Which African country is best to do a tech startup? A Decision Framework

In recent conversation that have spanned the last 6 months, I’ve been getting the same style of questions from foreigners who recognize the growing opportunities in Africa and want to jump in. “Which is the best country in Africa … Read More

Thoughts on OLPC-XO 3.0- Is it the right tablet for Schools in Africa?

In my last post, I predicted tablets would start surfacing into the mainstream in Africa this year, especially within education. When I wrote that post I had not even given a second thought that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) … Read More

Agricultural Innovation and other sectors in Africa require a Systems Thinking Approach

I remember starting my first job after University working in military and commercial flight testing at QinetiQ (formerly the British’s Defense Evaluation Research Agency), I spent 10 weeks in an introductory program and almost a year in a rotational program … Read More

12 predictions for Africa Tech Scene in 2012

It has been a banner year for the Africa technology scene as the world begins to turn to the continent – the Economist Africa rising cover story article was for many, a big validation in the future opportunities as well … Read More

Willstream taps migrants and diaspora to disrupt remittance

Merry Christmas Africa! I thought this post is well timed for those abroad sending their best wishes home.

Remittance payments to Africa are among the highest anywhere, over $40 Billion a year- infact the payment flows sometimes exceed foreign assistance … Read More

Mobile Health in Africa: The Entrepreneur’s Guide – Part 3

This is a guest post by Amy G. Lehman, Executive Director of Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic (LTFHC). This is the final post of a 3 part series on mhealth in Africa. Click Part 1 and Part 2 to catch … Read More

Let's put a smartphone into a feature phone and beat Moore's Law

What percentage of mobile phone users in Africa are smartphones?- A common question that comes up here in Silicon Valley to try belittle the growth of Africa’s mobile sector. My typical response has always been- “It’s low now, but Android … Read More

Kenya Julisha ICT report: Invest in new skills. It's called Human Capital

Earlier this week, the Kenya ICT board released some interesting statistics in the Julisha Report on the Kenya ICT ecosystem. I love these sorts of reports and I believe they are crucial for both domestic and foreigners to understand … Read More

Visa gets serious: Let the Africa Mobile Payment Wars Begin

A student at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania was asked by a former lead engineer at paypal during a mentoring session almost a year ago “Why are you not using Amazon web services for cloud computing?”, he … Read More

How not to launch a Data.gov

I woke up this morning at 4am US West Coast time because I went to bed very early in anticipation of some early morning phone calls to East Africa.

Checking my twitter stream I saw that the Tanzania Government … Read More