Category Archives: Kenya Elections

Africa’s revolution coming to you on twitter

Africa's revolution in one tweet

If you haven’t seen this yet, here is a great insight into the development of Twitter in Africa. The recent events in Egypt, and across the N.African region, have shown us what coming levels of connectivity can bring about. Youth connected can change the world?

Here were some facts from the Portland report:

· South Africa is the continent’s most active country by volume of geo-located Tweets, with over twice as many Tweets (5,030,226 during Q4 2011) as the next most active Kenya (2,476,800). Nigeria (1,646,212), Egypt (1,214,062) and Morocco (745,620) make up the remainder of the top five most active countries.

· 57% of Tweets from Africa are sent from mobile devices.

· 60% of Africa’s most active Tweeters are aged 20-29.

· Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation, with 81% of those polled saying that they mainly used it for communicating with friends.

· Twitter is becoming an important source of information in Africa. 68% of those polled said that they use Twitter to monitor news. 22% use it to search for employment opportunities.

· African Twitter users are active across a range of social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Read the report in full detail.

VC4Africa and the emergence of an African startup culture

Want to know more about VC4Africa and our work to support starting entrepreneurs? Here is a presentation we recently recorded. I outline some of the recent trends and developments we are witnessing in the space and some of our thinking on how we can do more to support the emergence of an African startup culture.

Fast Moving Targets: Africa as promising investment frontier

Here is an interview I did last week with Fast Moving Targets, a new series dedicated to showcasing innovation in media, technology and communications. They are very much tapping into Amsterdam as a creative media lab and the beginnings of a promising startup culture here in the city. Importantly, they ask the question, ‘what’s going on, what does that mean for whom and how do you actually get new trends and technologies to succeed?’

It’s great to see initiatives like this come online. It adds to The Next Web (many people do not know they are based in Amsterdam) and Hackers and Founders Meetups as important platforms for engaging the community, identifying key developments and highlighting protagonists in the space. Fast Moving Targets is an initiative of ‘The Crowds‘ and hosted by Erwin Blom and Roeland Stekelenburg. They have a great production team and it was nice of Johan Schaap, the founder of Probaton, to make the connection.

The show is filmed live which gives it an interesting character and streamed via the site. They film the chit chat before and after the actual show (so be aware:) and take questions from people watching via Twitter. The show has an interactive and relaxed feel to it. Mostly because of the Palm beer. It was also great practice for my Dutch!:) Here is the description as posted on the site: ‘Ben White van VC4Africa probeert werelden bij elkaar te brengen. Investeerders en ondernemers. Europa en Afrika. Omdat hij ziet hoe groot het talent in laatstgenoemd werelddeel is, omdat hij overtuigd is van het zakenlijk potentieel, maar ook omdat hij een idealist is die van Afrika houdt. VC4Africa gaat over geld, maar nog veel meer over netwerken. Met al duizenden aan boord. Een aflevering van Top Names van Fast Moving Targets.’

The Rise of a Startup Culture in Africa [Video Presentation]

Technology + Entrepreneurs + A vision = Startups in Africa in need of Venture Capital.

This is a one line summary of the presentation I recently gave at the 1% Event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In the presentation I talk about the rise of the techprenuer in Africa and the cheetah Generation that is now empowered with the knowledge and tools they need to change the world. This presentation builds on a lot of the ethnographic research I did in Kampala, Uganda and my experiences working on the ICT Entrepreneurship program at Hivos. I also talk about AfriLabs as a network organization connecting technology incubators in Africa and VC4Africa (Venture Capital for Africa) as a platform for crowdsourcing network, information and capital via the web.

Unlocking social capital in Europe

Unlocking social capital in Europe

From my experience at Africa Interactive I know how hard it is to build a business with a social mission. In Dutch law you are either a business or a non-profit organization. There have been discussions but still we wait for an alternative legal form that starts to bridge the gap between the two i.e. a social venture that seeks to better the world but still meet its bottom line. Given increasing cuts in govt. spending across European countries and a shift in mindset that demands sustainability across financial and social metrics, laying new foundations seems imperative.

In the end Africa Interactive found the right investors and has built its foundation as a business. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger:) That said, it probably took us twice as long and required twice the effort to make it happen. In the interest to promote the emergence of new efforts, a culture around social venturing, its critical we start to look at ways to foster a community and support its development. On one side its about improving access to social capital and on the other hand its about learning from a combined experience, improving access to the supporting service, knowledge and network needed to make it happen.

This spring we will witness the first SOCAP/Europe here in Amsterdam. This is a perfect location for this event as the Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular, is really a hotbed for this stuff. Just a top of the head list includes remarkable organizations like the 1%Club, Akvo, Text to Change, Butterfly Works, GhettoRadio and our own beloved Africa Interactive. At Sanaga Ventures we also promote ActivSpaces, VC4Africa and Afrilabs.

I believe this is a milestone for our efforts here in Europe and an important platform for outlining plans of action for the coming years. As SOCAP champions, ‘the event will be a place to discover and discuss the latest in European social enterprise and beyond, meet like-minded attendees from around the globe, pitch your ideas, find and provide funding and more.’

Here are some of their latest announcements and I look forward to coming together around this event.

Social entrepreneur scholarship deadline

If you’re a social entrepreneur putting your passion, money and time to scale solutions for a better world, then we invite you to apply by the end of this weekend! If you don’t fit the social entreprenuer description, but still have value to contribute and gain at SOCAP/Europe, then we invite you to apply as a volunteer by our April 15th deadline.

More SOCAP/Europe speakers announced

In addition to the pioneering names announced in our first two waves, we are happy to now confirm the participation of these speakers. See a full list of SOCAP/Europe speakers here.

Pieter Oostlander – Noaber (Netherlands)
Natarajan Ishwaran – Unesco (France)
Tris Lumley – New Philanthropy Capital (United Kingdom)
Lisa Hehenberger – EVPA (Belgium)
Nigel Kershaw – Big Issue Invest (United Kingdom)
Maria Cavalcanti – AVINA (Panamá)
Brian Walsh – Liquidnet (United States)
Dirk Elsen – SNV (Netherlands)
Felix Oldenburg – Ashoka (Germany)
Ajaita Shah – Frontier Markets (United States)
Gerhard Pries – Sarona Asset Management (Canada)
David Bonbright – Keystone (United Kingdom)
Tamzin Ratcliffe – Nexii (South Africa)
Antony Ross – Bridges Ventures (United Kingdom)
Tim Radjy – Alphamundi (Switzerland)
Tim Draimin – Social Innovation Generation (Canada)
Martin Rich – Social Finance (United Kingdom)
Stephen Dawson– Jacana (Ghana)

African ventures to watch in 2011

VC4Africa.biz now has 91 ventures registered from more than 20 African countries and a surprising number of sectors. It is a nice representation of the sheer diversity in opportunities currently found across the continent.

Many of these projects are positioned for serious progress this coming year. For example I am interested to see what happens next with Uganda Medicinal Plants Growers, a venture posted by Teddy Ruge. UMPG is a commercial farming initiative based in Masindi and is designed to assist farmers commercialize their medicinal crops internationally. This is important work considering Uganda’s economy is agriculture based, with agriculture employing over 80% of the population and generating 90% of its export earnings. In Kenya its nice to see social ventures like the Recycling plastics and Empowering Youth. Kenya has a great need for low-cost housing and productive waste management. This recycling company will operate in the interest of the local community employing collectors using bicycle with trailers to bring various grades of plastics to processing units for ecologically-sensitive, efficient sorting, granulating and moulding (under low heat) into panels to be used for cheap housing. Not only is this an innovative approach that addresses a growing need, they are clearly taking the steps to embed the program and design it in a way that makes it socially sustainable and thereby economically viable.

A Nigerian based venture to watch is eHealth. This project supports the management of health facilities in Nigeria to influence health-related funding and policy decisions, and provides doctors with the patient information needed to improve decision-making before, during, and after care. This is not only a support service needed in Nigeria but I can imagine there are needs for their products in other African countries too. But given there are at least 85 listed hospitals in Nigeria there is plenty of work needed to get the company up and running. A venture that caught my attention in Cameroon is Hot Ice. Hot Ice is a fashion company that specializes in supplying affordable African-styled fashion accessories for trendy suburban women. Hot Ice really looks to differentiate its brand and seeks to build a fashion culture that local consumers can identify with.

Finally Agro-Hub, Geofeed, Naijaborn and Hizonotes offer a nice sample of the web and mobile related projects we have in our network. More projects are signing up by the day and clearly 2011 is set to be the year of Entrepreneurship in Africa!

Afrilabs is registered and ready for business in 2011

ActivSpaces in Buea, Cameroon

Last year, at the launch of the iHub in Nairobi, Bill Zimmerman (ActivSpaces), Jon Gosier (Hive Colab), Erik Hersman (iHub), Bart Lacroix (1% Club) and myself came together to discuss the emergence of technology incubators on the continent. Especially this idea that the labs we see coming online are often independent initiatives i.e. either a single entrepreneur or small group of entrepreneurs coming together to form an open collaboration space for the local tech community.

From our discussions it was made clear that there was not only a need to start working more together but to see how we can support new initiatives just starting out. And at the same time coming to the realization that the entrepreneurs with the best ideas still need support if they are going to successfully transition to market. These are some of the initial motivations that have been transformed into the network organization Afrilabs. We have two primary activities where on one side we are looking to support the development of healthy/sustainable labs and on the other we seek to support the most promising entrepreneurs ready to escape their walls.

We are pleased to announce that the foundation has been registered and we are now working to secure the partners and support we need to roll out a number of exciting plans and activities.

Watch this space, let’s join forces and connect soon!

2010 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship Grand Prize winner is Craft Silicon

The Gala Awards evening was held in Nairobi on December 6th and the winners have been announced. The 2010 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship Grand Prize winner is Craft Silicon Limited. This remarkable company was awarded US $100,000 along with five other winners each receiving US $50,000.

Craft Silicon Limited has established itself as a leader in mobile software development, currently working on online mobile transactions applications and online mobile core banking access applications. They have built value added features such as bill payments, mobile top-up and salary payments. They facilitate everything from SMS banking up to applications specially developed for online transactions, which can interact with biometric devices needed to authenticate the transaction. Apart from the internet and mobile services, their premium application (BREFT) switches ATM and POS transactions, linking into multi-service providers like MPESA and various core banking solutions. Their next objective is to expand their e-commerce offerings and facilitate seamlessly interaction with visa. This is in their quest to become the leading platform for channel banking services and a critical partner for financial institutions. With a track record like this it’s anyone’s guess where they will focus their energies next:)

To win the prestigious Legatum award companies needed to demonstrate visionary leadership, innovation, strong growth and a company culture that builds on strong core values. At the same time each of the finalist were selected for their social impact, either by fostering job creation, improved community living standards or by expanding into overseas markets. Clearly this competition was a success and sets a clear milestone for the continent’s aspiring entrepreneurs and promising African ventures.

At VC4Africa we strongly support efforts like this, extend our congratulations to the winning team and sign ourselves up as fans!! And maybe next year (we will do our part at VC4A) we have some more woman applicants as rightly pointed out by Rachel. Read her post on the matter.

Futures of Technology in Africa, local entrepreneurs lead the way

I jumped at the opportunity to make a small contribution to the ‘Futures of Technology in Africa’ publication put together by Jasper Grosskurth of the STT. I have to say I was immediately captured by the project and specifically Jasper’s approach to the subject. Finally someone was willing to do away with a lot of the established frameworks and tell the story from the perspective of the entrepreneur instead. In my view this approach goes a lot further in capturing the dynamic energy you can find anywhere across the continent. More importantly the publication goes beyond the econonomic data and puts together a collection of real stories. I think this excerpt gives a nice impression of what you can expect from this body of work, one of hopefully many more to come…

The demographic, economic and political trends are well documented and contain many signals for an upbeat 21st century in Africa. But reports and spreadsheets offer just a glimpse of the changes in the streets of Nairobi or Lagos. They capture little of the hunger for information, the ambition for personal improvement, the changes in lifestyles and attitudes, the globalization of African minds and the social impacts of an increasingly connected Africa. In my conversations in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana, people emphasized again and again how much their life, their city, their country had changed over the past decade. For many, far-away friends are now a phone call or a mouse click away.

Unprecedented educational and business opportunities are evolving. Changes in lifestyles, music and slang languages are accelerating. Impatience to catch up with the rest of the world is widespread. A young generation, for which Ghanaian economist George Ayittey coined the term ‘Cheetah generation’, is emerging among urban educated youths. They are entrepreneurial, vocal and dislike corruption. Previously, the most intelligent youths aimed for jobs in government or with international NGOs, as these employers secured a decent and reliable income. Today, employment in the private sector and entrepreneurship are highly regarded and seen as a way to become rich by being productive. The opportunities for those with access to information, higher education and relevant skills are endless and their number is increasing.

These changes are reflected in the mirror windows of the business districts’ office buildings. They can be seen in coffee shops, where young urban professionals work at their laptops; they can be seen on Facebook, where millions of Africans network; they can be seen in the increasing number of African blogs and discussion forums. And these changes are increasingly recognized by the members of the Diaspora, many of whom are returning home to build their countries or to benefit from the opportunities. Technology supports many of these developments and Africa’s 21st century will be a century of technology-driven change. This book is dedicated to that force.

Want to check out this publication?

You can read my article, ‘Rise of the African Entrepreneur’ which builds off of my own ethnographic studies done in Kampala, Uganda in 2009.

AfriLabs – African Tech Hub Network needs a LOGO

Bill Zimmerman put together a creative brief for the Afrilabs logo. 99Designs is running a special offer through November and this seemed like an opportune moment to once again source the power of the crowd. Check out the briefing and help spread the word.

Brief Overview: We are a consortium of African technology hubs with open work spaces in Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon and Senegal. Individually, each hub serves as a nexus for technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in our community. Together, we form a gestalt entity of connected nodes in a collaborative, Pan-African network.

Brand Name: AfriLabs

Target Audience: Our audience is African, global and far-reaching; this includes anyone who is participating in or promoting the growth of the African tech space. One segment of our audience is young African entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers, designers, researchers and the startups that spring from these places. Each tech hub has its own distinct identity, yet shares a common vision of promoting the African technology sector.

Another segment of our audience is investors, VCs, private equity funds, businesses and organizations looking to engage this rising tide of African technopreneurs.

Participating hubs in the AfriLabs network include:

iHub Nairobi (Kenya) – http://ihub.co.ke
NaiLab (Kenya) – http://nailab.co.ke
Hive Colab (Uganda) – http://hivecolab.com
ActivSpaces (Cameroon) – http://activspaces.com
Banta Labs (Senegal) – http://bantalabs.com

Requirements

**Wants**

We’re looking for an identity that is is fresh, simple, memorable and captures the spirit of technical innovation in Africa. Specific requirements:

*For branding purposes, the logo or a part of it must be able to stand alone as an icon (favicon, email signature, buttons, etc.)
*The graphic should in general be flat, unless there is a good reason for using depth
*Will need to look good in b&w and greyscale
*The logo and the type (font) can be separate
*The mark is “AfriLabs” with no additional text needed
*Final design needs to be submitted in AI, EPS, PS, PNG and JPG versions

**Don’t wants**

*African cliches (animals, maps of the continent, etc.) unless it works for your design
*Web 2.0 style design
*Run of the mill logo work
*Please do not use stock images or clip art

Payment Methods

This contest has been pre-paid with 99designs. The winner will be paid directly by 99designs for the full prize amount, excluding any third party transfer fees.

* Paypal (free, 2-3 day payment turnaround)
* Moneybookers (charges apply, 5-10 day payment turnaround)
* AlertPay (charges apply, 5-10 day payment turnaround)
* Western Union (charges apply, 10 day payment turnaround)

Interested? Check out the contest on 99Designs!