-
I’ve long been a proponent of getting more spaces set up for hardware prototyping and making of things in Africa. I wrote about it first in 2010 (Hardware hacking garages), then again in 2012 (Fab Factories: Hardware Manufacturing in Africa). I’m one of the founding organizers for Maker Faire Africa and the founder of AfriGadget. I’m not just writing about it either, as we have plans to open up a makerspace in Nairobi this year, which will compliment ...
-
I'm on a Ghanaian email tech list and, opening my email recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a Ghanaian team was pitching at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Saya is an app for texting. That mixes SMS, Facebook chat and hyperlocal findability to get in conversations with those near you. They’re on Android, BlackBerry and waiting for their iPhone app to be approved.
Robert’s pitch revolves around the 5.8 billion non-smartphones in the world, and how that market has needs that need to ...
-
This week finds me sitting in Botswana. I’ve talked to a couple of startup entrepreneurs; Pule Mmolotsi who is testing out an Oyster-like payment card for public transportation in the country, and Katy Digovich who is creating mHealth apps for the Ministry of Health. While only a small sample, they do a good job of representing what I continue to see around the continent; a new generation in Africa trying new ideas and taking to technology to cut the way ...
-
The theme of the 2012 Skoll World Forum is "Flux: seizing momentum, driving change", which I think is a fantastic one. We’ve never had such upheaval in the way businesses work, in how citizens interact with government, or in how information flows in the world. It’s about change, and survival in a time of flux is best done through agility and creativity.
"As an operating paradigm, it expresses the fluid nature of relationships, policies, institutions and human beings which are ever-changing ...
-
I recently took part in a panel discussion focused on “investing in tech in Africa”. It was a good session, as it was very much a discussion between the audience and ourselves.
There were a number of points that came up illustrating both the current difficulties and future opportunities when it comes to investing in the African tech space.
Using what's there
There are a number of tech hubs and labs coming up across the continent, and each have a different ...
-
The past few years have been about building an infrastructure that improves the chances of the technology startups in Africa to succeed. Seeing this buildout in action in 2011 was exciting, but it should be recognised for what it really was: a setup for 2012 and beyond.
You see, all those labs and hubs around the continent, the startups and the media coverage? They’re all about getting attention and increasing the awareness of the pent-up startup potential in Africa’s technology space. ...
-
Michael Joseph was the CEO of Safaricom, taking the mobile operator from 5 employees to dominating the Kenyan mobile operator market with over 80% market share in his 10 years at the helm. Regardless of your personal feelings on the man, you have to admire the tenacious approach he took growing the business, and his willingness to invest in his company’s future, thereby decimating his (often inept) competition.
Possibly MJ’s (how he’s known in local Kenyan parlance) greatest business move ...
-
In the words of African telecommunications expert Steve Song, Village Telco is "an easy-to-use, scalable, standards-based, wireless, local, do-it-yourself, telephone company toolkit". He’s just put out a new video making it very clear just how useful this system is.
The team over at Blinktower has done an exceptional job of creating a short, concise and eminently understandable video of what Village Telco is.
The Village
Often, we get caught up in our high tech wizardry and get overly excited about the newest Android ...
-
Groupon has been a massive success in the United States. It’s a deal-of-the-day site, with projected revenue of US$500m in just it’s second year of operations. It uses the framework of "collective buying", which means that if enough people sign up for a particular deal, then it’s on. If not enough people sign up, then the deal is off and everyone walks away.
Revenue is shared per deal, which means that Groupon only wins if the company doing the deal ...
-
Being able to make something doesn’t mean you’re an entrepreneur, being able to make a business out of it does. I’ve met many great developers across Africa, some who would be considered "top of the class" in any country in the world. Unfortunately, some confuse starting a company for running a business.
It’s easy to get a legal entity, a company name and even a prototype out into the market. It’s hard to earn money off of that idea, even ...
I grew up in Kenya and Sudan. I’m one of those guys who’s much more “at home” in Africa, and I currently live in Kenya. I’m happily married and have 3 beautiful little girls that keep me on my toes. I write two main blogs: White African is my personal blog where I write about high-tech mobile and web technology change in Africa. AfriGadget is a team blog I started a couple years ago, where we talk about low-tech ingenuity and microentrepreneurs in Africa.
