BarCamp Africa - At Google Campus Oct 11, 2008

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BarCampAfrica 2008 will be held at the Google Campus in Mountainview on 11 October 2008 as a way to bring people interested in Africa, on a variety of levels and topics, together in one place for a day of exploration, connection and enjoyment.

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BarCamp Africa/Silicon Valley brings people, institutions and enterprises interested in Africa - as a topic, an opportunity, or a place of action - together in one location to exchange ideas, build connections, re-frame perceptions and catalyze action that leads to positive involvement and mutual benefit between Silicon Valley and the continent of Africa.

KAPS - Parking management control systems

A Kenyan parking management company has an automated system for car parking management.

From KAPS

KAPS has been a solution provider of car parking, access control and revenue management systems since 1999. KAPS has been the clear leader regionally in this sector. We have made several innovations including our world-class software; installation of specialized systems incorporating real world automation of electronically driven mechanized systems, audio and video automation and data capture solutions.

Well-designed Automation is the ideal solution to modern facilities management... KAPS has successfully installed such systems for municipalities, major facilities, parking lots and shopping malls. Our parking services in particular now support over 20,000 vehicle transactions daily.Nevertheless, the key to effective parking solutions is management expertise. KAPS has rapidly built a reservoir of management capabilities including a portfolio of targeted software tools. This places KAPS in the best position to be your partner in every parking situation.

African tech Hot Spots - Business Daily Kenya

Business Daily has listed some investment hot spots on a PDF that are ripe for investments. Most of these investments I've covered before, except for electronics assembly in Africa.

From Business Daily:

Retail - Telecoms dealer
New Media - Television Innovator
Power - Alternative energy supplier
Recycling - E-waste capitalist
Business Process Outsourcing (I've dabbled in this area) - Outsourcing specialist
Assembler - Local PC manufacturer
Software - Linux or other open source tools

China: Developing Giant and Emerging Development Actor

I took time out of my busy management consulting schedule to attend an event about China development in Africa by Center for Global Development here in Washington, DC. I actually learned a few things about China's development, (some of you know I very passionate about China's investment in Africa). David Dollar, the country director for China and Mongolia for the World Bank, shared his thoughts and views about the Chinese approach to infrastructure development.

David mentioned that China uses full-cost recovery for most infrastructure projects, that's how the Chinese have been able to grow their infrastructure at break-neck pace. Full-cost recovery in public infrastructure works like this; when a highway is built there are tolls levied so that the costs of the highway project can be recouped and used to fund other public works projects. China is even selling some of it's infrastructure to the securities markets and getting a second return of their monies. David said, that this Chinese approach is a novel and interesting idea that the Chinese are not even initiating in Africa. In Africa, the Chinese ask governments what they want and they fund and build the projects according to that countries particular need.

Callisto Madavo a Zimbabwean, said that it's noble for the Chinese to invest in Africa and build projects. However, the Chinese are not allowing knowledge transfer to take place. For most projects in Africa they import their own Chinese workers and they do all the engineering and the design. The work the African natives do are mostly labor type of activities.

Africa is now at a interesting point in history: growth rates are high, turmoil and war are down, and Mobile handset penetration is high. We also have developing countries looking at our continent for resources and returns for their capital, mostly China, India, some Middle east countries. What I think is going to happen in Africa for the next 10-15 years in extreme growth fueled by natural resources (hard metals, and oil) and telecoms (Mobile phones and broadband). However, we will need to address the negatives of this growth; disposable income, public health reforms and sustainability.