Digital Changes
Africa leads the world in mobile adoption, which continues to offer the biggest cross-sectoral economic opportunities.
Mobile payment networks, pioneered in East Africa, opened the wired, global economy to poor, unbanked city and rural dwellers. Companies such as Novartis are using mobile communications to manage their supply chain; Olam has used mobile to reach out to new African suppliers and farmers.
These mobile initiatives have achieved huge successes.
“To illustrate: In 2014, Ethiopia set up a telephone hotline allowing small farmers immediate access to advice from agronomists, with over 3 million calls done in the first six months of the pilot programme. ”
Mobile is the area where Africa has pushed beyond the boundaries in the developed world, and African tech incubators are pushing to innovate.
So what’s next?
This article is part of the World Economic Forum on Africa.