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How Africa’s Silicon Savannah Is Out-Innovating Silicon Valley

How Africa’s Silicon Savannah Is Out-Innovating Silicon Valley

From Boston Global via KORA Newspaper

When things turned ugly after Kenya’s 2007 elections, an unlikely group of heroes — young African coders — developed a platform that used cellphones and the Internet to track the violence. Ushahidi, as it was called, would go on to transform not only government accountability in Nairobi but, more broadly, digital mapping around the world.

The African techies were at the forefront of a revolution clicking into place from Lagos to Nairobi — and everywhere in between. Today, Africa’s Silicon Savannah has produced innovations as varied as Wi-Fi on public transportation in Kenya to mobile midwifery services in Ghana.

These tech pioneers are quickly eclipsing many of the advances coming out of their American namesake. Key to their success is the recognition that while most Africans don’t own computers, the vast majority do have access to a cellphone. The continent has some 650 million mobile phone users — more than the United States or Europe — who account for a direct economic impact of $32 billion.

With seven of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies now located in Africa, the importance of mobile technology cannot be overstated. Indeed, this focus on mobile isn’t just changing Africa, it’s changing the world. Ushahidi has been used to find survivors of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, to track the impact of the BP oil spill, and for outlets like The Huffington Post and Al Jazeera to gather news otherwise unreported. What also sets African innovation apart is a core understanding that technology must work for residents in both bustling modern cities, such as Cairo or Cape Town, and the rural areas that are still home to half the world’s population.

Consider M-Pesa, the world’s first mobile banking service. Also developed in Kenya, it is exactly the kind of technology that taps into these two different customer bases.

Read more at KORA Newspaper