Ambitious plan by Google to provide internet access to 3bn

Google and it's consortium partners want to provide cheap Internet service via low attitude satellites. The only issue I have is that, I've heard of this thing before and other consortium's have tried to do the same thing. Overall, the project makes financial sense to Google...get Internet access to as many people as possible so they can use Google's and it's partners products. This project is on the fast-track to be operational by end of 2010.

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Google has thrown its weight behind ambitious plans to bring internet access to 3bn people in Africa and other emerging markets by launching at least 16 satellites to bring its services to the unconnected half of the globe.

Google hiring in developing markets and education reform

I just read an interesting Fortune article about Google hiring in India, and thought "wow that is a lot of money." Google has gone to the extreme to hire quality human capital for R&D operations in India. Perks for working at Google India include: taxi service, health care for parents, and etc.

Google is hiring in Africa, but mostly in Kenya and South Africa. Google is not doing this because of pure development/need goals. Google sees Africa and other developing markets as an opportunity. As soon as we get some reliable communications infrastructure: WiMax, fiber, other microwave technology Google will be scaling it's workforce in Africa.

One thing I realized reading this article is that, India is attractive because of it's huge graduate pool of students in the universities each year in Science and engineering. India graduates like 50 million students a year! What we need, and what is lacking is more technical education in science and engineering. One person leading the charge in technical education in Africa is Patrick Awuah from Ghana.

Patrick is President of Ashesi University; even though Ashesi is located in Accra, Ghana a good percentage of it's students are from neighboring countries. We have 53 countries, imagine each country having a dozen quality university or technical schools. This could be very attractive to a company like Google to hire and train African programmers or computer scientists.

It is now time for meso financing for SME's in Africa

When I'm discussing Africa with others who are not familiar with African affairs, many wonder how and what kind of business opportunities there are in Africa? Sometimes I feel that I'm an advocate for African business in general. Many times I here, "oh I know so and so working for this NGO". I think to myself, that is nice, is that all you think of Africa one big begging pot looking for hand outs?

It's unfortunate that the media focuses on negative events. It's therefore up to us Africans, and bloggers of Africa to spread the message and let the world know that Africa is vibrant and alive with ingenuity, passion and investment opportunities. For the next couple of weeks I am going to focus on meso financing opportunities in Africa and it's positive spin-off with other sectors of the economy.

You see there are really only two things I'm interested in when it comes to development.

1.) How do we get SME's to make a sustainable living.
2.) How do we get more SME's to hire and train workers to do a particular task.

Obviously there is more, but I'm being very simplistic here because I'm going to make a point. SME's that are sustainable and hire workers have a profound impact with a market economy. Workers that earn disposable from their jobs are able to spend money to improve their health, send their kids to school, and boost the overall economy.

To me this is the tipping point of development, getting SME's to make sustainable money and hire more workers who can earn disposable income. Technoserve is a great NGO, that shows SME's how to write business plans and establish a business. Technoserve with the help of Google foundation have a program called, believe begin become. Believe begin become is a Business Plan Competition developed by TechnoServe to support and grow new businesses. It is an incentivized, practical training and business development program to help entrepreneurs turn their business ideas into fundable and implementable business plans.

There is a proverb out there that says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Technoserve is leading and teaching entrepreneurs to Fish through believe begin become.