9 Technology Trends Shaping Africa

“Technology touches the lives of many throughout Africa, widely accepted as having the second fastest growing mobile market. Keeping ahead of innovation has allowed many to overcome distance and stay in contact with relatives, to consult mobile solutions and source valuable information for their jobs and, yes, venture into the market by establishing a sustainable startup companies and technology-focused businesses.”

Let’s take a look at the 9 technology trends that shape Africa:

“1. Mobile Money

The concept of mobile money, a service which allows users to perform micro-financing and transfer money from their mobile device, has been adopted across the continent.

2. Undersea cables

With the landing of the various undersea cables, such as EASSy and Seacom, the continent has safeguarded a much-needed boost in Internet connectivity. These cables provide access to parts of the continent that were previously unreachable by traditional means. But that has changed- and the Internet has empowered Africans with the knowledge to begin and sustain their own online ventures.

3. Infrastructure

In addition to undersea cable infrastructure, countries throughout Africa have actively pursued the rollout of infrastructure upgrades and thereby allowed more people to connect to the internet.

4. Solar power

Although some people would not immediately associate solar power with ground-breaking technology, it is actually vital to the power-generation strategies in many parts of Africa.

5. Mobile health

Massive strides have been made in terms of m-Health, or mobile health, as doctors, patients and innovators strive to produce better services and dispense advice through the use of mobile phones.

6. Cheaper smartphones

While mobile phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Apple iPhone 5 are popular in countries like South Africa, Egypt and Kenya, rural communities are not entirely interested in smartphone features – simply because they are entirely out of their reach.

7. Innovation hubs

There is no doubt that Africa is fast becoming a signficant competitor in terms of technological innovation.

8. International tech funds focusing on Africa

Research indicates that a number of seed funds and venture capital firms have been established, both locally and by companies abroad, to contribute towards Africa’s burgeoning ICT market.

9. Broadband for long-term growth

As mentioned under Infrastructure and Undersea cables, the Internet and access thereof will play (and has played) a huge role in shaping Africa.“

TTS’ Take: Clearly, Africa is growing and has refreshed its perspective on ICT. Ever since TTS took the plunge of doing business in Africa, we have witnessed a high response to our solutions Following the above mentions, African businesses have specific needs and there is a specific technology to address their needs. Solutions like Travelport Mobile Agent or TTS Consolidator are specially designed to meet these requirements and to deliver competitiveness, efficiency and speed.

Read more in the full article here.