Business
Entrepreneur Mark Kaigwa: Investors need to keep a keen eye on Africa
Mark Kaigwa speaking at the re:publica gathering in Berlin. PHOTO/File
“Africa is writing history for all the right reasons now. The amount of innovation going on across the continent has leaders, thinkers and innovators curious about the possibilities of the continent,” Kenyan entrepreneur Mark Kaigwa told attendees at re:publica, Europe’s single largest gathering of bloggers and digital activists, held last week in Berlin.
Kaigwa overlaid a picture of Africa by night – marked by yawning stretches of darkness spotted by a few intense concentrations of light where major cities would be – with that of the number of internet connections and mobile phone users. In the new picture, the darkness gave way to many spots of light from Cape to Cairo, representing the over 600 million mobile phone users and over 100 million internet connections on the continent.
Thanks to rapid economic growth, those numbers are increasing rapidly and will soon see the continents’ 1.2 billion inhabitants connected, transforming commerce, communities and culture, Kaigwa said.
Which is why Africa can no longer be thought of, metaphorically or in terms of luminous intensity, as the “dark continent”. Home-grown technology has been leading the charge to change Africa’s story. Several African tech start-ups, many borne out of practical, everyday needs, have gone on to have a global impact.
“A year ago Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, declared that Google’s next phone, the Nexus S, would be the mobile wallet and could eventually replace the credit card. This has been a reality in Africa for the past five years thanks to mobile phone technology and innovative payment systems such as M-Pesa,” Kaigwa said.
M-Pesa, a mobile-based money transfer service created by Kenya’s Safaricom, has made it easier for Kenyan entrepreneurs to transact and has eliminated worrying about carrying large amounts of cash. The service has also been used in other countries. In Afghanistan, it replaced the cash payments made to the country’s fledgling police force. When it was implemented, ghost employees were found on the payroll. The “reclaimed” funds were paid to the real officers and served as additional motivation for doing a dangerous and at times thankless job.