Business
Six astounding ways Africa is paving the Way for the future of technology
This is because Africa is one of the last “blue oceans” for the tech business, a vast market that is ripe for development and profit but has gone largely untouched.
From the Next Africa: An Emerging Continent Becomes a Global Powerhouse:
Technology in Africa is becoming more than just a social venture or narrow business proposition. The continent’s tech movement will infuse every facet of [sub-Saharan Africa’s] transformation: commerce, health, education, finance, governance and creative culture. This evolving tech ecosystem will continue to empower Africa’s markets, people, and potential in meaningful ways, playing a pivotal role in taking the continent from the world’s economic margins into the digitized mainstream.
5. Which is empowering Africans to generate a local tech economy
In the United States, tech accelerators and incubators are more quaint than necessary. Sure, there are mammoth co-working conglomerates and king-making accelerators like Techstars and Y Combinator, but for the most part, American venture capital is driven by trends, nepotism and, of course, privilege.
But the tech hubs, incubators and accelerators of Africa are one of the best places for young Africans to encounter tools, training and the influx of investments.
“These droves of young African techies who might have left for the United States, their first point of interest is to go show up at a tech hub in Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, or Rwanda,” the The Next Africa: An Emerging Continent Becomes a Global Powerhouse co-author Jake Bright told us. “And they are becoming central points for young techies – or those interested in becoming techies – to meet seniors.”
Bright and Hruby estimate 200 of these hubs exist across sub-Saharan Africa, like iHub Research in Kenya, which are integral parts of their neighborhoods and accessible to anyone fighting for access to tools and equipment.
“I don’t think an American high school kid could just wander into one of the best known American incubators,” Bright said. “It’s a flatter structure than in the U.S.”
6. And eventually, they will export their innovations, technological and cultural, all over the world
