By Mike Cassidy, Director, GoogleX, Google

There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity—jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month’s income.

Solving these problems isn’t simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we’re unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access.

We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It’s very early days, but we’ve built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy—and that’s part of the reason we’re calling it Project Loon—but there’s solid science behind it.

Balloons, with all their effortless elegance, present some challenges. Many projects have looked at high-altitude platforms to provide Internet access to fixed areas on the ground, but trying to stay in one place like this requires a system with major cost and complexity. So the idea we pursued was based on freeing the balloons and letting them sail freely on the winds. All we had to do was figure out how to control their path through the sky. We’ve now found a way to do that, using just wind and solar power: we can move the balloons up or down to catch the winds we want them to travel in. That solution then led us to a new problem: how to manage a fleet of balloons sailing around the world so that each balloon is in the area you want it right when you need it. We’re solving this with some complex algorithms and lots of computing power.

Now we need some help—this experiment is going to take way more than our team alone. This week we started a pilot program in the Canterbury area of New Zealand with 50 testers trying to connect to our balloons. This is the first time we’ve launched this many balloons (30 this week, in fact) and tried to connect to this many receivers on the ground, and we’re going to learn a lot that will help us improve our technology and balloon design.

Over time, we’d like to set up pilots in countries at the same latitude as New Zealand. We also want to find partners for the next phase of our project—we can’t wait to hear feedback and ideas from people who’ve been working for far longer than we have on this enormous problem of providing Internet access to rural and remote areas. We imagine someday you’ll be able to use your cell phone with your existing service provider to connect to the balloons and get connectivity where there is none today.

This is still highly experimental technology and we have a long way to go—we’d love your support as we keep trying and keep flying! Follow our Google+ page to keep up with Project Loon’s progress.

Originally published on the Google Africa blog

The post “Google Internet balloons” to bring Internet access to rural and remote parts of the world appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Press Release – Lagos, 17th June 2013. JUMIA, Nigeria’s #1 online retailer celebrates one year anniversary. In June 2012, JUMIA started the largest ecommerce website in the country. Twelve months later, the company has served over half a million customers – changing the way people shop in Nigeria. This has made in less than 1 year, JUMIA the 4^th most visited Nigerian website: www.jumia.com.ng.

Recently, JUMIA secured with its affiliated companies a further $35M in funding from MILLICOM. This funding comes in addition to recent investments from J.P. Morgan and Summit Partners. The funding, which represents the largest investment in a Nigerian eCommerce startup, allows Jumia to continue its rapid growth and serve even more customers across Nigeria. Concurrently, JUMIA announced its move to a new 90,000 sqft warehouse in Lagos which will house 500 employees and create the largest ecommerce campus in West Africa.

Co-founder Raphael Afaedor: “Almost a year ago, we started with three employees building up an ecommerce platform in Nigeria. Now, we have more than 500 employees and offer Nigerian’s youth great opportunities to work in one of the leading ecommerce companies in Africa. JUMIA delivers the widest range of products in the country and our new warehouse allows us to even grow further. We focus every day on delivering a fantastic shopping experience for our customers – fast, secure and stress-free.”

JUMIA’s anniversary will be celebrated with a first anniversary e-commerce conference, various fashion events, special discounts, new partnerships, new changes to its website and the education campaign “delivering smiles”.

Co-founder Tunde Kehinde: “After this tremendous one year run we want to say thank you to our employees, customers, partners and all Nigerians. Since our creation we have supported education programs to empower children and we want to use this anniversary to give back to society.”

For their 1^st anniversary JUMIA carries out two activities themed “delivering smiles”.

1.    In June, JUMIA will donate one book to a child in partner schools, for every book bought on JUMIA.  In addition, JUMIA will visit schools with the ‘1 Child 1 Book’ foundation and the CSR co-sponsor DHL to give out books to less privileged pupils.

2.    JUMIA will team up with ACE Africa Charity, www.aceafricacharity.org and sell its ACE wrist bands. All returns will go to the charity. JUMIA will also promote ACE to their half a million social media followers.

Additionally, JUMIA announced today its partnership with Mastercard to use MasterCard’s Internet Gateway Service to make credit card payments safer and easier. The Company announced further exclusive partnerships with Dell, Intel and Nokia, among others offering special prices and exclusive products.

About JUMIA

JUMIA provides its customers with a one stop shopping experience that is convenient, safe and stress-free. JUMIA has become Nigeria #1 ecommer, with over 100,000 daily unique visitors and a daily subscriber base of over 400,000 people.

JUMIA secured with its partners Kaymu, Vamido and hellofood $35M in funding from MILLICOM. Before this JP Morgan made a significant investment in the business, followed by Summit Partners.

The company sells a broad range of products including fashion, consumer electronics, home appliances, mobile devices, books, baby’s toys and gifts, fragances, beauty products, game and event tickets.

The post JUMIA celebrates half a million customers and its one year anniversary appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Highlights

• Verve  (the payment card solutions business) and Interswitch Switching and Processing (the transaction switching business) have been spun off as separate, autonomous businesses
• Rationale for separation is driven by Interswitch’s strategy to orchestrate the next stage of sustainable growth through empowering the various line businesses to broaden and deepen their solution and service offerings to better serve their customers across Africa
• Separation will enable Verve to leverage, to the maximum extent, its recent strategic alliance with the ‘Discover’ network, providing new business opportunities in over 185 countries around the world
• Separation will enable Interswitch Switching and Processing to take its card-agnostic pureplay switching services and  third party transaction processing (Mastercard, Visa, Union Pay, Verve) capabilities across the region
• Separation also brings Interswitch’s corporate structure into line with the guidelines of the Payment Systems Vision 2020 of the Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”), Verve International and Interswitch Switching and Processing to have separate management teams. Verve International to be led by Mr. Charles Ifedi
• Interswitch Switching and Processing to be led by Mr. Akeem Lawal

Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Interswitch Transnational Holdings commented:

“It has always been our desire to evolve into an integrated payments holding business where the various parts of the business are driven to deepen and broaden their relationships with their various customers by creating innovative products and services of real value.  Creating the right governance structure to herald this new phase of sustainable growth has been the focus of the board and management in the last few months. I am elated that we have successfully completed this separation, which took effect from April 1^st 2013.”

The post Interswitch spins off Verve International and Interswitch Switching and Processing for regional and international growth appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

3D printing technologies is touted as the next industrial revolution by the Economist magazine, and a potential disruptive force to manufacturing, logistics and materials. With the ability to create objects on demand, the technologies will democratize innovations, foster creativity, and facilitate entrepreneurship for the masses.

President Obama, in the State of Union address, remarked that “3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything.” The Administration has proposed a $1 billion investment to create a network of 15 manufacturing innovation institutes across the country. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee has also announced a S$500 million Future of Manufacturing budget for 3D printing and robotics.

“It is important for developing countries to recognize the disruptive effect of 3D printing technologies, and be prepared through awareness, education and training,” said Prof Calestous Juma, Director of the Science, Technology & Globalization Project in Harvard Kennedy School. “Youths should be given the opportunities to appreciate emerging technologies such as 3D technologies and apply their creativity to develop innovative products.”

“We are proud to partner Prof. Calestous Juma in this meaningful project,” said Prof. Neo Kok Beng, Chairman & Co-founder of Pirate3D and associate professor at the National University of Singapore. “We will provide the Buccaneer® 3D printers, and conduct training programs in 3D technologies appreciations, designs and apps development.”

“We believe in contributing to society. Our vision is to democratize innovation, foster creativity, and facilitate entrepreneurship in the local communities. We will extend this project to other developing countries if it is well received, and within our financial capabilities. We could achieve this with great impact for the society with the support and partnerships with the 3D community worldwide.

Check out a video about Pirate3D’s Buccaneer 3D Printer:

About Prof. Calestous Juma

Calestous Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project. He directs the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and serves as Faculty Chair of Innovation for Economic Developmentexecutive program. Juma is a former Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and Founding Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi. He is co-chair of the African Union’s High-Level Panel on Science, Technology and Innovation and a jury member of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He was Chancellor of the University of Guyana and has been elected to several scientific academies including the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and the African Academy of Sciences. He has won several international awards for his work on sustainable development. He holds a doctorate in science and technology policy studies and has written widely on science, technology, and environment. Juma serves on the boards ofseveral international bodies andis editor of the International Journal of Technology and Globalisation and theInternational Journal of Biotechnology.His latest book, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. He is currently working on on books on engineering for development and resistance to new technologies.

About Pirate3D

Pirate3D is an innovative company focusing on the democratization of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship using 3D printing technologies. Their first 3D printer, the Buccaneer ®, is base on Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) technique using PLA(polylatic acid) material. Aesthetically pleasing and ergonomically designed, the Buccaneer® appeals to the mass consumer for its great user experience and can be used by kids, youngs and the seniors. Using SmartObjects platform for 3D Apps, users would be able to create 3D objects of desire and intuitively using smartphones and webpads, without learning the traditional CAD software. They are also able to share and store their designs on the cloud-based Pirate Distribution Network. Pirate3D is a socially responsible company that contributes to society via its awareness, education and entrepreneurship programs.

The post Professor Calestous Juma & Pirate3D bring 3D printing technologies to African Institutions appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Several trends have already emerged in the past year as key drivers of the industry and we enumerate them in our recent e-commerce insight brief: 5 trends driving e-commerce in Africa. At present, South Africa is the continent’s largest e-commerce market with players like Rocket Internet’s Zando, MIH Internet Africa’s Kalahari and Tiger Global backed Takealot.com ranking high. Research by World Wide Worx indicates that online retail in South Africa is currently growing by about 30% year over year.

Nigeria is projected to soon overtake South Africa’s e-commerce market given its massive population and impressive Internet usage numbers. Recently, its Government announced that it is targeting 80% broadband Internet coverage in the country in the next 5 years; an incredibly ambitious goal that could be a game changer on the continent if it comes to fruition. Read more about the country’s plans for its ICT sector here.

Meanwhile, Rocket Internet’s Jumia has quickly risen in Kenya to become one of the country’s top 100 online destinations soon after its launch earlier this year. However, the website still has some catching up to do in strengthening its brand recognition among online shoppers in Kenya.

Undoubtedly, these are early days in the continent’s leading e-commerce markets but it is interesting to see the insights gleaned from some of the continent’s online shoppers.

Some of the responses indicate that work needs to be done on educating African consumers on what online shopping really entails. Some respondents when asked for their favorite website for purchasing goods online for instance mentioned Google. In addition, given that there is minimal usage of some banking products such as credit cards in countries like Nigeria, the large percentage of users indicating a preference for “credit cards” as a means of payments highlights the need for mass awareness on the difference between various kinds of financial products.

Across all three markets, delivery time featured highly as an obstacle for buying products online. In addition, convenience featured highly as the biggest advantage for shopping online.

Check out the insights below.

The post Infographic: E-commerce in Africa – Preferences of African consumers in Nigeria, Kenya & South Africa appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

The policy was drafted by the Presidential Committee for a National Broadband Strategy and Roadmap chaired by former Nigerian Communications Commission Chairman, Dr Ernest Ndukwe and Visafone Chairman and Zenith Bank Founder, Mr Jim Ovia.

The President expressed his confidence in the successful implementation of the plan including its target to achieve 80 percent nationwide Internet coverage by 2018.

According to President Goodluck Jonathan:

It has been empirically proven that every 10% increase in broadband penetration in developing
countries results in a commensurate increase of 1.3% in GDP. The most credible statistics on
broadband penetration estimate that Nigeria’s broadband penetration is between 4% and 6%,
further underscoring the need for Nigeria to give strategic importance to the development of
broadband infrastructure.

Speaking on the drafted Broadband Investment Plan, Nigeria’s Minister of Information & Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson said:

In meeting with industry leaders, the message is clear that we need to assist the Private Sector in driving pervasive access to Broadband. But then, the Private Sector must also deliver not just on basic reach and penetration, but also on Quality of Service. It is only in doing this that all Nigerians will truly feel the positive impact and benefit of Broadband.

The Vision

According to the Nigerian Government, the broadband vision for Nigeria is one of a society of connected communities with high speed internet and broadband access that facilitate faster socioeconomic advancement of the nation and its people.

To the Government, Broadband within the Nigerian context is defined as an internet experience where the user can access the most demanding content in real time at a minimum speed of 1.5 Mbit/s. The Government anticipates that the definition will be revised upwards regularly to keep in line with future developments in technology.

Goals and Objectives

According to the Government, the key objectives of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan are:

• to promote pervasive broadband deployment
• to increase broadband adoption and usage
• to ensure availability of broadband services at affordable prices

Open Data

The Government in its plan has mandated that all federal agencies within two years make their public information and services to Nigerian citizens available online.

Cybercrime

The plan also mandated that the country’s laws would be upgraded to cover new areas such as electronic transactions, e-commerce and cyber security to keep up with the growing cases of Cybercrime, copyright infringement and identity theft.

Affordability

The Government in its plan reiterated its commitment to lower device costs by reducing or eliminating import duties and other taxes as appropriate and embark on programs that are geared towards making broadband more affordable.

Awareness

To promote awareness about the benefits of broadband in the country, the Nigerian Government stated its commitment to launch intensive nationwide awareness campaigns to educate the citizenry about the value of broadband services, to introduce digital literacy education and training programs leveraging the community access centres established across the country as well as incorporate such programs into primary and secondary education.

To download the Nigerian Broadband Investment Plan, visit the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology’s website here.

The post Broadband Investment Plan: Nigerian Government targets 80 percent nationwide Internet coverage by 2018 appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Google has just invested about $12 million in South Africa’s Jasper Power Solar Project. According to Rick Needham, Director of Energy & Sustainability at Google, the project will power about 30,000 South African homes and will be one of the largest solar installations on the continent. The project which is developed and funded by SolarReserve, Intikon Energy and the Kensani Group, is also backed by Rand Merchant Bank, the Public Investment Corporation, Development Bank of South Africa and the PEACE Humansrus Trust.

South Africa has a goal of achieving a rate of 18GW in renewable energy by 2030  compared to about 44GW being produced by all its resources at present.

Rick Needham, Google

The total cost of the Jasper solar farm is estimated at about $260 million.

The investment is a significant win for South Africa given its heavily coal dependent energy system.

Google is confident it can make a reasonable return on its investment in the project by helping spur more growth in the broader sector.

“There’s a clear need for more power in South Africa,” said Needham. “In the meantime, we can make some returns on our investments, so it’s a win-win,” he said.

The project is one of many projects kickstarted by South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program and is expected to create 300 jobs for construction and 50 permanent jobs.

Speaking on Google’s recent investment, Ompi Aphane, a Deputy Director-General at the South African department of energy said, “It’s very good that the likes of Google see value and have expressed an interest in our programme. Over and above that we would like to also have solid investors participating in the programme. You have the confidence that those kind of brand-conscious companies are not going do a quick and nasty.”

The post Google invests $12 million in South African Solar Project; project to power 30,000 homes appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

By Gbenro Adegbola

There is a not so quiet revolution playing out in the education sector in Osun State, Nigeria.

The Opon Imo initiative is a unique and groundbreaking attempt at re-engineering how students learn at the senior secondary level, by making available to each one of them hand held digital tablets. On each of the tablets are preloaded e-books on all subjects that are offered at secondary school level, video/audio lectures and tutoring notes, as well as a test platform for students’ self assessment to monitor their own comprehension and mastery of the subject.

Opon Imo thus creates a virtual learning environment in which each student can immerse herself, preview topics ahead of class, revise after the class and to assess his or her learning. It literally places in the hands of each student a vast world of knowledge. It then becomes up to each student to take full advantage of this learning opportunity for his or her success.

I have had the privilege of being involved with the project from inception by supplying the e-books pre loaded on the tablets, in my previous job as Managing Director of Evans Publishers. I had gone to meet the Governor shortly after assumption of office, accompanied by some members of my management team, to make a corporate presentation to him on how we could be involved with education in the state. Some of the ideas we canvassed in our presentation, tallied with his own ideas thus opening up what has now become a golden opportunity of being involved with one of the most exciting interventions in learning in Nigeria. I have maintained an interest in the project since then, even after moving on to another company, till date.

Officials of the State of Osun have made statements about how much of a saving the project has meant for the state. I would like to dwell on a number of other advantages of e-learning, far more important than the financial savings to the state government, which the beneficiaries of this project in Osun will no doubt reap.

As it is structured, Opon Imo ensures that each student has an e-textbook not only in all the subjects he is taking, but also on every subject offered at secondary level. This in itself is revolutionary. Thus a Science student, who has interest in literature and does not offer it, can still dip into literature texts at his leisure. In the same way, an arts student can learn about scientific concepts that intrigue him, purely for knowledge’s sake.
The implications of this for knowledge availability, acquisition and spread are self-evident. There are also material loaded on the tablets for character development, civic and religious education.

As Osun schools migrate from traditional learning environments to a more modern technology-rich learning space, what will be seen in no time is not merely a change in student enthusiasm for learning but a significant shift in the enhancement of the learning experience for each student. This shift will be manifested in a move from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning; a shift from single-sense stimulation
to multi-sensory stimulation, single-path progression to multi-path progression, single media instruction to multimedia instruction, isolated work to collaborative work, information delivery to
Information exchange, passive learning to active/exploratory/inquiry-based learning, mere cramming of facts and knowledge to critical thinking and 
informed decision-making, reactive responses to proactive/planned action.

As a result, the total learning experience will be significantly improved, with positive implications for school attendance and ultimate learning outcomes. Students will increasingly become independent, self-directed learners who are able to master higher-level critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative skills.

The Opon Imo project is also unconsciously breeding a new generation of digitally literate young persons. One of the observations made during one of the several project trial/testing sessions in Osogbo in 2012, was the ease with which students who had never before seen or handled a computer tablet took to them like fish to water. Within a few hours they discovered capabilities the tablets had that were not even known to the technical people and had started performing operations they were only just bing introduced to.

This resulting digital competence will no doubt encourage in many, a closer affinity for computing and what computers can do. It may even lead to some of the students developing interest that will take them along the direction of creating simple computer applications and solutions. After all, this was how Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many of the computer greats, started their careers. The digital affinity and skills they acquire now, will remain with them all their lives and careers. Consider also the ripple effects on the larger society when these tablets are taken home. In a similar pilot carried out in Ghana, there was significant impact on the parents who were mostly illiterate. A new interest in literacy was noticed in many more parents.

The consensus everywhere in the developing world where communal access to information technology has been facilitated for whatever purpose is that it does seem to produce some positive effects in the larger community beyond the immediate reasons for the deployment. In fact, government can go a few steps further and preload information targeted at rural parents on the student’s tablets; thereby turning the students to change agents and purveyors of vital information and knowledge within their immediate and larger families. Although parental involvement and other such home effects are often secondary, if not peripheral to the immediate goals of eLearning deployment, the effect of a more informed and aware citizenry cannot be totally discounted. After all, what is the ultimate aim of government than to produce an enlightened and exposed citizenry?

The idea of logging around heavy volumes of physical books is eliminated with the use of Opon Imo.  Students can now study anywhere, at any time. With the tablet, he carry’s his entire library, plus other multi media material, which accommodate the different learning styles: auditory, visual and kinesthetic styles, with him always.

With each lesson in the student’s hands in the form of videos and tutoring notes, a student has an opportunity to preview a class before the teacher presents it. He is therefore are able to check the material ahead and gather some background to the topic. This no doubt will aid learning. It also gives the teacher an opportunity to flip the class. The Flipped classroom is a new method in 21st century learning, popularized in the US.

It is basically inverting the traditional teaching model by moving what is normally done in class to be done at home independently at the student’s own pace via video lessons. The issue of the teacher going too fast for slow learners or too slow for fast learners, becomes a thing of the past.

The time in classroom is then devoted to an overview, collaborative discussions, clarifications, concept management and reinforcement activities under the guidance of the teacher.  The flipped classroom in essence, is really about changing the instructional model, so that teachers can devote more time to giving their students deeper instructional support in the classroom. The flipped classroom has been used in many countries of the developed world with some amazing results.

A particular school district in Ohio, which was recording 50% and 44% failure in English and Math respectively, was able to ‘flip’ the fail rate at the end of one year, down to 19% and 13% respectively. In addition, it was found that students engaged more positively, had lower levels of frustration because the task of doing homework alone, which was the major source of student frustration had bee removed and a lot of what would have been done as home work was being done collaboratively in class as exercises.  Students learnt at their own pace, repeating material to reinforce learning, or delving into additional material to enrich what they have learnt.

Students and teachers are not the only people who can potentially benefit from eLearning. Principals and school leaders will find that they are better equipped to provide more effective instructional leadership and management as a result of better visibility into students’ progress and work products. Assessments and test results are obtained faster, which enables the principals to recommend and implement remedial measures for students who are weak in certain subjects before it becomes too late

However, a digital learning environment should never be mistaken for a silver bullet or magic wand that solves all educational delivery problems. Like every other type of intervention, it requires a high level of management and administrative coordination for it to yield the desired results.

Scheduled and trouble shooting maintenance of the hardware for example must be managed so well, as to eliminate the amount of time a student has to do without his tablet or at least reduce this to the barest minimum. A replacement policy will also be needed for malfunction and total breakdown. These are complex logistical operations that may need to be contracted to an independent organization or at least a management unit be created for it.

The government of the State of Osun has taken the position that Internet access will constitute a distraction to students and so; the tablets are not Internet enabled. While there is some wisdom in this thinking, it seems to me a bit of a disadvantage that the students will not be able to experience the vast world of knowledge that is found on the Internet. I do hope in the future this restriction can be reversed.

It is quite possible these days with classroom management software, to curate and limit the sites that a student can visit to predetermined sites. This allows them to have access to a greater store of useful study material while avoiding the distracting and downright negative ones. Allowing students access to the Internet can also facilitate collaborative learning across borders, within moderated student forums and discussion groups. Thus a student in a remote rural community for example, can join a curated study forum with other students from different parts of the world and share the benefits of each other’s expertise online.

To facilitate a deeper positive impact of the project, government must also invest quickly in massive teacher re-training. E-learning has a specific and distinct pedagogy of its own. This is a special method of enquiry and discovery, very different from the ‘sage on a stage’ traditional teaching method. An effective and sustainable method of disseminating these skills to teachers must be deployed in fairly intensive training sessions, so that teachers become skilled and comfortable using digital resources to enhance teaching and learning.

To achieve this, government and must invest not only in professional teacher retraining and reorientation, but also in development of more curriculum resources for teachers’ use as well. Investment in digital hardware must always go hand in hand with teacher training and orientation. These two areas of investment reinforce each other and increase the chances and rate of return on either type of investment: teacher and curriculum resources development help teachers to more effectively use technology to transform teaching and learning, while adequate provision of technology hardware enables the retrained teachers to apply what they have learnt.

It will certainly be interesting in the near future to observe the anticipated positive impact outlined earlier that this project would have on learning outcomes in the state of Osun. As the Managing Director of a company committed to the propagation of eLearning in our schools, I have more than a passing interest in this and will remain close to the project. I have no doubt that eLearning will be greatly popularized in Nigerian schools as a result of this pioneering effort. In fact, I have a prediction that an electronic learning platform that leverages on telecommunications infrastructure will be one of the fastest growing developments in Nigerian education, over the next five years. E-Learning remains the most viable means by which every Nigerian child can have access to the same high quality education weather they live in cosmopolitan Lagos or the most backward rural corners of Nigeria.

Our young people deserve an education that prepares them to thrive in a world of rapid change and increasing globalization. They need to be exposed to skills that will enable them to learn, work and live happily and effectively in the 21st Century. The government of the state of Osun has taken a giant step towards this. I have no doubt other states and private schools will follow suit.

The post How Osun State is empowering students with tablet devices and e-books appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Though the e-commerce market in sub-Saharan Africa is relatively nascent, the rapid growth and potential of the sector has attracted local and international investors interested in gaining a first mover advantage in Africa’s consumer market estimated to be the fastest growing in the world.

What are some of the key industry trends currently driving e-commerce in Africa? We enumerate them below.

5 trends driving e-commerce in Africa

1. Cash on delivery

Cash on delivery has emerged as a leading payment method across multiple African markets to address the lack of trust for online payments and e-commerce still prevalent in many African countries. The method takes advantage of present day consumer habits where physical cash exchanges still dominates majority of transactions even as global financial services companies such as Visa and Mastercard work to increase the penetration of debit cards across multiple markets. Interestingly, Rocket Internet’s recent introduction into the African market, SafePay, an escrow service that releases payments on directive from the buyer after delivery might prove to be a respite. The escrow model has been adopted previously in other emerging markets, notably by e-commerce giant, Alibaba via its online payment escrow service Alipay to much success. Safepay’s entry is still nascent and restricted to Rocket Internet’s eBay clone, Kaymu, however, it will be interesting to see how consumers react to its relatively safer value proposition for online payments.

2. Proprietary logistics networks

Proprietary logistics networks continue to be a key feature rolled out by e-commerce players implemented to adapt to the lack of reliable transportation,  incomplete address systems and delivery networks in most African countries. African e-commerce companies have had to develop their own in house logistics networks to handle the end to end delivery process for getting goods to customers in the absence of reliable postal systems. This poses a logistics and cost challenge for industry players and undoubtedly, a constraint on margins.

3. Mobile commerce

Mobile commerce  continues to drive e-commerce access and interactions, highlighting the need to create mobile centric e-commerce solutions for African users. Mobile continues to be a product differentiator with players emphasizing strong mobile interfaces and user experiences driving visits and increased consumer interaction. Despite the rise of low cost Android devices by mobile device manufacturers such as Huawei, Nokia and Samsung feature phones remain the dominant mobile devices in sub-Saharan Africa’s largest Internet markets.

4. Long term warehousing

Long term warehousing is another key trend peculiar to the African e-commerce industry. Inventory management poses a challenge as import dependency of stock units necessitates long term warehousing of e-commerce third party goods. Overall, this has led to a hybrid e-commerce model that is supported by significant offline inventory stocking with a relatively long lifecycle. Industry players have as a result had to increase their warehouse capacity and have had to devise creative means of demand forecasting.

5. Social customer service

Social customer service has emerged to be a key differentiator for consumers with quality service serving as a key word of mouth referral influencer and an offline virality driver. The lack of trust of eCommerce solutions in general makes customer service a powerful longterm tool for driving consumer awareness and gradually increasing trust for and reliance on e-commerce goods. Social media chatter has also become an important arena for gauging user sentiments as well as for dispute resolution.

Questions? Email research@cp-africa.com

The post 5 trends driving e-commerce in Africa appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Entrepreneurs who apply to be part of VC4Africa’s June 2013 Cohort must have a solid business plan, clear market strategy, a working pilot, and a skilled and experienced team. A chamber of commerce registration and complete documentation is a must.

Saskia Reus, VC4Africa’s Head of Investor Relations expands, ‘Bottom line, we need to believe in your business opportunity in order to explain the opportunity to investors. We need to be convinced to such an extent that we would want to invest our last money in your company.’

To apply for VC4Africa’s June 2013 Cohort ventures have to register on the VC4Africa platform and express an intention to raise a round of funding between USD $10,000 and USD $1 million. Selected entrepreneurs will receive targeted coaching to reach their fundraising goal.

Full details on why and how to apply can be found on the VC4Africa website and through the short link www.VC4Afri.ca/June2013.

After the announcement of the program by VC4Africa’s advisory board member Rebecca Enonchong at the Global Forum in South Africa, application will close Wednesday June 12th, and the selected entrepreneurs will be announced on Wednesday June 19th. Rebecca Enonchong, also known as @africatechie on Twitter, expands, “There are few channels entrepreneurs can use to get such access to investors. This is a great opportunity for the teams with regional and pan-African potential. Few entrepreneurs are fundable out of the gate. The VC4Africa team really makes the difference in getting teams to that next level.”

At this week’s Global Forum in South Africa a number of high potential entrepreneurs listed on the VC4Africa platform are pitching their business plans. From the selected Global Top 50 SME entrepreneurs, around half of the African entrepreneurs are VC4Africa members. Now VC4Africa invites them and all other high potential entrepreneurs active in Africa to apply for VC4Africa’s June 2013 Cohort.

The post Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs get special fundraising opportunity at VC4Africa appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

The post Danfo Reloaded II mobile game released appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Credits: Draper Fisher Juvertson

Tim Draper is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He is also the founder of the DFJ Global Network, an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in over 30 cities around the globe.  His original suggestion to use “viral marketing” in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail, and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by hundreds of businesses.  On behalf of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Tim currently serves on the boards of DoAt, Glam,  Prosper, and Miartech.  DFJ’s previous successes include: Skype (EBAY), Overture.com (YHOO), Baidu (BIDU), Parametric Technology (PMTC), Hotmail (MSFT), PLX Technologies (PLXT), Preview Travel (TVLY), Digidesign (AVID), and hundreds of others.

Check out our interview with him below and spread the word.

CP-Africa: You have a history of betting on regions early on at a time when many global investors do not actively see them as lucrative opportunities. What do you think motivates you to make such maverick bets at a time when other investors are wary of making such investments?

Tim Draper: I enjoy the adventure part of venture capital. I like to see change happen, and I hope to get the world to progress as fast and efficiently as it possibly can. There are seven billion people on the planet and until recently, (mostly because of bad governance, but in part because global communication was only available to a few of us, only a small percentage of us) were able to really have an impact on the evolution of the people. Now, with about half of the population connected in one way or another, we have unleashed the creativity to progress at an unprecedented rate, and anything is possible.

CP-Africa: You’ve made a few Africa investments and are arguably the most prominent Silicon Valley VC to invest in some of the region’s technology/tech related companies. What made you make that move to invest after being approached by the entrepreneurs?

Tim Draper: I really liked Tayo Oviosu’s spirit, and it was clear Africa was in dire need of a better, safer, and more convenient payment system. I took a leap of faith on Tayo and his team, and I am hoping for the best. We invested in YeePay in China when China had no electronic payment system, and that seems to have worked out very well.

CP-Africa: You notably invested in Lupita Island Lodge, a luxury resort on Lake Tangayika in Tanzania. What are some of your early experiences in Tanzania and what made you ultimately invest in the business?

Tim Draper: Tanzania is one of the most beautiful places on the Earth ,and Lupita Island is one of the most beautiful places in Tanzania. I had been to the Serengeti and Ngoragora Crater, and I was confident that people would eventually discover the place. I believe that by building a high end resort on Lupita Island in Lake Tanganyika that I could make travel to Tanzania nicer and easier for other investors and entrepreneurs that might help the region become a part of the world economy. I also had a lot of confidence in Tom Lithgow and his wife Belinda that they could accomplish great things.

CP-Africa: Africa as a region has very few global technology success stories. What do you think it would take to get more global investor interest in the African technology sector?

Tim Draper: I think investors need to see Tanzania and other parts of Africa and all it has to offer. A place like Lupita Island can help make that happen. I think African governments are starting to understand that free markets allow people the confidence to build something great without allowing someone to take it away from them.

CP-Africa: Beyond mobile telephony and mobile financial services, what other areas of African life do you think the mobile phone would help dramatically change the lives of people on the continent?

Tim Draper: Search, GPS, Bitcoin, the opportunities are endless.

CP-Africa: What have been some of your most memorable visits or experiences to the continent?

Tim Draper: I got chased by a cape buffalo and was able to outmaneuver it. I jumped out of a helicopter and landed safely in Lake Tanganyika.

CP-Africa: What advice do you have for African entrepreneurs looking to start globally successful technology companies?

Tim Draper: Build trust and faith in your governments, and your investors. People need to feel safe investing in Africa. Rule of Law and honest dealings are fundamental to progress and change.

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us Tim!

The post CP-Africa interviews Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Juvertson on investing in Africa appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

The startup was incubated at Ghana’s Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), home to Saya Mobile, another Ghanaian startup that took the tech world by storm last year at Techcrunch Disrupt.

So what’s so special about a company that provides a contact widget to small businesses? The truth is that they are providing a really simple solution for a big pain point for SMBs. Enterprise companies have Salesforce.com for business to business sales leads management. Dropifi aims to eventually become the Salesforce.com for SMBs.

We caught up with Dropifi’s CEO, David Osei to share his vision with us and what it’s been like to be part of 500 Startups latest accelerator class. Check out the interview below and share with your network.

The team – From L to R
Kamil Nabong, David Osei, Philips Effah

CP-Africa: In mid May, news broke that Dropifi was part of 500 Startups’ latest batch of companies. How has the experience been so far?

David Osei: 500 so far has been one of the best experiences for me as an entrepreneur. We are exposed to over 200 mentors who have loads of experience to share. Also being in the heart of Silicon Valley, we’re open to lots of opportunity and people. The great thing is, everywhere you are in Silicon Valley, be it in a train, a bar or restaurant, you are doing business. It has been a great experience so far and we have even greater expectations.

CP-Africa: How did you first hear of your selection? How did you and your team feel when you found out you made it into the spring batch?

DO: After we pitched to Dave McClure in Rio, one of his venture partners followed up with a Skype interview. Without any hint of what was to come, I woke up one morning to see 500’s offer in my inbox. This totally blew me away! That same morning, I quickly called Effah and Kamil for preparations to begin towards moving to Silicon Valley.

with the 500 Startups class

It was a mixed feeling of surprised and intense happiness especially looking at the fact that we are the first African startup to join 500 and the opportunities that will be created for us.

CP-Africa: How has being a part of 500 Startups helped accelerate Dropifi’s growth?

with Dave McClure of 500 Startups

DO: We’ve been in 500 for just a month and so growth have not really changed much. We are however building on the relationships and mentorship at 500 to grow our partnerships, distribution channels and to fundraise.

CP-Africa: How did you first come up with the idea for Dropifi?

DO: The original conception for Dropifi came as a result of an encounter I had with a business executive. I requested for his business card and the piles of cards he had to wade through were enormous. He was looking for his card amongst that of others. I figured out then that collection, organization and storing of business cards must truly be a huge task. I conceptualized a mobile app that will help people to share, store and organize business cards better. This was way back in 2006. I pitched the idea to an investor / technology entrepreneur the same year, the project wasn’t able to be executed for so many reasons, one being that I wasn’t a developer and secondly, I had to focus on my first year courses at the University. Fast forwarding to 2011, the original idea went through evolutions and is now fundamentally a messaging platform to enable businesses easily take and respond to requests and inquiries through their websites.

CP-Africa: How were you able to acquire your first 5,000 users without any marketing?

DO: Being a startup with budgeting constraints, we figured out quite early that, getting cheap ways to acquire customers was our best bet. My team and I developed a distribution strategy that pushed Dropifi to some major shopping cart and content management platforms within our target markets. We also eliminated all barriers to the installation of Dropifi on all these platforms hence it became so seamless that, my mother could install it on WordPress or Shopify and get started engaging customers. This was one of the winning point for us and took us from 0 to over 5,000 users with a $0 marketing budget.

CP-Africa: Tell us more about the MEST program in Ghana. How did MEST prepare you and your team to become the entrepreneurs you are today? What makes MEST tick?

David Osei with Rackspace’s Robert Scoble recently

DO: The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) provide training, investment and mentoring for aspiring Ghanaian software entrepreneurs with the goal of creating globally successful companies that will eventually create wealth and jobs locally in Africa. I call MEST the MIT of Ghana although the MEST recruitment process is the most rigorous process I’ve ever had or gone through. Top tier talents are put together in the same environment and exposed to an international business environment and you can imagine what happens when the best graduates from the top universities in Ghana are put together to think and act on projects. MEST ticks essentially because it has figured out a way to dig out talent and groom them internationally. My team and I were part of the third batch of entrepreneurs-in-training. The unique thing about us is, we schooled at MEST for only three months instead of the normal two years and got fast tracked to the MEST incubator.

CP-Africa: Tell us more about the Dropifi opportunity. Why is lead generation online currently such a pain point for small businesses?

DO: Businesses currently generate leads through different ways. In recent times however, 80% of the world’s businesses have websites and their contact forms serve as their basic unit of lead generation. However, contact forms have remained unchanged for decades even though online visitor behaviors are fast evolving. The long-known contact forms have therefore rather become detrimental to lead generation because they are too long and require too much information. This is a pain for many small businesses. Dropifi therefore replaces this with an intelligent widget which takes requires just an email address and a message from the site visitor. Our over 5k users are generating 69% more leads, effectively engaging their customers and gaining enormous customer insights with Dropifi.

CP-Africa: Who are some of your global competitors in the space? How is Dropifi differentiating itself?

DO: Our main competitors are contactme.com, Webengage.com, Uservoice and Snap Engage. We have however differentiated ourselves with the level of business insight that we deliver with just a customer’s email address and message. Also, for small businesses, nothing is more important to them than simplicity and that is another thing that has set us apart from our competitors.

CP-Africa: Where do you see Dropifi in the next 2-3 years?

DO: In the next two to three years, I see Dropifi being the Salesforce for small businesses. A global company which offers businesses a multi-channel and social request handling system so businesses can completely virtualize and automate the way their agents handle requests. I also see Dropifi offering a better and wide range of business analytics intelligence to aid small businesses derive real value out of interactions with customers and prospects. In recent times, the demand for analytics is unquenchable. The era of analytics has come to stay; it is the present and the future as well. Dropifi seeks to make the world a better place using this new trend.

CP-Africa: What advice do you have for African tech entrepreneurs looking to start globally successful technology companies?

DO: I believe there are three key things that define a successful startup, the team, the idea/execution and the market. To start a globally successful startup you need to build a team that can compete globally (remember investors fund teams not ideas), the idea you are working upon should be relevant in your local market as well as the international market and finally you need to build a solution for your customer and the ever-changing target market of your business.

Most importantly you have to remember that horses are prepared for battle but success comes from the Lord.

In case you missed it, check out their journey via the infographic below:

The post “I see Dropifi becoming the Salesforce for small businesses” – CP-Africa interviews David Osei of Dropifi.com – 500 Startups’ first African founded company appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

“Ory is a well-established leader in the technology and transparency communities,” said Omidyar Network Partner Stephen King.  “She will help spur Omidyar Network’s growth and impact by lending her voice and considerable experience in Africa.”

Okolloh will join a growing team in Omidyar Network’s Johannesburg office.

“We are delighted to have Ory lend her insights and expertise to our efforts in Africa,” said Malik Fal , managing director, Africafor Omidyar Network.  “She will bring a unique blend of experience, and her collaboration will be of tremendous value to all of our work on the continent.”

Okolloh was also a co-founder of Mzalendo and a Chayes Fellow at the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity.  She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and sits on the board of the Africa Media Initiative.  Okolloh is a frequent speaker at leading conferences such as TED, the World Economic Forum, Poptech, the Clinton Global Initiative, Techonomy, Mobile Web Africa and the Monaco Media.  She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Pittsburgh and with a law degree from Harvard Law School .

ABOUT OMIDYAR NETWORK
Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $611 million to for-profit companies and non-profit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, government transparency, property rights, and consumer Internet and mobile. To learn more, visit www.omidyar.com.

The post Ushahidi’s Ory Okolloh joins Omidyar Network as Director, Investments appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

The post Millicom International invests an additional €35 million into Jumia, Kaymu, Hellofood & Vamido appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.

Though the social network is far less popular than Facebook and Twitter on the continent, the platform is rapidly gaining traction among white collar working class professionals in Africa’s largest cities.

The countries with the fastest growing number of users on the platform include South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda,  Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Morocco and Cameroon.

Here is a CP-Africa infographic of Africa’s LinkedIn statistics:

The post Infographic: Over 7.5 million Africans on LinkedIn; South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt account for over 60% of users appeared first on Celebrating Progress Africa.