Can the internet reboot Africa?

[TheIrishman]

Can the internet reboot Africa?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/25/can-the-internet-reboot-africa

With smartphone use and web penetration soaring, Africa is set for a tech revolution – but only if its infrastructure can support it

<< You can buy sunlight with your phone, conduct an eye test on someone 100 miles away and attend a church service on your iPad. There are apps for investing in cows, for sending parcels and for mapping unrest. And soon you'll be able to deliver blood and medicines by drone. There's free Facebook, mobile banking, and the promise of cashless societies and digitised land records. And from Accra in the west to Kigali in the east, a spray of "tech hubs" talk about "leapfrogging" technology and incubating start-ups.

Such are the giddy promises of Africa's "fourth industrial revolution" – a giant step forward into the digital world which the Guardian is reporting on for the next two weeks. Some are salivating that it will amount to the renaissance of a marginalised continent, while others soberly warn of the hype.

By 2020 there will be more than 700m smartphone connections in Africa – more than twice the projected number in North America and not far from the total in Europe, according to GSMA, an association of mobile phone operators. In Nigeria alone 16 smartphones are sold every minute, while mobile data traffic across Africa is set to increase 15-fold by 2020. Twenty per cent of the continent already have access to a mobile broadband connection, a figure predicted to triple in the next five years. The mobile industry will account for 8% of GDP by 2020 – double what it will be in the rest of the world. And internet penetration is rising faster than anywhere else as costs of data and devices fall. >>

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[countryfree]

The mobile industry will account for 8% of GDP by 2020 – double what it will be in the rest of the world.

This can be easily explained. To many people in Africa, the cost of owning a mobile phone line is one tenth of their monthly income. Or more to the poorest folks. This isn't like Europe...

[plpbtc1526]

Internet is now essential to all people. Especially on businesses. Cause its a very powerful way of communicating and also marketing. Since more and more consumers are using the Internet to shop, browse and purchase various products and services, it only makes sense that businesses want to go where their customers are. Africa should develop their technology starting on internet so many establishments will be build and more africans can have work for a living.

[saddampbuh]

give them another few billion years

[Losvienleg]

give them another few billion years

This cute ape is a creature of God, and thus is perfect. Comparison to it is not true.
They rejected our colonialism and thus shouldn't be helped in any way. They will never be able to achieve anything if we're not behind planning and organising everything.

[TheIrishman]

Code club Senegal, where women are leading the way

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/26/code-club-senegal-where-women-lead-the-way

<< The young female creators of land-rights app Sigeste are part of a push to get girls coding in the west African country. >>

[Daniel91]

With smartphone use and web penetration soaring, Africa is set for a tech revolution – but only if its infrastructure can support it

Interesting statement but I don't agree.
For a tech revolution many more things are needed, not only infrastructure.
You need security, stable political system, no corruption, very good education, stable and developed Internet etc.
I'm afraid that still many countries in Africa can't reach that level. 

[Dank14]

give them another few billion years

Africans are not as dumb as that!

[mrhelpful]

Its not just africa - its poor countries in general that dont have the resources to know whats going on...

Think about it - if you grew up in a poverish country and expect to know what an iphone 7 youd be way ahead then most in that country since you know the internet.

Its about the resources that is available to them.

[Losvienleg]

Its not just africa - its poor countries in general that dont have the resources to know whats going on...

Think about it - if you grew up in a poverish country and expect to know what an iphone 7 youd be way ahead then most in that country since you know the internet.

Its about the resources that is available to them.

Given that, should be colonialism be something good, for both of us ? They wanted a pseudo-liberty and now they pay the fact that nothing changed except than they have now strictly nothing.

[deadsilent]

Internet is now essential to all people. Especially on businesses. Cause its a very powerful way of communicating and also marketing. Since more and more consumers are using the Internet to shop, browse and purchase various products and services, it only makes sense that businesses want to go where their customers are. Africa should develop their technology starting on internet so many establishments will be build and more africans can have work for a living.

I agree with you. The Internet has revolutionized the way the world does business on both a local and global level. From recruiting employees to gathering data on the competition, the ways businesses utilize the Internet are numerous, as are the benefits of the Internet to the business community. If only the government of Africa make way for this. Welcome to the future.

[AstralWonder]

Well, culture is really important. If your culture isn't promoting advancing economics, chances are, there's not going to be progress. Let's see what will happen in Africa though.

But so is technology. (See: ethereum)

[BitcoinPaw]

Africa is very interesting without internet, people who don't have any education have many different cultures and traditions, internet will kill this stuff at my opinion.

[countryfree]

Internet by itself is neutral.   

No, it isn't. Far from it. Today's Internet shows the dominating culture. When you anything on google, it gives you results related to the context, built from your previous searches, or pages you've already visited, or results which are trending at the particular time of your search. facebook is even worse. The Internet will only accelerate the destruction of African culture, but that had started way before the Internet was invented.

[TheIrishman]

Africa's top 10 tech pioneers: "We have become an internet-consuming culture"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/25/africas-tech-pioneers-we-have-become-an-internet-consuming-culture

<< Africa's digital transformation would be nothing without the tens of thousands of people who have invested, and continue to invest, energy into propelling it forward. They are the leading lights driving change in infrastructure, mobile connectivity, online activism, e-commerce and financial services. Some are opening up digital cultural spaces or working to bring in investment for tech startups.

As part of the Guardian's focus on technology in Africa we've listed 10 individuals who've been pioneers in the transformation from Tanzania to Tunisia, with the three of sub-Saharan Africa's big tech hitters – South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya – particularly well represented. And in a bid to look forward we asked each of the 10 pioneers to predict the next development in Africa's digital transformation and to each nominate an emerging talent to watch. >>

[Sontoloyo]

I more like Africa without internet, sometimes I dislike internet and smartphone and back to natural, like real social, cultures, religions and traditions

[countryfree]

There are theories and then, there are facts.
African culture is losing ground fast all over the continent, and part of that change take its roots on the web.

In most markets in Africa nowadays, you see products to whiten the skin, or hair products, so that black women can have their hair look like a white woman, or Obama's wife. African women watch Sex and the city on TV, and they've changed their behavior. In many African countries, there used to be nothing wrong between a 40-year old man and a 12-year old girl, but nowadays white man's culture, which the Internet brings, say it's bad.

In Kenya, there are muslim preachers who say Internet's evil, like everything which comes from white men, but the young adapt to the foreign ideas brought by the Internet, and they dump their traditional culture.

[gilangIDR]

on the internet we can get all the information we wanted. I believe if the internet in Africa will now be able to give change to people africa. africa will begin to escape poverty. I believe.

[virtualx]

on the internet we can get all the information we wanted. I believe if the internet in Africa will now be able to give change to people africa. africa will begin to escape poverty. I believe.

Africa is changing. Life quality for Africans could increase, but it depends on wars and foreign influence.

Look at a typical African city:


GDP of African countries:

[countryfree]

Look at a typical African city:

No, sir. This isn't your typical African city. Far from it. Is this Lagos? That's only the bright side. There are some rich folks there, I know Honda has a factory which assembles Accords in Nigeria, but there are also millions of people who barely have anything but the clothes they're wearing. And the poor vastly outnumber the rich. Internet will help, but much more is needed to make Africans richer.