Tall and well-built, cheerful with an appearance of nonchalance, the man Inc. Magazine described as Africa’s Bill Gates is a man with a few tricks up his sleeve – as you might expect.

After making his fortune with an enterprise-software company, Herman Chinery-Hesse reached higher, creating a company with a dual goal: helping the continent’s SMBs sell their products globally and, by doing this, contributing to development better than aid programs do.

The cosmopolitan Ghanaian created SoftTribe.com in 1990, after returning from studies in the US and his first job in London. A trained engineer, he realized that computers could serve a lot of practical ends. As a result of a bar bet– that in a city where most of his friends were unemployed, he could find a job by the following week– he decided to try getting businesses in his hometown of Accra, Ghana to hire him to help them turn to IT. He saw a couple of them within a couple of days… and succeeded.

But he couldn’t go very far in an economy that is 70% government-controlled. When he tried to compete for large contacts, he had to go up against multinationals that had the resources to create enough pressure to gain the lion’s share of contracts (including a call from their ambassador to the prospective client, says Chinery-Hesse). He spread his business to other countries, but found their situations largely the same.

Read the rest of this article at The Next Web

With all the technology available in the modern world, it can be hard to believe that there are still places without consistent access to electricity. But fewer than 25 percent of residents of rural African villages have power. For students, that means that sitting in a dark classroom without air conditioning, or under a tree, is the norm. Fortunately, that could change thanks to the debut of a solar-powered mobile school last week in Johannesburg.

The “school” is actually a 40-foot-long shipping container, which means it can be transported anywhere on the continent on a flatbed truck. Designed by Samsung as part of the company’s social innovation efforts, the school comes fitted with foldaway solar panels that provide enough power to run the school’s ventilation system, laptops, 3G wireless routers, electronic blackboard and mini-fridge for nearly two rain-soaked days.

Read the rest of this article at GOOD

As many African countries struggle to achieve widespread economic growth and to escape from just being raw agricultural and mineral producers, change is occurring in Kenya, home to East Africa’s largest economy.

There, information technology is being used as a springboard for growth. One aspect of that drive isKonza Technology City. The ground breaking for the government-backed 5,000-acre science-and-technology “silicon savanna,” about an hour from Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, took place recently. The bulk of Konza’s $10 billion funding is slated to come from the International Financing Corp., a division of the World Bank. (To read both supportive and opposing comments about the Konza initiative, click here.)

Similar tech or green-oriented projects exist or are under way in Malaysia (Technology Park Malaysia), Panama (Pacifico), the Philippines and China. Nairobi is also the regional hub for U.S. tech companies including IBM, Google, Microsoft and General Electric.

But Kenya’s advance, led by force of minds and not arms, is threatened. Eight weeks ago tourism — Kenya’s largest hard-currency earner — began evaporating after foreigners were killed or kidnapped by Somali gunmen believed to be allied with al-Shabab, an Islamic militant group.

Then the U.S. Embassy in Kenya issued a terrorist-attack warning for Nairobi after Kenyan soldiers invaded southern Somalia pursuing the kidnappers. In 1998 terrorists exploded a truck bomb outside the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, killing more than 200. Attacks in Nairobi could devastate Kenya’s economic advance, in addition to killing innocents.

Read the rest of this article at The Root

In Accra, the capital of Ghana, it’s not about who you know, what you know, which member’s club you belong to or even which school you used to go to. It’s all about which church you belong to.

Ghana is nearly 70% Christian and on Sundays anybody who is anybody heads off to church, not only to worship their God, but also to be part of the country’s biggest networking event. This is where business is done… and business is booming.

The country also has a sizeable Muslim minority, but relations between Islam and Christianity, unlike surrounding countries such as Nigeria, are cordial and are often mixed in with tribal beliefs. The country is also home to diverse religions such as Shintoism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and even Rastafarianism.

This diversity is matched by the country’s entrepreneurial sector that ranges from robotics to software houses and a buoyant mobile sector. In Ghana, like most countries in Africa, the mobile screen is the most important screen. Moreover crime is low and even this white man had no fear walking around on a recent visit to Accra.

Read the rest of this article at Tech Crunch

Google has launched its classified ads service, Google Trader, in Kenya.

Google Trader is a free classifieds service that lets internet users  trade products and services and search for jobs, real estate listings or just about anything else; very similar to a Craigslist.

The ad service will give Kenyan internet users the opportunity to search for their needs online making for a more convenient way to find goods, services and employment.

This is the third African country in which Google is launching this service. Google Trader is currently available in Uganda and Ghana.

Google’s ad service isn’t the first of its kind in Kenya. The country’s largest classified service is Dealfish Kenya. Dealfish is owned by MIH Internet, a South African Internet services firm owned by Naspers, Africa’s largest media company.

Google Trader provides the same services Dealfish does but plans to be a competitor. Google Trader will be available on mobile phones, hand-held devices and personal computers.

It is evident that Nigeria has numerous mobile users. The country currently has over 90 million cellular phone users and is not just Africa’s largest mobile phone market but one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. But banking is where Nigeria’s numbers are not as high with only 20 million having bank accounts.

Not even half of the population having bank accounts is a serious problem, but one that can be solved through a factor they are thriving in, which is mobile technology. Having so many in the country using mobile devices gives the opportunity for Nigerian mobile money services to provide access to financial services to millions that are without banking.

Paga is one of the companies looking to do just that. Founded by Tayo Oviosu, a former Vice President at Travant Capital Partners and a former Manager in charge of Acquisitions & Venture Investments at Cisco, the company aims to provide financial access to any Nigerian with a mobile phone or internet enabled device.

People have already invested in this market, including Tim Draper, Skype and Baidu investor. Mobile banking services makes sense right now in Nigeria. The people have access to the phones, but not to the financial services they need.

Paga has over 18,000 users and has a large number of transaction volume since its’ launch back in February. With this market being in demand, there will sure to be other companies like Paga emerging soon.

With tough economic conditions, survival is not just limited to individuals who are in search of jobs to cater for daily subsistence, but also for businesses that are constantly faced with policies that change or skyrocketing levies. Government agencies continually increase tariffs regardless of the economic conditions. Private organizations occasionally give a pay-cut in the name of economic recession because they know that the unemployed within the populace are willing to accept even lesser. This uncertainty counts for why private companies and sole proprietors resident in Nigeria seek for ways to minimize costs, cut-down on capital intensive projects and maximize profits. Little wonder that people complain incessantly about inconsistent quality.

Read the rest of this article at c-pafrica.com

One thing that is growing digitally in Nigeria is online recruiting sites.  With young proffesionals making up the majority of the countries population it makes sense that these sites are needed to search regularly for job openings.

Among the many job websites Nigeria has to offer, Jobberman.com is the online platform standing out the most. Jobberman.com was founded by Ayodeji Adewunmi in 2009 to redefine the online recruitment space.

Jobberman.com is the number one job site in Nigeria focusing on matching suitably qualified professionals with the right job opportunities.

The site embraced social media early in the game giving them an advantage over competitiors. Knowing and researching their market has earned them tremendous success with over 1,000 people employed under the site.

The company has tripled the size of their research budget to better understand job seeker behavior as well as their product department with a new full time staff employed to ensure the best possible opportunities for their users.

It is great that Nigeria is thriving in this capacity, as employment is always an issue and citizens are constantly looking for work. The online platform is a great fit for all demographics. To find out more about the site visit www.jobbberman.com

Huawei, Kenya’s best selling smartphone, recently partnered with Nigerian CDMA operator, Starcomms to launch the smartphone in the Nigerian market. With over 90 million phone subscribers, Nigeria is a prime market in which to launch the IDEOS and help migrate current feature and low end phone users to smart phones.

An Informa Telecoms Media report reveals that there will be up to 265 million data subscribers in Africa by 2015, up from about 12 million today .

The recent cheap prices for smartphones available in Africa is fueling people to decide to purchase one. In addition, firms like Research in Motion have pointed to affordability as key to its expansion strategies in Africa. Tigo Rwanda also revealed earlier this year that it is set to release ZTE low cost smart phones to sell at the equivalent of about $56 – $59.

African technology research publication, Balancing Act Africa predicts that in the next few years, there will be more of a Blackberry, iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 OS presence in Africa representing a major shift from the current dominance by Nokia’s Symbian OS.

It really is as simple as that. When products are more affordable, more people will have means to get them. Prices of technology is extremely high all over the world no matter what country. The most effective way for everyone to gain access to the internet and other resources is to make it affordable. Maybe others will catch on to the idea.

For more predictions on Africa’s mobile space read The Future of Mobile in Africa in 2020

The people of East Africa are currently dealing with a massive famine and humanitarian crisis. Save the Children is using a unique campaign, “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend” to raise money and awareness for its philanthropic work.

Under the direction of Kevin MacDonald, the Save the Children put together a short video that shows the realities of this crisis. The video is played along with Bob Marley’s song “High Tide or Low Tide,” which features the lyric “I’m gonna be your friend.” The song is being sold on iTunes with all proceeds going to Save the Children.

The campaign and crisis have attracted many big names in the fields of technology and entertainment. Tech giants such as Facebook, iTunes,Yahoo,YouTube, MSN and AOL UK are in full support of the campaign. Facebook is facilitating an advertising campaign and Yahoo will feature the campaign on each of its global homepages.

Stars like Beyonce, Muhammad Ali, Jennifer Lopez, Kanye West, Rihanna and much more have pledged to help promote the video and charity song through their networks.

The song and film can be downloaded through iTunes, from I’m Gonna Be Your Friend, or via Bob Marley’s Facebook Page. The Facebook Page will also feature click-through links to donate directly to Save the Children.