Founder of Afrinnovator.com

Website: http://afrinnovator.com

Twitter: @afrinnovator

[In 2012] New investor interest thanks to continuing coverage of Africa economic growth potential vs other markets- especially in the attractive mobile segment (700M subscribers barrier will definitely be crossed in 2012). – Mbwana Alliy It is clear that Africa’s fate has been changing and will continue changing in the coming months and years. Perhaps one of the remarkable evidences of this is depicted in two Economist articles. In the year 2000, The Economist ran an article titled, “The hopeless...Read Full Post

In an effort to identify the 12 major tech trends to look forward to in 2012, Mbwana Alliy, noted that 2012 would be a landmark year for the growth, innovation and increased adoption of Mobile Money in Africa. What specific growth/innovation areas would be most anticipated? ere’s a wish-list: 1. More mobile money powered convenience services – both online and offline, mobile money has enabled a lot of convenience to the consumer. It has been said that many foreigners to countries such...Read Full Post

This is a guest post by Rebecca Jones of gizmowatch.com and designbuzz.com Mbwana Alliy, in his widely popular article predicting Africa’s tech future for 2012 noted that one key trend will be the increased adoption of Smartphones among Africa’s middle class as well as the gap between feature and smartphone being bridged more and more. Smartphone adoption will grow among Africa’s emerging middle class as entry prices for an unlocked phone continue to dip below $100. Nokia/Microsoft...Read Full Post

The Ushahidi crowdsourcing platform recently secured an additional $1.9 million round of funding from the Omidyar Network spanning 3 years. Ushahidi has definitely grown from strength to strength since 2008 when it was created and first deployed, really as a hack creating a quick solution to an evident problem at the time. The solution happened to work well and picked up momentum, drawing the attention of many across the globe. Powered by a small community of local developers and volunteers in...Read Full Post

The second edition of East Africa’s regional mobile apps. developer competition and conference will be held on June 5th and 6th in Nairobi. The progression of events dubbed Pivot East will begin in January 2012 with a call for entries to the mobile applications  competition. The competition which culminate in 25 of the best mobile mobile applications competing at the June 2012 pitching conference. Eligible contestants for the competition will be individuals and companies domiciled in Uganda, Tanzania,...Read Full Post

WHOT! Is The New Game Taking Over iOS, Android and Facebook  WHOT! is taking on the digital gaming world and being regarded as the best iOS, Android and Facebook casual card game. The popular mobile and online card game is gaining followers due to the addictive multi-application availability and the exciting interaction with plenty of twists and surprises! WHOT! is similar to Uno card game and is easy to learn and offers players challenges and rewards, making it one of the most popular card games...Read Full Post

When listening to discussions on local content, it is sometimes a bit vague what the intended meaning is. Is it content that is created locally for local consumption exclusively? Is it content that is just created locally but could be consumed by anyone, anywhere? Is it content that is not necessarily created locally but is consumed locally? If anything really, just the term ‘local content’ is quite ambiguous in itself as really what we are concerned with here is ‘Local Digital...Read Full Post

“Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress” – Ted Levitt In a recent article on innovation, we looked at ‘The engine (people & skills), the environment (policy and regulation), the fuel (funding) and the glue (startup culture) of innovation’. The aim was really to look at some key components that it takes for a thriving ecosystem of innovation to be born,...Read Full Post

In this day and age, innovation for any organisation or nation is not an option, it is a necessity! If you do not innovate you will simply be left behind. And as we noted in the article, “Necessity & Invention: Africa’s story of mobile conquest & why utility beats ‘coolness’“, this is especially the case for the African continent. Africa has been for the longest time relegated to the back of the classroom, the backward, wartorn, black sheep of the world. But today...Read Full Post

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and indeed that could perfectly describe Africa where it comes to innovation particularly on mobile. Utility vs Coolness In a great talk at TEDxVienna Alexander Oswald, Head of Marketing at Nokia, tells the story of how he and his family visited Kenya and were immensely shocked at just how much people in Kenya were able to accomplish via mobile phones. From sending and receiving money, to banking and paying for utilities & shopping from...Read Full Post