Wired Magazine - Students Build a Nano For Africa

Photos: Dr. Yasin Naku Ziraba

From Wired Magazine:

Eleven Ugandan college students believe they can bring affordable transportation to rural Africa with a home-grown, dirt-cheap car assembled from farm equipment.

The prototype of the "Poor Man’s Car" isn’t much to look at, fashioned as it is from sheet metal, wood seats and a diesel engine pulled from a corn mill, but the design and materials would be refined should the car ever see production. Moses Sebulime and his classmates at Makerere University believe the utilitarian runabout could bring mobility to the masses, much like the Tata Nano.

Zambeef - Zambia agribusiness

Zambeef Products PLC is one of the largest agri-businesses in Zambia and the region, involved in the production, processing, distribution and retailing of beef, chickens, eggs, milk and dairy products throughout Zambia and Nigeria.

The company is also one of the largest cropping operations in Africa with 2,700 hectares under irrigation and a further 1,500 hectares of dry land crops.

Pen + Bytes - promoting journalism through ICT

From Site:

International Institute for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Journalism (PenPlusBytes) is a registered company limited by guarantee since 18th July 2001. PenPlusBytes seeks to empower the media through the use of ICTs to advance the work of journalism. It consists of a network of media organizations and journalists interested in using ICTs effectively to advance the course of journalism. We have trained over 100 journalists from various parts of Africa and across the globe in cutting edge new media technologies and contemporary ICT issues.

Thomro Investments - Zambia Biofuel production

Thomro Investments Limited is among the few pioneer companies in Zambia promoting and engaging in the development of biofuels industry in Zambia. The main plant for biofuel production comes from Jathropa. Thomro also offers consultancy services and training in order to improve the performance of operations in the industry.

Advertfarm - African mobile content network

From Site:

Advertfarm is a mobile content provider that helps businesses, organisations and institutions deliver their mobile contents to their targeted audience:

We provide premium mobile services on our permission based mobile network.

Our services include but are not limited to:

SMS marketing and loyalty programs

SMS Recruitment

Events Broadcasting

Sponsored Mobile Services

Referral campaigns

Targeted Mobile Advertisements

PowerMundo - Improving lives, conserving nature

PowerMundo builds and manages a network of customers, retailers, and suppliers to design, develop, and disseminate a suite of appropriate technology products for people in emerging markets.

PowerMundo first listens to the needs of people and then displays a suite of products that may fit their needs.

Movirtu - innovative mobile technology solutions

Movirtu works with mobile service providers located in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia deploying network infrastructure solutions and implementing sustainable business models that realise basic voice access and connectivity for people earning less than two dollars a day. We work closely with our clients, the mobile phone operators, to identify the most suitable solutions that fit the particular market needs.

Rwanda Rising - Fast Company article

Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale

From Site:

Fifteen years after the genocide, the small African country has embraced a new model of economic development. Its strategy: Build a global network of powerful friends to lure private investment -- and market the brand of Rwanda.

Read More

Fablab Kenya - small scale workshop manufacturing

About Fablab Kenya

A Fab Lab (fabrication laboratory) is a small scale workshop with the tools to make almost anything. This includes technology-enabled products generally perceived as limited to mass production.

Fab Lab will empower individuals to create smart devices for themselves. These devices can be tailored to local or personal needs in ways that are practical and economical.

The Fab Lab program is part of the MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) which broadly explores how the content of information relates to its physical representation.

ARO Fablab Kenya West will finally be launched in September 2008. Three students: Vigdis, Apondi and Tom, all from ARC Kenya are now studying at the Fablab Norway to learn the basics and the tools in the lab that will easen their work when ARO Fablab Kenya West is finally lauched.

ARO Fablab Kenya West will mainly be an educational center and anybody who feels like using the lab will do that without restrictions unless otherwise.

PointCare - Diagnostics for the people

About PointCare

PointCare designs 21^st century, biotechnology-based solutions from the ground up. These products address the challenges of both the northern and southern hemispheres. They bring diagnostic capabilities to resource-limited urban and rural regions, enabling immediate identification and treatment of infectious diseases by healthcare professionals.

AccessPoint Africa - African Internet access company

From site:

ACCESSPOINT Africa (APA®) is an innovative Telecommunications company that provides high speed Internet connections and Voice services to East, South and West Africa via Internet Cafés, Telecenters and Wireless Internet connections to commercial, government and residential sectors. Utilizing wired and wireless technology, APA® serves a large numbers of users with voice and broadband data communication services. The company's target market for Internet café and Telecenter services consists of the millions of customer's within major Southern and Western African cities that have a need to communicate via email or telephones but have limited or no access to such media from their jobs or residences respectively. APA®'s aim is to be the premier provider of voice and data connectivity services to customers throughout sub-saharan Africa.

Essential Interiors - Nigerian interior design house

Essential Interior is a Nigerian interior design house. They design and implement interior designs in the Nigerian market. They use the latest trends and innovative ideas for all their clientele.

Obolo Films

From Obolo site:

I’m another man with a movie camera, making my contribution to this world’s cinema experience. I did not grow up wanting to be a filmmaker. It just happened. I started film-making and and editing at the age of 18, then kinda left it alone for a few years, pursuing other goals. Now I’m fully submerged in it. I eat, drink, sleep and love making films. I can’t name any directors that I can honestly say “I dig their work” other than Spike Lee and Kar Wai Wong. All the others seem to mesh and blend, making some goulosh shit I ain’t trying to taste.

Obolo

Constructs LLC - African affordable housing construction

Constructs LLC

Constructs LLC is a company that synergizes architecture, urban planning, landscaping, and building technology into a single unit geared towards bringing modern architecture and building techniques to Africa.