BY: Taku Machirori
Over
the past decade Africa’s growth has accelerated to tremendous figures making it
the second fastest growing region in the world. Though Africa is poised for
immense growth opportunities, many shortcomings still affect the continent,
namely poverty, health care, high unemployment rates and education. These
issues can be solved by a mirage of methods and concepts. Importantly, I will
analyze some of the triumphs Africa has in the field of technology in solving
some of the aforementioned.
With a population
of roughly 1 billion people Africa has 167 million internet users, 500 million
cell phone users, 67 million smartphone users and 51.6 million Facebook users
(McKinsey). Africa’s potential by 2025 is set to be 600 million internet users,
$75 billion in e-commerce sales, 360 million smartphone users and the internet
is projected to contribute $300 billion to African GDP. Due to these incredible
contributions an innovation culture is starting to emerge across Africa. For
example in Kenya, Pesa Pal piggybacks on the popular M-PESA mobile payments
service enable Kenyans to buy and sell products on the internet, individuals
such as small scale communcal farmers are able to sell their livestock and
produce and pay through their phones. Jumia nicknamed Africans Amazon which was
founded by two West African Harvard graduates is managing to deliver over 100,000
different products online to six countries across Africa making the
accessibility of quality worldwide products accessible to Africans and also
allowing them to order products with a click of a button. Additionally, Tanzania’s
Techno Brain is selling software for managing businesses in 13 countries, and
South Africa’s Cobi Interactive, a mobile communications software company, is
developing popular applications for smart phones in the field of mobile health
and banking.
These
technologies are causing a massive disruption in traditional industries. One
such industry affected is the banking industry were brick and mortar banks are
losing business to telecommunication companies that are allowing individuals to
transfer money via phone, and are tapping into individuals in the rural
villages that were once seen as not being bankable. Specialized goods stores in
Nigeria could soon be running out of business as companies such as Jumia which
is growing exponentially are providing over 100,000 different specialized goods
over the internet delivered right to the customer’s door. The advancement of
technology is allowing Africa to edge closer to global trends that exist but
importantly it is demonstrating the innovation that has always existed in
Africa from time memorial. There is a lot of great business opportunities that
will come out of the continent!
Interesting
articles:
Videos:
I am excited to see the potential for Africa when it comes to making its cities with technology of the future. Being behind in development can mean that the way forward is even clearer. Such is the case in one city of Sierra Leon.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what will ultimately be the key drives to continued growth in Africa. I think as an Emerging Market, this growth in technology will be a great reason why outside investors will see Africa and the business within Africa as good investments. It will be interesting to see what comes of this moving forward.
ReplyDeleteI am very surprised by these results. I guess I was under the impression of African being way behind in the technological area. I was really interested in the EcoCash and money mobile systems. The things they are able to accomplish on those Nokia's is amazing. Imagine if they had iPhone's or Androids...
ReplyDeleteI personally loved reading this article. These technological advancements will help all parts of Africa and will hopefully help to adjust their status from being a 3rd world nation. I think that this will help all aspects of African life including communication and business transactions. This was a great article.
ReplyDeleteThis great because I feel that everyone should have access to technology. Also from watching the I learned that Africa isn't as technologically advanced as the world likes to project. With the access to more current technology Africa's future is limitless!!
ReplyDeleteThis is great to see. Though Africa is indeed behind the curb, technological advances like these will make goods and resources more accessible for citizens and will expedite development. I am interested to see what long-term impact programs like Jumia and M-Pesa have, and how many countries they will be able to expand to.
ReplyDeleteThe innovation happening in Africa has to be very promising to any technology company. Telecommunication in Africa has been on the up and up for a long time now the country is progressing as a whole more education opportunities mixed with new technology innovation in the region will only help spur this progress and strengthen the continent as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThis article is actually very relevant to me because in one of my other classes i did research on music in africa and having dealing directly with the use of the internet in africa and its still largely growing because it was never big on the continent. The class it was related to is music industry because there is a very large music market that has not even been tapped into yet and this was the main discussion that it is largely growing and in the following years will be a huge market. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on providing this article! I have never been to Africa but I feel like I have after watching these videos. Watching them was quite the experience.
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