Rethinking Startup Finance in Africa

I had a wonderful opportunity to have a discussion with Eric Osiakwan an African tech luminary from Ghana and director of Ghana’s Cyber City initiative about startup financing in Africa, particularly in the technology sector. Eric has worked and ventured in 32 … Read More

IISS: Emerging Africa Geo-Economics, Resources and the role of Technology and Innovation

Earlier this week, a group of African business and political leaders, academics, journalists and researchers met in the Gulf island nation of Bahrain for the first Geo-economics conference focused on Africa organized and hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), “The … Read More

Bitcoin Crypto-currency and the opportunity for a truly Pan-Africa money revolution

NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE:

Imagine you are a freelance coder in Zimbabwe during the collapse of the financial banking system in the last decade. Your local currency is going through world record inflation meaning anything you earn locally is … Read More

Africa Spotlight: Global Entrepreneurship Congress Report from Rio, Brazil

Last week over 1,500 delegates from 100+ countries involved in entrepreneurship ecosystem building descended on the lovely city of Rio De Janeiro for the 4th Global Entrepreneurship Congress backed by Kauffman Foundation, supported locally by the city of Rio, Endeavor Brazil and … Read More

Innovating the Business Model – Interview with Robinson Esalimba, Founder Afrovumbua

When we talk about innovation in many cases, the reference is made to creating innovative products. In the interview below, Robinson Esalimba, founder of Afrovumbua, discusses innovation from the perspective of business models, he also shares some insights funding and … Read More

African or Africa-focused Tech Investors

Africa-targeted private equity and VC is on the rise, last year (2012) the total worth of PE deals closed in sub-Saharan Africa grew 10% from 2011 to $1.16 billion with funds raised for the region being $1.4 billion up from … Read More

The most exciting mobile apps from Africa

The following is a guest post by Rudy De Waele, CEO & Founder of Nyota Media. The article is based on the below embedded slideshow which is a result of his company Nyota Media‘s latest research and in-depth analysis of the African mobile market focusing on … Read More

As smartphone wars heat up: Africa Techies beware of the App distraction to your business

“Why should I get the intel Yolo vs the Samsung Pocket”- asked a young man at the Safaricom Junction shop.

“This phone is just like a computer, it has the intel chip inside!” replied the Safaricom attendant

“So this WiDi … Read More

E-commerce & Mobile Payments in Africa will not scale without Business Process Integration

E-Commerce (or M-Commerce) and Mobile Payments in Africa gets a lot of attention.  I get a number of mobile payments pitches every month, and you can imagine how tough my skin has become over the last 6 months. Especially as … Read More

Spot Check on User Experience Design in Africa with Shikoh Gitau

Shikoh Gitau is a pioneer in User Experience (UX) design in Africa. A Google Anita Borg scholar, she was one of the first African women to win the prestigious scholarship. Shikoh currently works as a UX researcher/designer for emerging markets … Read More

Renewable Energy in Kenya (Part 2): Policy Tools and Anticipated Effects

Originally posted on the Invested Development blog by the ID team

As we introduced in our last post on this topic, Kenya is using several policy tools to stimulate renewable energy development and grow its national energy supply. With rapidly growing … Read More

Energy in Kenya: Potential for Renewables (Part 1)

Originally posted on the Invested Development blog by the ID team

Kenya’s National Energy Policy is designed “to facilitate provision of clean, sustainable, affordable, reliable and secure energy services at least cost while protecting the environment.” The efforts come alongside … Read More