connected a television set to a transaction processing computer with a telephone line and created what he coined, “teleshopping,” meaning shopping at a distance.

By definition, ecommerce or electronic commerce, is the buying and selling of products or services via the Internet.

From mobile shopping to online payment encryption and beyond, ecommerce encompasses a wide variety of data, systems, and tools for both online buyers and sellers.

Most businesses with an ecommerce presence use an ecommerce store and/or an ecommerce platform to conduct both online marketing and sales activities and to oversee logistics and fulfillment.

The history of ecommerce started 40 years ago and, to this day, continues to grow with new technologies, innovations, and thousands of businesses entering the online market each year.

eCommerce has taken over the air, and no one is holding back! Enjoy the convenience of online shopping today. Check out great deals on Hubtel Mall. Shop. Pay. Get delivery in minutes!

One of the biggest exhibition of professional and business leaders in the beauty industry happened this weekend at the Accra International Conference Center.

This first edition of the Hair Senta International Beauty show dubbed “HIBS Africa”, attracted vendors and exhibitors of hair and beauty products across the African continent and internationally.

The vision of HIBS Africa is to bridge the global divide and make African businesses in the beauty industry, globally competitive and successful.

Hubtel introduced exhibitors to the importance of offering convenient shopping experiences for their customers. Emphasizing the competitive advantage of online sales, electronic transactions and prompt service delivery.

August 2019 Product Update

It’s getting smoother by the day

See what’s new in this update:

Notifications

Get notified of events on your business account as they happen

Customer Insights

See how your customers are interacting with your business

Under the hood

Your business now runs on faster engines. Assuring 99% uptime!

Customers Insights

Here are insights you can now view about your customers: 

• New Customer – Customers visiting your business for the first time. 
• Returning Customers – Customers who have made more than one purchase. 
• Average Customer Value – This is the average amount a customer has spent in your business. 
• Average Visit Value – The average amount a customer will spend in your business during a visit. 
• Inactive Customers – Customers who have churned in the last three (3) months. 
• Dormant Customers – Customers who have churned in the last six (6) months.

Inventory Expiry Alert

Get alerts when items in your inventory are about to expire.
You’ll receive notifications for items:

• 6 months before expiry 
• 4 months before the expiry 
• 2 months before the expiry
• 4 weeks before the expiry
• 2 weeks before the expiry
• 5 days, 4 days, and 3 days before expiry 

The E-commerce wave is rapidly moving over Africa in recent times, albeit with its problems. Africans are generally not fond of buying items online due to fraud and trust issues. However, modern technology is making this trend attractive to the young generation, and the adoption is quite impressive.

Today we’ll take a look at some of the top Ecommerce sites in Ghana. We’ll consider two main things for each platform:

• Delivery options each provides
• Source of items

This list is in no particular order or preference. Let’s dive in.

Jumia

Jumia is by far the most popular Ecommerce website in Ghana. They sell items in almost all sorts of categories ranging from electronics to baby products. It has come to be the most popular Ecommerce site known by many Ghanaians. Jumia’s vision is to revolutionize the shopping experience in Africa.

Delivery Options

“The delivery time starts from the day you place your order to the day one of our delivery associates makes a first attempt to deliver to you.”
– Jumia Delivery

Source Of Items
Most of the items on Jumia are from local businesses that are referred to as Merchants. Some of the items are however shipped from abroad. Such items have a “Jumia Global” tag on them.

Have you shopped on Jumia before? What was your experience like?
Visit jumia.com.gh 

Zoobashop

Zoobashop is a Ghanaian-based online shop promising the best deals on electronics, home appliances, fashion, and accessories. They offer the aforementioned products, all under one virtual roof.

Delivery Options

Zoobashop.com currently delivers 6 days a week (Monday through Saturday), to addresses in Accra and Tema.

Delivery occurs between 09:00AM and 6:30PM, Monday through Friday, and 09:00AM to 2:00PM on Saturdays.

Orders with a total value under the value GH¢ 350 will attract a delivery fee, depending on the customer’s choice of delivery. All orders above GH¢ 350 would be delivered free of charge, but would unless otherwise stated, be treated as Standard Delivery.
– Zoobashop Delivery

Source Of Items

Since it’s a Ghanaian-owned platform, all its items are locally based, unlike Jumia that imports some of theirs.
Visit zoobashop.com

Hubtel Mall

The Hubtel mall was launched less than a year ago but has received massive adoption from users. Hubtel has some of the best deals when it comes to electronics from big brands like Samsung and Nasco. If you are ever out to shop for a new phone, try Hubtel mall. Chances are you’ll get a great deal.

Delivery Options
Hubtel handles all its delivery through its own in-house delivery service – Hubtel Carforce. Being able to control the delivery means we’re able to fulfill our 60-minute delivery promise to users. It’s the first online shop that guarantees that when you order a box of pizza, you’ll get it while it’s hot.
– Hubtel Careforce

Source Of Items
Hubtel signs up businesses that own stores, on the mall. This means all the items in the mall are from local businesses. This gives users the best quality items only.
Have you shopped at the Hubtel mall before? Try out today at hubtel.com/mall
You can also download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store.

Caution: This is not your average long list post (of delivery services). If you want an actual long list of delivery services in Ghana, check this page by GhanaYellow: They do a good job of listing all the major delivery companies in Ghana.

I’m here to introduce Hubtel’s own delivery service called Careforce. Sounds familiar? No? Read on then

Hubtel Careforce

Now consider this scenario: An Ecommerce platform that handles its own delivery service. Sounds pretty much like a well thought-out plan. And it is!

The catch here is this: deliver to the customer in 60 minutes or less.
When you shop on the Hubtel Mall, you get your items on the same day – within 60 minutes. Amazon has something similar called FreeSameDay but works a bit differently. Plus it only works for selected items and locations.

This is the power of the Hubtel Careforce – a network of delivery agents within an area close to where you shop from. Any business who has products listed on Hubtel has access to this fast delivery service.
What this means for you as a business is that, you get to focus more on selling while Hubtel Careforce takes care of all your delivery needs.

If you are a buyer, you get the assurance of getting your items within 60 minutes of purchasing on the Hubtel Mall.

Give It A Spin

Have you shopped on the Hubtel Mall yet? Time to give it a spin. Clothes, phones, electronics, food (yes food) all on your phone or at hubtel.com/mall

Time to do some shopping!

So before we dive in, have this in mind: The word “best” as used in this post is relative. You’ll find out why. Just keep reading.
Atlas and Boots has this comprehensive breakdown of global internet rank. Check it out here.

The Case of Internet Bundles In Ghana

It is a known fact that internet bundles in Ghana is very expensive. So in today’s post, I’ll highlight some bundle package I believe are relatively lower than the others. Let’s dive in!

MTN TurboNet Bundles

Surprised? Don’t be. This bundle by MTN is by far the best in my opinion. The usual MTN data bundles are a bit pricey. I’m not sure if this new TurboNet bundle package is here to stay. But it should. I mean, look at this sweet deal!

Data Volume (GB)           Amount (GHC)

5GB                                    20.00

10GB                                  40.00

20GB 75.00

45GB                                  120.00

90GB                                  175.00

225GB                                240.00

550GB                                395.00

Want to enjoy this sweetness? Grab a router from the mall here.

Vodafone Special Offer Bundles

I believe Vodafone introduced this as a way to get more subscribers for Vodafone Cash. At this point, it really doesn’t matter. As long it’s a sweet deal, I’m for it. It’s available for Vodafone Cash users only.
The bundle lasts for just 24 hours (which is strange but ok) at a price of either GHS1 (500MB) and GHS2 (1.5GIG)

Here’s how to get this “Special Offer”.
Dial *110#
Choose Option 3 
Choose Option 3 – Special Offers
Select either 1 or 2
Choose a package
Enter your Vodafone Cash pin to confirm

Once you are done, you get to enjoy the offer for the next 24 hours.

There are other bundle options for other networks, but these two came up as the best in my opinion. Got any in mind you want to share? Drop it in the comments. After all, we all need sweet data packages.

It’s 2019. Everyone wants fast internet! You are either on a blazing Broadband connection or a fast 4G internet connection. This is where the MTN TurboNet Router shines – A morph of broadband and 4G LTE.

Every new tech has its own pros and cons. Heck even the internet itself has its own issues.

Today we take a look at one of Ghana’s leading internet and telecommunications service providers MTN. We’re particularly looking at their newly introduced internet solution – the Turbonet router: the pros and cons of it (and some freebies).

To make this as practical and truthful as possible, we had some chats with a few current users of the device. We’ll be summarizing their views based on the data packages, internet speed, and customer service. These categories were based on the views they expressed during the “interview”. 

Pros Of The MTN TurboNet Router

Initial Device Setup

It’s a plug-and-play device so setting up is a walk in the park. Plug it in, turn it on, and start surfing. Since it comes with 5GIG free data, you don’t even have to worry about purchasing data initially. 5GIG is not much but it should give you something to test the blazing fast speed with.

Free Data For 6 Months

Remember the free 5GIG data I mentioned above? You get it every month for the next 6 months. Yep. For all the freebie lovers out there, this one is for you!

Bonus On Every Topup
More goodies! For every top-up you make on the TurboNet Router, you get an extra 50% bonus data free! This does put a smile on everyone’s face. I’m not surprised our interviewees enjoyed this. I mean come on, who wouldn’t? 

From the information we gathered from our interviewees, it appears the pros far out way the cons. Nonetheless, every tech has got its own wahala. Let’s dive right into what they said.
But before we do, don’t forget to check out the full device specs from the Hubtel Mall here: MTN TurboNet Router 
Bonus: Get free delivery and GHS10 cashback when you purchase today!

Cons of The MTN Turbonet Router

Initial Bundle Activation
Most of them mentioned that they had a hard time getting the initial free bundle. It turns out that sometimes it takes a while for your free 5GIG to hit your account. But once you pass this first encounter, it’s a smooth sail from here on. I actually experienced this myself as I had to call their customer helpline to get this activated.

In Conclusion
I personally use the MTN TurboNet Router at home. The only issue I have is the fact that the data runs out so quick! Maybe I stream a lot on YouTube. Should I qualify this as a Pro or a Con? 

While you think of an answer, don’t forget to grab one today from the Hubtel mall. You’ll love it!

Three years ago, Alex Bram had an idea. The idea was quite simple. He believed there should be an app that connected users to their favorite brands. This connection was quite different and novel, in the sense that users would have the power to purchase digital services from these brands; and review them as well for the kind of service they received. Also, it had a mix of loyalty where users were rewarded every time a digital service was purchased. This was meant to create a positive feedback loop that would keep customers coming back for more. Someway somehow it worked and we all enjoy it to this day.

For this idea to come alive a team of engineers was assembled (sort of like the Avengers. These guys did not have superpowers).
At that point in time, Hubtel’s focus was on businesses and the core of our product was business-facing, so most of the engineering effort and time were put in that direction. This team that was formed was as agile as you can imagine.

These were the members and their roles as of then:

1. Alex Bram (Part-time Project Manager)
2. Selassie Afenya (Team Lead)
3. Liman Labaran (Backend Developer)
4. Paul Gamedzi (Front End Developer > Backend Engineer)
5. Bill Inkoom (Android Developer)
6. Emmanuel Rockson (Visual Designer)

Since we were free to do what we wanted, we chose a different stack as opposed to what Hubtel was using – Microsoft Framework. We went Laravel. On the business platform, Hubtel had users and businesses but because we were building a side app, we created our own users. We also created our own brands and basically created everything that our little platform needed. The app was launched to the public on Hubtel’s birthday, 12th May (2017). We started work on it around July 2016. It was initially named Hubtel Exchange then we did not like that name so we changed it to Hubtel Connect. Then we didn’t like that name either so we changed it to Hubtel Gratis. But Apple said no to that name so we chose Hubtel.me and we got fed up and just removed the .me so now it’s just Hubtel.

The app released to the public was really simple: you could buy airtime and pay some bills and get great rewards for doing that. We started with a few users: less than a hundred. Our daily transaction volumes were in hundreds of cedis a day. We had no ads or no big promotion plans in mind. We wanted the dream of virality, to build a system so good that it would sell itself. As time went on our users increased in number and the volumes came with it. We steadily climbed to GHS 100,000 a month and crossed the 1000-user mark, then we hit a million Ghana cedis in transactions (“a milli, a milli” in Lil Wayne’s voice). That was great.

The fire sort of died down a little bit because we had become another credit-selling and bill-paying app ( a sect of apps that are just waiting to be slaughtered by the Industry Giants (Banks and MTN).

Then Patrick Asare-Frimpong joined Hubtel and for the very first time, we had a full-time Project Manager. He brought fresh energy and new ideas.

The next few months were exciting: we worked on Gift-cards; we worked on fraud prevention and we built our beloved Sophie. She is truly a darling. Sophie is certainly one of a kind, she is a fully automated bot that can process natural language and give level-headed replies. At first, she was just cracking jokes and giving people Hubtel’s phone number. Well, Patrick disagreed and insisted we equip Sophie to become Hubtel’s first Automated Support (RoboSupport). It worked! Sophie can now reverse transactions when issues are reported to her. Her database of possible questions has grown making her a great support personnel to talk to all the time.

Then came a powerful alliance with marketing to create the potential future of Hubtel – the Mobile Mall and Car4ce. Around this time most of the earlier comrades had left and new comrades had entered the scene.

• Max Cofie
• Andy Nickson
• Sam Eshun With a new team and more motivation, work on the mall and CareForce was completed.

A New Dawn

That was the past, and now Hubtel looks to the future. The fragmentation of Hubtel Consumers and Hubtel Businesses will be no more. We all look ahead to forge one story where consumers can go through a Hubtel journey that’s clear as distilled water. A future where the Hubtel app owns no users, owns no streams, owns no transactions and owns no data, and owns no algorithms. A future where everything belongs to the Hubtel platform, allowing us to build many meaningful apps for our lovely customers.

Article by: Bill Nkoom – Software Engineer at Hubtel

Hubtel wins three awards at the just ended GITTA Awards ceremony, held on Friday June 28, 2019.

• Fintech Company of the Year
• Fintech CEO of the Year (Alex Bram)
• Emerging eCommerce Initiative of the Year

About GITTA Awards 

Now in its 9th year, the Ghana Information Technology & Telecom Awards (GITTA) is the most prestigious awards program in the industry. Most times called the “Oscar Awards”, it recognizes innovation and excellence. GITTA 2019, which has an independent panel of industry experts as judges, recognized organizational performances, products, services, innovations, executives and management teams, women in ICT, and CSR initiatives.

GITTA has become one of the industry’s most prized honours. It is an accolade given to individuals and teams and is a vindication of the hard work, innovation and dedication of those at the forefront of this dynamic global profession.