"All about Africa - a collection of innovative and sustainable ideas focused on a new entrepreneurial renaissance in Africa."
Friday, October 31, 2008
MRM - Kenya Steel rolling manufacturing
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Economist - Is the financial turmoil an opportunity for africa?
Oct 9th 2008
From The Economist print edition
With world markets in turmoil, an unexpected and overlooked continent may benefit from its very isolation
TAKE a snapshot of the main news stories around Africa. In Nigeria, its most populous country, the insurgency in the oil-producing Delta region grows fiercer by the day. Zimbabwe’s agony continues as President Robert Mugabe and the new prime minister, his opponent in the last election, Morgan Tsvangirai, fail to agree on the composition of a face-saving coalition government; meanwhile, the country’s official rate of inflation has topped 11m%, with the unofficial rate put at more than 531 billion%. The president of Sudan, Africa’s largest country, has officially been accused of genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court. In Somalia, the tragedy of a lawless and ungoverned country only gets worse. Even in South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, political uncertainty has set in after the ousting of the former president, Thabo Mbeki, in a bitter political feud.
Yet all this has been accompanied by a steady drumbeat of optimism about the continent, and confidence in its prospects. Despite the litany of problems, the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa (hereafter referred to as plain Africa) are, by several measures, enjoying a period of unparalleled economic success. And despite the turmoil in the world’s financial markets, international investors still think they can make money there.
In 1990-94 annual GDP growth was a weak 0.9%; since then, growth has averaged closer to 5% (see chart 1). Before this autumn’s financial meltdown, the IMF was predicting GDP growth of 6.6% this year; now it is predicting only a slightly lower rate. Annual GDP growth per person was 1.1% in the late 1990s; from 2004 to 2006 it was around 4%. In 1990 47% of Africans lived in poverty; in 2004 41% did and, if present trends continue, only 37% will by 2015. Zimbabwe apart, most African countries have been bringing inflation down, even if the trend is now creeping up again, in line with the rest of the world.
PharmAccess - Building sustainable health systems in Africa
Through its activities PharmAccess contributes to the building of sustainable integrated health systems with upgraded hospitals and clinics, well-trained African doctors and nurses, sufficient beds, reliable diagnostics, an accountable financial and administrative organization and improved access to quality basic health care.
Cordiant Capital
Established in 1999, Cordiant is a pre-eminent fund manager of emerging market, private sector investments. With USD1.4 billion in subscriptions since inception and a solid record, the firm counts a number of the world's top institutional investors amongst its clients.
Drawn from around the globe and with over 150 years of collective experience, Cordiant's investment professionals manage top quality private equity and debt deals throughout the emerging and high growth markets. Adept at filtering deal flow, quantifying risk and navigating the challenges inherent in these markets, the Cordiant team is able to provide institutional investors with efficiently managed and cost effective access to emerging market assets.
Research ICT Africa
Research ICT Africa! is hosted by the Edge Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. RIA! is divided into three regions-Southern Africa, East Africa and West Africa regions. The manager for the West African region is Dr Olivier Nana Nzepa while Dr Lishan Adam is the East Africa regional manager. The North Africa region is in the final stages of being set up. Professor Alison Gillwald is Research ICT Africa! Director.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Ethan Zuckerman - Explains 7 rules of innovation based on constraints
Too many times we think technology can just fix a problem. Ethan Zuckerman offers a great post of how he sees innovation come from constraints. This post actually reminds me of a book I read in business school called, "The Goal". The goal is operational book about the theory of constraints.
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So I offered a talk about some very different types of innovation - African innovations including the zeer pot, William Kamkwamba’s windmill, biomass charcoal, and endless examples of innovation using mobile phones. My argument was that innovation often comes from unusual and difficult circumstances - constraints - and that it’s often wiser to look for innovation in places where people are trying to solve difficult, concrete problems rather than where smart people are sketching ideas on blank canvases.
I offered seven rules that appear to help explain how (some) developing world innovation proceeds:
- innovation (often) comes from constraint (If you’ve got very few resources, you’re forced to be very creative in using and reusing them.)
- don’t fight culture (If people cook by stirring their stews, they’re not going to use a solar oven, no matter what you do to market it. Make them a better stove instead.)
- embrace market mechanisms (Giving stuff away rarely works as well as selling it.)
- innovate on existing platforms (We’ve got bicycles and mobile phones in Africa, plus lots of metal to weld. Innovate using that stuff, rather than bringing in completely new tech.)
- problems are not always obvious from afar (You really have to live for a while in a society where no one has currency larger than a $1 bill to understand the importance of money via mobile phones.)
- what you have matters more than what you lack (If you’ve got a bicycle, consider what you can build based on that, rather than worrying about not having a car, a truck, a metal shop.)
- infrastructure can beget infrastructure (By building mobile phone infrastructure, we may be building power infrastructure for Africa - see my writings on incremental infrastructure.)
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Africa Rising by Vijay Mahajan
U.S.-Africa Private Sector Health Forum - Nov 21st - 22nd DC
eTranzact - online payment service
eTranzact is the first online real-time payment system that allows account holders to pay for goods and services purchased from merchants, transfer funds to any bank account, cell phone, any card, pay bills, order products e.t.c without stress.
BarCamp Africa - At Google Campus Oct 11, 2008
Africa: A New Emerging Markets Frontier? (OECD) - Video
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge
Mobile technology, including everything from inventive applications for smart phones to simple text messaging, is increasingly ubiquitous in the developing world. USAID challenges you to explore its potential through an innovation for maximum development impact in areas such as health, banking,education, agricultural trade, or other pressing development issues.
An Open Source Competition
For the next two months, innovators can submit project ideas or comment on submissions. Once the submission process closes, an online community vote will select the top fifteen projects. Those projects will then go in front of a panel of USAID-selected judges who will pick the winner and two runners-up.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Meet the Bill Gates of Ghana - Herman Chinery Hesse, Inc.com article
Great article on Herman and his new service called BSL, a hybrid of Paypal and Amazon.com. Herman is well-known for co-founding Softtribe, Ghana's 1st software house. For those that don't know Herman, he is a story teller and a character to boot. He is a funny and passionate man, that sees potential in sectors many would consider mundane.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Hippo Water Roller - easy transportation of water
Barefoot Power

Coast Coconut Farms
About Coast Coconut Farms
Coast Coconut Farms is dedicated to producing the highest quality extra virgin coconut oil through a Direct Micro Expelling process. Our coconut oil is made on the beautiful coast of Kenya from wild organic coconuts, using a fully sustainable and earth friendly process. Our goal and mission is to produce the finest oil on the market while providing sustainable employment in the rural areas of Kenya.
Dimagi - Technology for a Developing World
Dimagi is a dedicated group of clinicians and programmers who pride themselves on building deployable systems that produce immediate results. We focus on providing the best possible user experience and impact on the ground while also implementing a system that can scale up - to a national level if necessary.
We design our systems with careful attention to the available technologies on the ground. We have experience working in areas with limited resources, unreliable power, and limited or intermittent network connectivity. Using a wide array of technologies, we are able to provide the appropriate solution in nearly any environment.
SASSI - The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative

About SASSI
mPedigree - drug supply chain distribution

The mPedigree program is en route to establish national enhanced drug supply chain protection systems for all 48 sub-Saharan African countries in ten years, before expanding the program to other developing countries in South Asia, South America, the Middle East and North Africa, resources permitting.
Read More
Monday, September 22, 2008
Banking the Unbanked: Going Mobile in Africa
From African Executive
Home to nearly a billion people, the 54 countries that make up the African continent are ushering in an era of liberty, democracy, and robust economic development. An important partner in this growth is mobile telephony.
The mobile phone is having a dramatic effect on the lives of Africans and is proving to be a life transforming device.
Read More
Grand Inga Dam - Can it Power all of Africa?

This is old news, but for those that are not in the know. The Grand Inga dam is a gigantic infrastructure project that would make the Three Gorges Dam look like a tree house.
Here is what the BBC says about it
Financiers and African politicians will look at how to finance the $80bn (£40bn) cost of the Grand Inga project.
The plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo would generate twice as much energy as China's Three Gorges dam.
AIC - African Advisory firm
The AiC's goal is to be the leading investment advisory firm identifying finance and investors for strategic projects, market access and opportunities on the African continent. AIC's vision is the development of Africa through the creation of long-term widespread strategically-placed business investments made in the spirit of strategic partnerships
Click Diagnostics - telemedicine via Mobile Phone

Minaj Group - Nigerian Conglomerate
Minaj Group is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria and is principally engaged in the real estate, media, and energy sectors. Its holding company Minaj Holdings Limited is a private company owned and controlled by the Ajegbo family in Nigeria.
Friday, September 12, 2008
UN foundation press release - mHealth initiative in Africa

Mobile Health Initiative Expands to Over 20 Countries in Africa
Innovative technology deployed to help improve healthcare delivery and save lives
WASHINGTON, DC, GENEVA and LONDON (September 9, 2008) – The United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation’s Technology Partnership (Technology Partnership) announced today the expansion of its mobile health (mHealth) program in Africa. Working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the non-profit DataDyne.org, the Technology Partnership will expand the use of EpiSurveyor, an open-source application that helps healthcare workers track health data, to 22 sub-Saharan countries by the end of 2008.
EpiSurveyor, which was developed by the non-profit DataDyne.org, can be downloaded to handheld devices and is easily adaptable by workers in the field. WHO, DataDyne.org and the Technology Partnership piloted EpiSurveyor in Kenya and Zambia . Its successful implementation has greatly improved the timeliness and availability of healthcare data, making it easier to strengthen district level healthcare programs involving immunizations against malaria and other preventative programs aimed at improving public health.
Read more
Ambitious plan by Google to provide internet access to 3bn
Medical Advances—Through Your mobile phone?

Researchers are beginning to understand how mobile phones can cut costs, help solve rural health-care problems, and even reduce medical errors. Despite all the advances in medical diagnostics, two-thirds of the world's population has no access to imaging technologies. Worse, about half of the imaging equipment sent to developing countries goes unused because local technicians aren't trained to operate it or lack spare parts, according to the World Health Organization. But thanks to the proliferation of cellular and other wireless networks, researchers are stepping up efforts to deliver crucial medical services from afar.
Micro Clinic - accelerating accessible healthcare in Africa

MicroClinic enables community-based, entrepreneurial nurse/franchisees to own and operate their own businesses while providing essential basic health services to rural communities. To support its franchisees and insure a culture of consistency, MicroClinic provides business consulting and disease protocol through initial and on-going training sessions, field visits, meetings, and regular communications. The MicroClinic focus is:
1. Wellness, not sickness.
2. Prevention, not just treatment of ailments.
3. Responsiveness to public health needs.
MicroClinic extends the principles of social franchising with existing partnerships with the Ghanaian Health Ministry, Africa Medical Partners, Hope For The City, University of St.Thomas, rural hospitals, and reliable pharma providers.
CFW Shops - utilizing a healthcare micro-franchising model

CFW Shops provides a Micro-Franchising Model - An Effective, Scalable Solution for sustainable healthcare model in developing markets.The HealthStore model is a network of micro pharmacies and clinics whose mission is to provide access to essential medicines to marginalized populations in the developing world. The HealthStore outlets target the most common killer diseases including malaria, respiratory infections, and dysentery among others. They also provide health education and prevention services.
Here more about CFW Shops
To improve access to essential drugs, basic healthcare, and prevention services for children and families in the developing world using business models that maintain standards, are geometrically scalable, and achieve economies of scale.
Monday, September 8, 2008
September 16-18 USAID Speaker's Corner on Outsourcing Options for Microfinance Institutions

While outsourcing core banking systems could increase the efficiency and capacity of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and reduce their infrastructure costs, not all institutions are eager to take this step. MFIs are concerned about finding a system that works for their unique situation, fear losing control over sensitive client data, and worry about security risks. Moreover, they are not convinced outsourcing will lead to reduced costs.
Join the dialogue, September 16-18, to discuss the concerns, benefits, and decision criteria involved with outsourcing core banking solutions. Hosted by Alice Liu, independent consultant and author of a recent USAID-funded study on the use of outsourcing by U.S. banks, the forum will highlight real experiences and examples from the field. The discussion is supported by a broad panel of specialists in ICT for microfinance and banking IT, including James Godish (Catalyst Consulting Group), Gautam Ivatury (CGAP), Karuna Krishnaswamy (CGAP), Paul Meyer (Voxiva), Judy Payne (USAID), and Lauren Reese (CGAP).
Each day, participants are invited to share their own experiences, questions and comments in the discussion forum:
* Day 1 (September 16) – Outsourcing: Benefits and Decision Criteria. This day will introduce and define outsourcing and discuss its potential benefits.
* Day 2 (September 17) – Core Banking System Experiences from the Field. Lessons learned from core banking system implementations in the field.
* Day 3 (September 18) – Enabling Environment. A discussion of the enabling environment – including rule of law, regulations and oversight, infrastructure, market competition and target markets.
Sign up today: Please join us for this interactive dialogue. For more information and free registration, visit www.microlinks.org/sc/outsourcing. Send questions to Ashely Kiehnau at akiehnau (at) qedgroupllc.com.
Speaker's Corners are a monthly feature of the U.S. Agency for International Development's microLINKS Website, www.microlinks.org.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
MicroVentureSupport

About MicroVenture Support
Mobile Planet - Mobile applications in Africa

About Mobile Planet
ILC Africa - African private sector education

About ILC Africa
ILC Africa was founded by two University of Pennsylvania alumni who went on to secure Masters in Science degrees from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania respectively.
To date, ILC Africa has served approximately 140 students and 17 institutions with backgrounds from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Conakry, Mozambique, Senegal, Haiti, India, and the United Kingdom.
The vision of ILC Africa is to form an educated cadre of students with a global skills-set to increase and promote African values while developing Africa.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
SELF - Solar Electric Light Fund
About SELFAfrica Biofuel - Tanzanian biofuel company

About Africa Biofuel
Registered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2006, Africa Biofuel and Emission Reduction Company [Tanzania] Ltd. consists of a team dedicated to bringing a triple-bottom-line biofuel business model to Africa.
The Company's vision is that it is almost never in the interest of the local population to grow a food crop for use as a fuel: witness the large increase in the price of maize as the ethanol industry spreads across the United States and other countries, with downstream adverse impact on the nutrition of the poor as milk and meat prices escalate. Therefore, it set out to identify a productive, environment-enhancing non-edible oil-bearing crop, and identified Croton megalocarpus, an indigenous tree, as its focus.
SW Global - ASP provider
SocketWorks Ltd is an Application Service Provider (ASP). We bundle IT infrastructure and Enterprise Software solutions to customers using vendor-financing.
Based on our subscription method, we host application servers, provide necessary IT and physical infrastructure and dedicated maintenance resources (on site systems engineering and project management and training teams).
Genesis Outsouring - African advisory BPO services

About Genesis BPO
CS Africa - African sustainable development
Monday, August 11, 2008
TAN Ghana 2008: Conference in Accra - August 16, 2008
TANCon is the world’s sole event of its kind for entrepreneurs of African descent. The target audience includes entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 business leaders, venture capitalists, investment bankers, government policy makers and other entrepreneurial ecosystem organizations.
Our theme this year is “Fostering African Entrepreneurship”, to reflect the growing number of African entrepreneurs in business today, and to showcase to the world Africa's limitless intellectual and economic capital.
Deng Limited - Ghana solar power

DENG Limited is probably best known in Ghana for its Solar Division. For almost 20 years we have provided both world class solar components and services to all areas of the country.
We are one of only a handful of licensed solar providers in Ghana and with over 7,000 systems sold, ranging from our popular DENG Logic Solar Lanterns to over 18kW custom engineered systems, we are by far the largest Solar Provider in the country.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Bringing IT and related skills to Ghana
Ungana - Afrika: Addressing African ICT capacity building

A ‘capacity crisis’ is a mild expression to describe the skill levels and understanding of information and communications technologies (ICTs) within small-to-medium enterprises in Africa. Ungana-Afrika is addressing this reality today by building innovative ICT programs and tools for the development community, and its service providers. Our mission is to empower development organisations to better integrate ICTs as a strategic, mission focused, tool.
Ungana-Afrika's three service areas provide a wide range of technology support, capacity-building and program development services. The diagram below demonstrates how each of these service areas work together, and benefit diverse parts of the development community. Click on each service area for more information.
CSIR - future through African science
From their Site School Net - Africa Education Knowledge Warehouse
The African Education Knowledge Warehouse (AEKW) is a pan-African education portal which services African SchoolNet practitioners, policymakers and school-based communities on ICTs in education across Africa.Home: SchoolNet Africa information and website tools.
SchoolNet Centre: SchoolNet Centre has tools and resources to support national SchoolNets.
Policy Centre: The Policy Centre provides resources and studies to support policy development on ICT integration in education.
Learner Centre: The learner centre house resources for learners and provides space for networking and collaboration among young people.
African Teachers Centre: The meeting place for the African Teachers Network.
Gender Watch: Gender watch houses gender and ICTs related resources and captures voices of women and girls using ICTs for their advancement.
Innovation Watch: Innovations and Innovator to inspire learners and educators in using ICTs for Education
Campaigns: Take part in our One million computers for African Schools campaign!


West Africa sustainable economic initiative
