Africa Should Look To India For Digital Inspiration (ft.com) 25
Aubrey Hruby, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Africa Center, writing at Financial Times: Africa's digital economy is still small in size compared with those of its global peers. But it has seen exponential growth over the past decade and now has the potential to redefine the continent's economies. [...] African governments and development finance institutions (DFIs) should look to India as a model and focus on critical infrastructure needs. This includes reducing the cost of data and increasing access to fixed line broadband, spurring corporate ventures in the tech ecosystem, and providing Africans with the skills they need to take part in this digital transformation. The lack of adequate access to the internet in most African countries boils down to the fact that mobile data is too expensive and fixed line broadband is too slow and not widely available. It costs Africans on average $7.04 or nearly 9 per cent of their monthly income for just 1GB of mobile data (enough to watch about three hours of low quality video on Netflix). That compares with just 3.5 per cent of monthly income in Latin American and 1.5 per cent in Asia.
There has been progress in some countries. In Nigeria, mobile data prices continue to drop following a decision by the Communications Commission in October 2015 to remove a floor on data prices, and increased competition among submarine cable companies. In India, competition among carriers played a critical role in lowering mobile data costs, which are now the cheapest in the world. Reliance Jo, a young telecom operator, is highly responsible for the shift, investing $35bn in a 4G network and offering free unlimited data trials to attract new customers. While some have criticised the company's practices and data prices may increase, the impact of private sector investment and competition has benefited average Indians. African governments should further liberalise their telecoms sectors and encourage competition to promote private investment in infrastructure that can be shared by providers. Regulators should track the cost of data as a measure of the healthiness of the industry.
There has been progress in some countries. In Nigeria, mobile data prices continue to drop following a decision by the Communications Commission in October 2015 to remove a floor on data prices, and increased competition among submarine cable companies. In India, competition among carriers played a critical role in lowering mobile data costs, which are now the cheapest in the world. Reliance Jo, a young telecom operator, is highly responsible for the shift, investing $35bn in a 4G network and offering free unlimited data trials to attract new customers. While some have criticised the company's practices and data prices may increase, the impact of private sector investment and competition has benefited average Indians. African governments should further liberalise their telecoms sectors and encourage competition to promote private investment in infrastructure that can be shared by providers. Regulators should track the cost of data as a measure of the healthiness of the industry.
Ahhhhh yes. (Score:3, Insightful)
More seriously... I had success (Score:2)
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I outsourced a project to Tunisia - quite successfully.
North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa are two different worlds.
lmftfy (Score:2, Insightful)
"The lack of adequate access to the internet in most African countries boils down to the fact that..."
Their governments are corrupt and spend more time begging the world for money, handouts, free things, and occasionally destroying their economies in attempts to get rid of evil white people than say... doing their jobs and trying to make their countries a better place to live, become more self sufficient and viable.
But hey... lets not blame the real source of the problem though... that's just not in vogue t
Re:lmftfy (Score:5, Insightful)
Another problem is that the western world keeps dumping so much "free" stuff on some of these countries that it kills local industries that would otherwise try to produce those products. I think one of the best charities I've seen donated goats instead of shoes, clothes, etc. The goat could produce milk (source of protein that many people in this countries lack) and excess could be sold for additional income. If the west wanted to help Africa, we should spend $20 buying shoes from them instead of dumping our excess on them.
All that aside, even as bleak as things look, they're improving over time. Maybe not as fast as anyone would like them to be, but anyone expecting all of the world's problems to be sorted out shortly before lunchtime aren't being terribly realistic either.
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Another problem is that the western world keeps dumping so much "free" stuff on some of these countries that it kills local industries that would otherwise try to produce those products. I think one of the best charities I've seen donated goats instead of shoes, clothes, etc. The goat could produce milk (source of protein that many people in this countries lack) and excess could be sold for additional income. If the west wanted to help Africa, we should spend $20 buying shoes from them instead of dumping our excess on them.
If we wanted to help Africa we should start buying processed goods from Africa. Right now the EU has no tolls on unroasted coffee beans from Africa, but it has tolls on roasted coffee beans. That kind of stuff, coupled with constant destroying of African economy with free stuff has to come to an end.
Leapfrog Tech (Score:2)
As IEEE points out in this article:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/robo... [ieee.org]
Africa is in an interesting position. Without the inertia of legacy systems in place to slow adoption the continent is in the unique position to "leapfrog" an entire generation of technology.
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By 2022, forecasters estimate that sub-Saharan Africa will have nearly 1 billion mobile phones—enough for the vast majority of the projected 1.2 billion people who will live there. What it won’t have are the endless streams o
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Africa is special, you get called African even if you were never born or raised there, but you can be a North American if you were born and raised there.
Kinda like how African Americans exist but there is no such thing as American Africans.
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Africa is special, you get called African even if you were never born or raised there,
So exactly like "European" or "Indian" or "Chinese" then? Not really special.
Kinda like how African Americans exist but there is no such thing as American Africans.
I cannot defend American PC speech in general, but "American" is used as a nationality and never the native race of the Americas, so that would not be equivalent. But there are millions of European Africans, otherwise known as white Africans. And Indian Africans.
I wonder if Arab North Africans (Caucasian) get as annoyed about "African" meaning black, as Canadians and Latin Americans do about "American" being hijacked by the US
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farm out work to $0.30/hr coders in africa as indi (Score:2)
farm out work to $0.30/hr coders in Africa as India costs to much now.
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The difference being any sort of computer center set up as a coder farm in Africa will be immediately broken into and all the computers stolen within 2 weeks of startup.
If they even got that far. To run a computer center you need reliable power, which requires power lines. Power lines are frequently stolen [telegraph.co.uk] in Africa, even in South Africa, which has been one of the stabler states on the continent. This is also why all this talk of fixed line broadband is foolish. Fixed line broadband gets stolen in a matter of hours since the thieves don't even have to deal with high voltages.
There are fundamental cultural differences. Africans love to blame the white man and "colonialism" for their woes, but reality is they're all lazy bastards and murdering thieves.
This is why you get called racist. They're not all lazy bastards and murdering thieves. Not e
This will probably happen naturally... (Score:2)
As the quality of life continues to improve in places like India, outsourcing companies are going to run into problems finding call center employees who are willing to work 12 hour shifts for the US equivalent of $10 a day.
Because of this, that type of work will eventually migrate to the poorer African companies over time. Where the call centers spring up, upgraded telecom infrastructure follows.
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Geographically it is a difficult area to maintain large cities with robust enconomies, with the exception of it more northern and southern points.
That said Technology with a significant infrastructure push could be a real game changer to the areas. However if they are willing to play the long game, undercutting India prices may not be a good long term strategy, but offering better serv
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As the quality of life continues to improve in places like India
The news says it isn't even safe to breath in India, but most of the people are too poor to escape.
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places like India, outsourcing companies ... will eventually migrate to the poorer African companies over time.
You might want to consider why the British colonists often gave up trying to use local labour in Africa, and brought in Indian labourers and administrators.
Similarly, the Chinese have not had great success with building factories in Africa, and for infrastructure projects have had to bring in their own labourers.
On infrastructure projects, you'll see locals standing around (quota fillers?), while imported workers do most of the work. Same as in Saudi.
Africa is not Asia.
Percentage? (Score:1)
African Nations Need to Establish Civilization 1st (Score:1)
Before tinkering with digital devices, maybe those nations should first focus on clean water, ample electricity, sustainable farming, infrastruct
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Much of Africa helplessly subsists off handouts of money, food, and medical aid provided by Western countries.
That is starting to change. More and more, they are taking Chinese help.