BALTIMORE, Maryland – The Postal Corporation of Kenya yesterday officially launched PostaPay, its money transfer service, for Kenyans overseas at a ceremony officiated by the Kenyan ambassador to the United States, Mr. Peter Nicholas Rateng’ Oginga Ogego, at a local hotel. The service is being offered through a partnership with Afripayments LLC, a US based company that is also part owner of Nairobi based Afripayments Kenya Ltd. The Kenyan entity is a joint venture between Afripayments LLC and a group of Kenyan investors, according to Ms. Caroline Kurgat, Afripayments Manager for International Business Development when she spoke with Mshale moments after the launch.

With the launch, the scene is set for a PostaPay head to head competition with the two leading MTOs (Money transfer Operators) that dominate the money transfer business into Kenya. Kenyans overseas sent an estimated 50 Billion Kenya Shillings (about $US 1 billion) last year. The PostaPay service is the successor to the former Post Bank that was for long the main agent for Western Union until last year. The partnership with the former Post Bank gave Western Union access to the most expansive network of agent outlets in Kenya. The country is one of the top recipients in Africa of inflows from its nationals abroad.

Postal Delegation

A high powered delegation from PostaPay headquarters in Nairobi led by the Postal Corporation of Kenya chairman, Major general (Rtd.) Peter Kariuki and the CEO and Postmaster general Mr. Fred Odhiambo were on hand for the launch. Mr. Kariuki admitted to his corporation’s surprise at the enthusiasm that has greeted the arrival of PostaPay during brief remarks at the launch. Mr. Odhiambo on his part thanked Afripayments for seeing value in a partnership with PostaPay. “The country is hungry for new investments,” Mr. Odhiambo said. With over 200 outlets throughout Kenya, he told launch attendees that the number of outlets will soon double. In the meantime, he said the focus is on automation, ramping up customer service and associated training as well as branding. During a brief interview after the launch he revealed his short term goal is to grab 10% share of the remittances coming into Kenya from the Diaspora.

The Afripayments US President and CEO, Dwayne Johnson, in brief remarks welcoming launch attendees said his corporation was fully committed to the partnership with the Postal Corporation of Kenya.

Killer Attribute

Ms. Kurgat during a PowerPoint presentation that was one of the highlights of launch activities to introduce the service said unlike its competitors, Afripayments supports what she called individual and institutional funds transfer whereby Diaspora Kenyans can send funds directly to places such as schools when paying tuition for relatives or those they are supporting. “We consider this a killer attribute”, she said as she meticulously walked the audience through her presentation. She said the company has formed strategic partnerships with corporations such as PayQuick and RIA that are active around the globe in the money transfer business. PayQuick provides the technology that many in the money transfer business utilize.

She said customers have the option of sending money either through the PostaPay website or by placing a toll free call to the call center that is located in Kenya. An enthusiastic Dr. Nyanchama described that as reason enough to use the service “since it (Afripayments) has provided employment opportunities”. He described the coming of Afripayments as a wake-up call for him. “Someone has been eating our lunch,” he exclaimed from the podium in reference to the millions that non-Kenyan money transfer companies have made over the years.

Invited guests read like the who is who of Kenyans in North America. Among those present included Ms. Jean Adero of the Association of Kenyan Professionals in Atlanta (AKPA), Ms. Mkawasi Mcharo, president of the Kenyan Community Abroad (KCA) and the KCA founding president Dr. Matunda Nyanchama of Toronto. Dr. Nyanchama served as the master of ceremonies for the launch celebration. The Kenyan American business community was also represented at the launch with some described as potential PostaPay agents by Afripayments’ VP for Sales and Marketing, Mr. Edwin Nyambeche.

One of the Kenyan American business people attending was prominent Minneapolis realtor, Ms. Eunice Chege, who told Mshale she always has an eye open for new business opportunities which is why I am here”, she said. She however challenged the Afripayments team to take it “to the next level” by introducing debit cards or even venturing beyond Kenya.

Mr. Joshua Mochache, an aerospace engineer from Dallas, said the service appeals to his patriotism. ‘Even if the other competitors drop their rates as they have been doing, I still feel Afripayments is the way to go – its like GM (General Motors) says in that Chevy truck ad of theirs my country my truck,” he said. Mr. Mochache said he was in Kenya when the service first launched and believes the venture is grounded in “sound business principles”.

Ms. Mcharo said Kenyans abroad expect “good things” with the coming of the PostaPay service as she is a believer in competition as it “makes everyone better”.

The guest of honor, Ambassador Ogego before declaring the service officially launched told the audience that the embassy is an ally to the Kenyan community in the US and was available to provide assistance to Kenyans here that want to invest back home. The ambassador who headed straight to the launch from the airport from a visit to Kenya said Kenyans and other potential investors will find a receptive partner at the embassy.

The Postal Corporation of Kenya delegation included the chairman, Major General (Rtd.) Peter Kariuki, Mr. Fed Odhiambo (Postmaster General and CEO), Mr. Tom Ogutu (General Manager, ICT), Mr. Harun Nyamboki (Director), Mr. Enoch Kinara (Manager, Financial Services), Ms. Sally Wainaina (General Manager, Financial Services) and Mr. Dick Rayori, Manager, Corporate Communications.

A Delaware comedy group provided laughs for the otherwise serious group of community leaders and business guests sketching the life of a Kenyan coming to America.

Marketing

Meanwhile, PostaPay and Mshale newspaper are this year’s national tour sponsors of the popular Kenyan comedy group, Redykyulass, during their annual US tour starting in July. Minneapolis based Kilimanjaro Entertainment will once again be hosting and organizing the popular group during their tour. Kilimanjaro’s CEO, Mr. George Ndege expressed his pleasure during the launch at having PostaPay be first time sponsors. He said the group will be visiting ten US cities.

MONROVIA, Liberia – Ciata Victor gave up a high-paying tech job, a spacious condo and a first-world life in Maryland to return home to an African capital that barely has electricity or running water.

After 26 years of watching from afar as her native Liberia was ravaged by coups and war, Victor says she’s home to stay. And she’s started a business — running a seven-computer Internet cafe using a generator and a borrowed satellite hookup.

‘There’s some now who say they will not come to Liberia until Liberia gets running water and electricity. I just wanted peace,’ Victor said.

As this West African country works to rebuild, moneyed Liberians who spent decades abroad are starting to come home. It’s a trickle that the year-old government hopes will swell, supplying investment and a much-needed educated class in a nation where few went to school during 14 years of fighting and instability.

Now 45, Victor was 19 when she moved to the United States to attend college in 1980, the year Liberia’s government was overthrown in a coup. Nine years later, Charles Taylor launched a rebellion that threw the region into a conflict from which it only emerged with his ouster in 2003. Taylor has been charged with war crimes by neighboring Sierra Leone and is awaiting trial.

Sirleaf’s Victory

In 2005, a Harvard-educated former U.N. and World Bank official became the first female elected president in Africa. Many Liberians said the installation of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf heralded a new era for the country’s 3 million citizens — including those who hadn’t been back in years.

Victor said Sirleaf’s speech to the U.S. Congress in March prompted a trial visit.

‘I visited in May, and I felt pretty safe. So I went back [to the U.S.], gave my job 30-days notice, sold my condo, packed a container — and on July 31, I came home,’ she said.

Most Liberians with means fled during the war. Liberia’s historically close ties to the United States — it was created in 1847 to resettle freed slaves — meant many ended up in U.S. cities.

Sirleaf started calling on Liberian expatriates to come home during her election campaign and many returned to take posts in the government. But Liberia’s biggest sign of hope may be entrepreneurs like Victor who start businesses with their own money.

Foreign Interest

There is already foreign investment in Liberia — Firestone operates a rubber plantation, Mittal Steel is redeveloping iron ore mines and foreign governments have promised aid. And the U.N. has brought in 15,000 peacekeepers and other expatriate workers.

Henrique Caine, who is trying to start a construction equipment rental company in Monrovia, said the foreign presence was part of what spurred him to return.

‘I look on the news and I see a lot of white folks from Europe and America in Liberia and I say `Well, it can’t be that bad. So it’s time for us to start going home,’ ‘ he said.

Caine keeps a house in the Baltimore area where his wife and children live, but he travels to Liberia every few months. On this trip, he was trying to get a container of jackhammers, concrete mixers and other supplies past customs.

He says it’s gotten easier to do business, but he still has had to pay some bribes at Monrovia’s port. And he’s had difficulty getting U.S. investors for a company in a country so recently known for child soldiers and no-go zones.

Victor says her Internet cafe has yet to turn a profit after six months. Running the generator eats up most of what she makes from e-mail surfers and people who use their laptops in her wireless lounge. She’s funding the enterprise with savings and ad sales from a website that she runs for the Liberian diaspora. Her relatives in the United States call her crazy for moving back so soon.

Victor describes the Monrovia she once knew as a place where children were more familiar with books than guns. She said it was hard to come back and find buildings gone and people missing. Most former classmates are still overseas.

But the pioneers share a heady optimism that may be just what a devastated Liberia needs.

Noble Goals

Barkue Tubman, who did marketing for singers like Missy Elliott and Norah Jones in New York before she moved back, says her ultimate goal is to bring a performing arts center to Monrovia and to get cultural life going again.

Caine says he’s risking everything on his venture — he even cashed out his 401(k) retirement plan.

Many of those who stayed, or couldn’t leave, are more cautious. Just outside Monrovia, aid workers in the village of Quenyodee say they’ve had to cajole residents to rebuild houses. Men who had rebels tear down their homes again and again have been reluctant to trust the peace.

T-Max Jlateh, a Monrovia radio talk show host, said some of those who stayed resent the ease with which those who left can return, but he added that Liberia is thankful for whatever help it can get.

‘Some of them have quite a lot of expertise that this country really needs now coming back from war,’ Jlateh said.

A typical newcomer, he said, is easily distinguishable by his American accent, hip-hop clothing — and his walk.

‘He walks as if he was walking on ice,’ said Jlateh, “Floating up and down. . . . But it’s just an act. After five or six months, it wears off and you’re just a Liberian just like anybody else.’