Technology in Africa: Building Innovative Ecosystems Across
Africa, an innovation culture is starting to emerge. In Kenya,
PesaPal piggybacks on the popular M-PESA mobile payments
service, enabling Kenyans to buy and sell on the Internet.
Tanzania’s Techno Brain is selling software for managing
businesses in 13 countries. And South Africa’s Cobi Interactive,
a mobile communications software company, is developing popular
applications for smart phones. Yet for Africa to fulfill its
potential and emerge among the world’s economic tigers, social
and business leaders agree that much more innovation must happen
there. The continent’s cities, universities, entrepreneurs and
commercial R&D organizations can become engines of innovation
producing new products and services that are tailored for the
African experience. And, in order to make this transition,
African institutions and businesses–plus multinational
corporations –must work together to create innovation ecosystems
that foster this kind of creativity. At IBM’