The Last Infotech Frontier

Last month Daniel Berninge posted some comments on GigaOM about his recent trip through Ghana…

A recent two-week visit to Ghana, Africa, offered up scenes that seemed frozen in time. Most of the buildings and infrastructure date back to the 1950s, before seven military coups over a period of 30 years made investment impossible. Open sewers remain the norm, modern paved roads, the exception. The use of English as the official language traces back to the colonial period, but an intricate system of village chiefs controlling local government and ownership of land had its genesis in the period before the arrival of European powers circa 1500. Yet Ghana, like a number of other countries in Africa, has one of the highest mobile phone growth rates on Earth.

The success of mobile phone companies in the country — Ghanaians have access to essentially the same devices, features and pricing as people in Europe or the U.S. — illustrates the opportunity a stable Africa presents for the larger infotech and communication industries. After all, the roughly 840 million people distributed across the continent’s 53 countries represent some 12 percent of the world’s population, and its cash economy leaves it relatively untouched by the credit market turmoil in the developed world. Moreover, Africa’s successful transition to a knowledge economy could make it a sustainable economic engine for the entire planet.