Can Africa take control of its digital future?
About this episode
The episode discusses Africa's challenges and opportunities in taking control of its digital future amidst foreign investments and socio-economic hurdles.
Just under 20 years ago Kenya pioneered the use of mobile money. Since then, other countries in Africa have carved out a share of the digital market for themselves, from gaming in Morocco to artificial intelligence in Tunisia. But the picture is not the same across the whole continent. A lot of governments face too many socio-economic challenges and limited resources to spend money on digital infrastructures. Instead, foreign countries like the United States and China are investing in the African tech market. The bulk of South Africa’s data centre investment comes from American providers of cloud, networking and storage services. And while this may provide a boost for local economies and create local jobs, it also creates some risks, as data resides outside of the country. There are efforts at the continent, national and regional levels to reposition the continent from being a consumer to a creator in the digital marketplace, but there are concerns that there isn’t enough joined up thinking to allow Africa to take control of its digital future? (Photo: A robotic waiter stands on standby at Robot Café in Nairobi, Kenya, the country's first restaurant to employ humanoid robots as…
People in this episode
Guest: Mark Kaigwa
Topics covered
- digital future
- mobile money
- African tech market
- socio-economic challenges
- data infrastructure
- foreign investment
Keywords
- Africa
- digital market
- mobile money
- investment
- data centers
- technology
- AI
- socio-economic challenges
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: BBC World Service
Places: Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, United States, China
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