a Mark Magazine: Africa Dispatches feature There was a time when Silicon Valley dominated technology’s global brand map. Information and communications technology (ICT) brands like Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Google and Oracle ruled this world. But — Jon Pienaar (@j0nn0) reports — the landscape is shifting, and in part big tech brands are helping make this happen.
Giants like Google and Orange are spearheading a range of projects from solar-powered schools, to innovation forums, to wi-fi towns and education initiatives. Look at Africa Connected.com, the Google-sponsored initiative that showcases everyday success stories made with the global tech giant’s tools.
One of these is Obami, a cloud-based social-networking system that connects teachers, students, administrators and government to each other with a ‘Social Learning’ platform that works a bit like Facebook. Obami claims to improve learner engagement and make teachers’ jobs easier by enabling them to create and share. It’s been a hit not only in SA, but also in Europe and the USA.
Another example is Afrinolly, an Android app created by Lagos native, Chike Maduegbuna. Afrinolly plugs into Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry, by featuring movie trailers and short films. The app already boasts over 2.5 million downloads, which has enabled Maduegbuna to create a short film competition and run master classes for young African filmmakers.
In the Kenyan town of Nakuru, UK-based telecommunications company, Orange, has spent USD2-million creating a free wi-fi zone. This has given internet access to the town’s some 308,000 inhabitants. Similar projects are in the pipeline for Cape Town and Tshwane, thanks to Alan Knott-Craig (junior) and team at Project Isizwe.
Benefits international companies bring have been proven by technologies like M-Pesa, the mobile money solution created by Safaricom and Vodacom, says Mark Kaigwa, founder of digital consultancy, Nendo. “Kenya has shown it can reach mass markets in a way that no other country can,” says the man who calls Nairobi home.
“M-Pesa and Ushahidi (the now famous crowdsourcing crisis information site) are stories that have been told time and again. We need another big talking point for our ecosystem to justify the attention Kenya currently has in the media,” he adds. Kaigwa says the next big thing to come from Kenya is One Africa Media, Africa’s largest online classifieds group by traffic, page views, ad volume and revenue.
Africa’s tech explosion is also being driven by infrastructure development, which has helped realise initiatives like Lagos’s CcHub, a tech hub for innovators with an emphasis on social responsibility. Also in Nigeria you’ll find Gossy Ukanwoke, who has started the country’s first private online university, BAU Online.
It isn’t just the tech big guns and ICT infrastructure that’s creating these break out tech brands. Uniquely African problems have seeded uncommon solutions like the Kenyan-incubated project that produced the BRCK – an ‘internet backup generator’. It’s a rugged internet hub that can keep a group of people connected to the interwebs, even if the power goes off for up to eight hours.
Innovation is also investment driven. Venture capitalists from around the world fund ‘hackathons’ like the ‘Startup Bus’, an initiative that takes young developers, designers and entrepreneurs on a bus tour while they collaborate on projects, stopping in various towns en route to present their ideas to the public.
And, because it has a low barrier to entry, app development is booming in Africa. From Funerally, a funeral event management tool, to Workforce, mobile planning software that allows employers to hire labor through a trusted and rated system, using basic SMS. Then of course there are games like Snailboy by Cape Town’s Thoopid, and ZWord, a spelling game by Uganda’s Kola Studios.
The Hollywood cliché that equates tech success to Silicon Valley is so old school. With Kenya’s M-Pesa now being introduced to Europe, all eyes are on Africa for the next big thing.
This feature first ran in Mark Magazine: Africa Dispatches — the sister print magazine of marklives.com. See Mark: Africa Dispatches #1 here.
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