Gallup: Over 60% of sub-Saharan Africans have never heard of microfinance or say it’s unavailable in their communities
http://www.gallup.com/poll/141629/Few-Sub-Saharan-Africans-Aware-Local-Microfinance-Options.aspx
Latest Updates: africa RSS
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Jason
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Jason
Forbes: Africa’s continent-wide mobile broadband rollout intensifies
Until recently, demand for broadband in Africa appeared too small to justify the heavy costs in mobile network infrastructure and license fees, especially since there was so much growth in the voice market. However, the business case for mobile broadband has been recently bolstered by decreased costs for bandwidth and handsets, as well as the exploding popularity of Internet-based social networking.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/28/africa-mobile-broadband-business-oxford-analytica.html (via)
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Jason
Cell phones save lives in Rwandan villages – RapidSMS and UNICEF on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/07/28/Rwanda.phones.pregnant.women/index.html (via)
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Steve
Opera focused on Africa in the June issue of its State of the Mobile Web. Some highlights: Ghana is seeing the highest growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Tanzania and Kenya. Kenya has the most active users. Nokia is still the most popular brand of phone. And unsurprisingly, everyone likes Google and Facebook.
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Jason
16 perspectives on how Africa will change the world from dignitaries, diplomats, musicians and more http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/africa/how-africa-will-change-the-world/article1560125/
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Tawanna
Gambia to deploy SMS technology in health project
“The SMS for health programme is a six month pilot project being implemented by the Health ministry in collaboration with International Health Partners UK, Vodafone, Pfizer and Mats soft. The project’s aims are: to collect information on weekly basis from all government health facilities on treatment, medicine stock levels and medicine expiry dates with objective to put in place an electronic medicine and treatment monitoring system using mobile SMS. The HMIS has been transformed in the past two years to provide credible and reliable data for planning and decision making.”
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Jason
Text Messages Save Pregnant Rwandan Women
The Rapid SMS scheme — a joint initiative between three U.N. organizations — is being tested in the Musanze District where 432 health workers have received mobile phones. Health workers register pregnant women in their village via free SMS text messages and send regular updates to a central server in the capital, Kigali. They are monitored during the pregnancy, and those at high risk brought in for check-ups.
Rwanda, Africa’s most densely populated nation, is ranked among the world’s worst for maternal mortality, according to U.N. data, and it is an important target for the global body’s goal to reduce maternal deaths by 75 percent globally by 2015. John Kalach, director of the nearest hospital in Ruhengeri, says since Rapid SMS launched in August 2009, his hospital has had no maternal deaths, compared to 10 the previous year.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/05/28/world/international-uk-rwanda-health.html (via)
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Jason
Arthur Goldstuck at the NetProphet conference in Cape Town:
A study of 1700 South African youth: 20% of township kids were advanced in the use of PCs, 85% for private schools
44% of township kids are advanced Google users: a doorway to digital literacy.
50% of SA township kids browse the web on their phone compared to 90% of their private school counterparts
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Jason
Kayak.com Cofounder Paul English Plans to Blanket Africa in Free Wireless Internet
English plans to kick off the nonprofit/for-profit hybrid this summer and begin creating partnerships between JoinAfrica and local African for-profit telcos. JoinAfrica would first branch out existing Web connections in villages using, for example, simple WiMAC hubs. Through these hubs, JoinAfrica would provide residents with free basic Web service, including access to email, Google, Wikipedia, and various news sources. Downloads of data-rich video, porn, or other non-essential sites would be limited (similar to what libraries in the U.S. do now), via a process called “bandwidth shaping.” Local for-profits would charge for upgraded access and faster connection speeds, and English is also searching for ways to make sure these local companies continuously improve the service and lay more fiber.
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Jason
Wondering what programming languages are popular in Africa?
http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/11/26/the-popularity-of-programming-languages-in-africa-2009/ (via Rob)
