T
here are many things you expect to
revolution, skipping right on to mobile devices.
hear while lumbering through the
Almost as if someone had flicked a light switch, the
Zambian savanna while on the back of
Dark Continent was lit up with mobile technology.
an enormous African elephant.
Today, even in the most remote African villages,
Of the many you’d associate with this
mobile phones are a common sight. It’s been
scenario, like “Look, a zebra!” or even “Don’t let the
estimated that the number of mobiles will rise to
monkeys steal your hat”, I’d wager that “So what’s
930 million by 2019. Smartphones, some of which
your Twitter handle?” really isn’t one of them.
now cost as little as US$25, are likely to push internet
Jo, our chatty and extremely linguistically talented
penetration throughout the continent to 50% within a
guide, has been involved with elephants all his adult
decade. Forget 4G and Wi-Fi for a moment. Although
life. He’s also worked all over Africa, speaks more
bigger cities like Nairobi and Lusaka have embraced
than seven languages and has a deep and abiding
public Wi-Fi, it is one of mobile’s most humble
passion for his pachyderm charges. But being from
technologies that’s taking people places.
neighbouring Zimbabwe, he can only travel home once a year to visit his family. In a country where the postal service is pretty
USSD or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data has opened rural Africa up to a multitude of new avenues – for both consumers and sellers.
much nonexistent, he’s had to rely on social networks
For consumers, it’s provided the means to do
like Facebook and Twitter to keep him connected to
everything from buying airtime to recharging
his family. He says this way he can see photos of his
electricity vouchers, and even sending and receiving
children continuously, keep up with their day-to-
money. For sellers, it’s provided a new way to
day activities and even send money back home to his
reach their consumers, making it an inexpensive
family far quicker than he could if he used more…
marketing platform for wholesalers and banking
traditional means.
institutions. This business environment has attracted
Surprised? I certainly was. Isn’t this deepest,
a number of Western companies to invest in Africa.
darkest Africa where lions roam the streets and we
Microsoft is funding a small firm that is developing
only got out of our animal skins about a decade ago?
wide-area Wi-Fi systems able to cover entire regions
Revelations like this underscore a remarkable
at less than a hundredth of the cost of existing mobile
change taking place in Africa. A continent that has long accepted technological hand-me-downs from the West has quietly been
tech. Cisco, a maker of network gear, and now an angel investor, are hurriedly looking at changing their architectural landscape.
innovating. You see, while we were battling dial-up
Even social giant Facebook has joined the fray,
tones and 16-bit graphics in South Africa, the rest of
partnering with phone operators to make internet
Africa continued with their everyday chores, vastly
connectivity available for free, through an initiative
unaware of Western toys like personal computers.
known as internet.org, in the hopes of signing up
Africa missed the 486 and Pentium desktop
Africans before indigenous social media nab them.
