
Jeff Gasana, chief technical officer at comza Rwanda, said: “I think that Africa still has a long way to go in the mobile innovation field due to different problems the continent faces [such as] poverty [and] wars. “But it still can play a leading role with time.”
African innovations gives hope
Gasana, also chief executive officer at SMS Media, believes the “different African innovations” gives hope for the path it will pave for the mobile world to follow. “Africa will play a leading role in [the] mobile innovation field by beginning, for some countries, or continuing to put its strength and money in the education, the research and promotion of young entrepreneurs who are working in the field,” he said.
First African tablet and smartphone
Success stories such as the design of the first African tablet and smartphone by Congolese Verone Mankou, founder and chief executive of startup VMK, who Gasana praised as a pioneer example.
The likes of iHub, the young entrepreneur-focused tech community facility in Kenya, and the Rwandan-based kLab, provide opportunities for mobile applications and software while supplying spaces of innovation to Africans, Gasana said.
According to BizCommunity, 90 per cent of the East African population owned a mobile phone at the beginning of 2013, signifying an 87 per cent increase since 1999.
Furthermore 96 per cent of mobile phone users use handsets for financial transactions.