A Tech Revolution In Africa?

Can the Internet Reboot Africa?

With smartphone use and web penetration soaring, Africa is set for a tech revolution – but only if its infrastructure can support it

Mark Rice-Oxley and Zoe Flood | July 25, 2016

You can buy sunlight with your phone, conduct an eye test on someone 100 miles away and attend a church service on your iPad. There are apps for investing in cows, for sending parcels and for mapping unrest. And soon you’ll be able to deliver blood and medicines by drone.
There’s free Facebook, mobile banking, and the promise of cashless societies and digitised land records. And from Accra in the west to Kigali in the east, a spray of “tech hubs” talk about “leapfrogging” technology and incubating start-ups.
Such are the giddy promises of Africa’s “fourth industrial revolution” – a giant step forward into the digital world which the Guardian is reporting on for the next two weeks. Some are salivating that it will amount to the renaissance of a marginalised continent, while others soberly warn of the hype.

[Click to Enlarge] Internet Usage in English-Speaking West African countries form 2004 to 2013. Source: https://lewislevenberg.com/category/academic

Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/af.htm

<more at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/25/can-the-internet-reboot-africa; related articles and links: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/mobile-white-paper-c11-520862.html (Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2015–2020 White Paper. February 1, 2016) and https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/03/watching-technology-trends-emerge-in-africa/ (Watching Technology Trends Emerge In Africa. February 3, 2016)>