The past week many interesting things have happened - as always. I'd like to briefly talk about a few of them here.
1. How Africa Tweets is a new research, which was released yesterday by Portland. It shows how young Africans are tweeting. Twitter is really getting it on in Africa.
In collaboration with Read more
Globus, a Danish radio program on Radio 24syv broadcasted yesterday a segment on Nigeria with a focus on the cultural and economical development. The founding partner and director in Seismonaut Africa, Anders Mogensen, was interviewed on the matter, and asked if he could share his insights and knowledge about the Nigerian business environment and how a Danish company can do business in one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The program also featured an anthropologist, a journalist and a professor. Anders also shed light on some of the many prejudices people have about Nigeria - and underlined that the business opportunities in Nigeria are huge for Danish companies.
Kenya, a country with some of the best safari parks in the world and some of the best athletic runners, you probably wouldn't expect Kenya to have a ratio of patients to doctors of 6,000 to 1. Kenya has more than 25 million mobile phones which means that apps potentially have a great chance of becoming very successful.
In November 2011 the mobile app MedAfrica was launched. The app works on both smartphones and less powerful feature phones and makes it much easier for Kenyans to get in touch with a doctor. Once the app is downloaded you can check your symptoms in the symptom checker - that way the patient can make a decision on whethe...
Africans tech talents - get ready!
This is the most interesting blog post I've read in 2012. I know, it's only 6 January, but this will inevitably be something that will be in the very core of Africa in 2012. The blog post describes 15 skills African tech talents must aquire. Making app's, data vizualization, designer, being a god writer etc. All these skills are saught for in the whole world.
As I've blogged about before, here, the Internet in Africa is growing massively these years. The beauty of the Internet is that it allows you to work from all over the world wi...
How do you handle a crisis in these highly technological times? Well, why not have a good old town meeting in the most modern way possible. A Twitter meeting where people could/can debate online using the same hash tag (#).
The Nigerian Minister of Information, Labaran Maku held a Twitter meeting yesterday, for the first time, to discuss the fuel subsidy situation in Nigeria. If you search for #fuelsubsidy on Twitter you'll see how much people are talking about this right now. Or check The Ministry of Information's official Twitter page.
Here are a few predictions of what we are likely to see in Africa in 2012
- Mobile payments. This is a given as many banks/telecoms providers already have started this, but the potential is simply massive and we will see many companies try to get a piece of the cake. I believe the ones that will make it are the ones that grasp the users both online and offline. Africa (still) needs both.
- Mobile Security and Smartphone
Hacking (is something that unfortunately is very likely to happen),
which will naturally also give space for new businesses to open
with anti-virus software for phones.
- Tons of African tech start-ups focusing on the needs of rural
parts of the countries too. Social business will be a big...
This is the third of four posts on Africa 2011. In this post I'll talk about two trends that really has caught my attention.
It is quite clear that the Internet is going to change Africa for the better. Imagine what fiber optic cables can do for Africa. How much easier it is going to be to do business. How globalized Africa is going to be with the speed of light. How new business models will occur even faster than they do at the moment and how much profit Africa will make. The Internet and the speed of the Internet will determine how well and which speed Africa develops. Practicing online governance is already present and will get even bigger in the next few years.
This is the second of four posts on Africa 2011. In this post I'll talk about two trends that really has caught my attention.
Something that really caught the attention of many in 2011 is mobile payment. Less than 10 % of Africans have a bank account, but there are more than 620 million mobile phones in circulation. Africa has overtaken Latin America to become the second largest mobile market in the world, after Asia. Mobile payment is the future. Mobile payment has huge potential and many African countries are riding that wave now. Kenyan Safaricom has had huge success with their M-Pesa. They have transacted what is equivalent to 20 per cent of Kenya's GDP and what is more money than Western Union transfers - globally. Watch a short M-Pesa documentary Read more
Over the next four days I'll post a look back on Africa (with focus on Nigeria) 2011 - split into four parts. I'll start with an overview, then two days of tendencies and finally a post with my predictions for 2012.
Hunger, poverty, aid, riots and bare footed football - these things are often part of the West's perception of Africa. Discussions of Africa often involve terms like corruption and lack of development, but Africa is much more than this. 2011 was the year Africa came back into (business) peoples' mind!
There are tons of positive stories about development in Africa and finally we are talking about investing in Africa, rather than just sending aid. Partnering with and investing in African companies is the way to go. IMF expects an a...
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