Mobile Africa: Look to the Desert, Not the Valley
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype about Silicon Valley, with its hub of brilliant tech minds and bountiful venture capital. Given that necessity is the mother of invention, however, it stands to reason that an area so wealthy might not be the most fertile ground for breakthrough ideas.
Africa, by contrast, is home to a variety of difficult terrains, struggling economies and a lack of unifying infrastructure – and it is a hotbed of innovation for mobile technology. With more than 500 million mobile users, more Africans have access to cell phones than to electricity, indoor plumbing or even shoes. And Africans are using their phones to solve problems in critical areas, including health, farming and even banking. Kenya alone exchanges more than a billon dollars annually via cell phones – that’s more money than Western Union transfers around the world!
Kasi will discuss Africa’s innovations and how we can apply those lessons to marketing and innovation in the developed world.