Technology, Entrepreneurship and Trade for Economic Development in Emerging Markets
In 2017 I was lucky to be a contributor to the State of Play report published by the African Technology Foundation, as part of the U.S. State Department’s Lions@africa initiative. Continue reading “The State of Play — Technology Opportunities Across Africa”
The recently concluded MWC Americas provided a unique platform for global mobile stakeholders to re-evaluate the continent’s incredible market opportunities
On a global scale, the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress brings together over 100,000 people representing mobile operators, handset manufacturers, content creators, and mobile technology innovators from over 200 countries each year. GSMA is an international trade association that represents over 800 mobile operators that organizes industry programs with the aim of scaling new mobile technologies.
Continue reading “The Next Billion: Africa’s Mobile Revolution”
Convening African Mobile Ecosystem Stakeholders at Mobile World Congress Americas
Africa is the fastest-growing mobile market in the world. The positive impact of the mobile industry on African communities has been discussed and proven in numerous studies and international media publications. From payments and commerce, to healthcare and agriculture, mobile’s impact has been as wide as its been transformational. In 2016, researchers from MIT found that access to the mobile-money service M-Pesa increased daily per capita consumption levels of roughly 2 percent of Kenyan households (194,000), lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day) between 2008 and 2014. Safaricom’s M-Pesa is just one example of how mobile technology has achieved rapid adoption all over Africa and become the platform of choice for the continent’s digital transformation.