A collection of views from key African mobility players. Where mobility will be in 2020 Africa
Mobile Trends 2020 Africa
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Mobility In Africa – Mobile Trends 2020. The Experts Predict And How That Will Affect You
Clusters of Nano-Conflicts: Security Implications of Disruption of Africa’s Commodity Market by Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology, the science of minuscule molecule, is advancing with potentials that can radically alter the structures of modern commerce, industry and culture. It promises to disrupt global markets and transform industries through low cost, high efficiency and large capacity tools, processes and products. A transformative technology with ability to evolve a new industrial revolution offers many national opportunities and threats. Nations with capabilities to create or adopt and consequently diffuse the technology applications will amass wealth. These are innovators with knowledge-driven economies.
Other nations, usually poor, lack inventive abilities with economies anchored on minerals extraction and agriculture. With lack of knowledge creative skills, they derive most of their export earnings from commodities, undifferentiated and widely price-based traded raw materials and agricultural products. Ninety-five of the 141 developing countries derive at least 50 percent of their export earnings from commodities. In most sub-Sahara African nations, non-fuel commodities account for more than 65% of their foreign earnings. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that a third of global population, about two billion people, is employed in commodity production.
For most commodity-dependent countries, scientific innovation and adoption capabilities are lacking. In other words, the poor state of their science and technology skills may hinder them to utilize the advancements from nanotechnology to improve production efficiency, offer higher valued products, engineer processes that require modest labor, capital, energy, land and materials. Having consistently failed in effectively adopting new technologies, from steam engines to microelectronics, with perennial low scores on major development, technology and innovation indices, nanotechnology adoption will not be any easier for developing economies.
If nothing else, the quantum mechanical nanotechnology will be more difficult to acquire than many that came before it that depended mainly on the classical Newtonian physics with far lesser skills and infrastructure requirements. Potential success in the downstream sector of nanotechnology, marketing and distribution, cannot come without skilled manpower that understand the technology and can contribute at the creative upstream stage. At least in the short-term, many least developed nations may not take potential technological benefits of nanotechnology to advance commodities and differentiate them in international market.
Notwithstanding the problems in the developing nations, advanced economies will continue to pursue innovation on nanotechnology. There are possibilities that new nanomaterials will become good alternatives for many existing commodities (eg, rubber, copper, cotton, platinum, etc) and incrementally, the commodity markets and industries could be disrupted, or even demised. The implication is massive trade and unemployment dislocations that could pose serious security implications in commodity-dependent nations.
If nanotechnology delivers efficient means of making affordable, durable and quality energy sources like batteries, nations that depend on export of fuel commodities like crude oil will suffer devastating economic impacts. A nation like Nigeria that earns more than 85% of its foreign earnings from crude oil could see riots and banditries across its cities from displaced workers.
As nanotechnology disrupts the global market structures and displaces commodities, sub-Saharan Africa could witness major crises fueled by job losses and reduced incomes. Lack of capability to transition to new industries or markets will make these crises prolonged with effects that will affect their political and economic stability. The world will potentially see clusters of nano-conflicts across African cities and villages when mining and extraction offer little economic values unless Africa develops a knowledge strategy and transforms itself to a knowledge-power.
Author/Ndubuisi Ekekwe
recipient of a ‘book of the year award’ for writing a nanotech book
Mobile Payment – The Opportunity is Huge in Nigeria. What You Need To Know
It is getting very exciting – mobile payment will be huge in Nigeria. We got this piece from Nairaland.
Mobile Payment is a phone-only financial service without formal banking accounts. All banking activities starting from money savings, payments for goods and services, access to cash, etc can be carried out on mobile devices, 24/7. Subscribers of the service can perform wide range of financial transactions using thier mobile phones. Transactions such as:Save Money / Load money on your mobile money account; Move money from bank account to your Mobile money account; Send Money / Transfer to any person; Send Money from Mobile phone account to bank A/C; Withdraw from agents/Cash-out; Withdraw from ATMs/Cash-Out; Request Money: “Send-Me-Money”; Check Balance and statement summary; Change PIN; Buy Airtime (phone recharge) for self or others; Pay utility bills e.g. Electricity, DSTV, rent etc; Pay for goods in stores.;Pay salaries, etc.
CBN and NCC are working out the guideline to introduce this innovative service to Nigerians. Operators are waiting for thier licence to commence operation. It is expected that this will revolutionalise the way we carry out financial transactions in this country. It’s already proving a huge success in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, SouthAfrica, Ghana. The main purpose of this service is to provide access to financial services to the un-banked (financial inclusion). Once you have a mobile phone, you can carry out financial service without neccessary having a bank account. This means that the less priviledged can as well operate bank account with their phone!!!
Their will be business oppurtunities for entreprenuers, job seekers business men and women. Mobile payment operators will need agents who will earn commission for partnering with them in providing this service to the Nigerian population. The agent roles will include the following: To Educate customers about mobile payment ; Enroll customers to use the service; Be an cash point for withdrawal or deposits for customers, and sell scratch cards loaded with e-money.
Bookneto – A Nigerian Startup? What Does It Do – A Tool To Learn?
We have wanted to bring Bookneto to you, but have struggled to know what they do and the impacts. This is what they have on their About page
We built Bookneto so that students, like ourselves, can drive their own learning by interacting with peers from all over the world who share the same courseware. With Bookneto, college students who are often limited to their Professor’s understanding of the material covered in their classes can now expand the breadth of their knowledge and perspective by interacting with their peers from different schools, all over the world. Our vision is to contribute significantly to the global effort to fix education by letting students help each other drive their own learning.
Yet, the mission is still a bit opaque. But good enough, they asked the same question on their blog.
Hi Everyone,
It has been such a long time since we last wrote anything here. As you can probably tell, we have been a hell of a lot of busy these days building the world’s best study tool for you.
Now, this post is to more specifically introduce you to Bookneto and show you a little bit about what we do and why it is important for the future of Education.
The truth is, when we started Bookneto, we did not know what it would do. All we knew was that we wanted it to solve some or all of the big issues students currently have with learning online especially as far as digitally accessible academic material is concerned. So we started building and brainstorming, asking questions and trying to determine, what are the most pressing problems for students and educators alike that we can solve with 3 months of development work and some of the smartest and best talent the University of Waterloo has to offer?
What resulted (and is still a work in progress) was Bookneto, the world’s best study tool.
What does Bookneto do?
People say this is a Nigerian startup. Can someone provide evidence. The About page has nothing Nigerian and there is no physical address.
The Name Kobo Trademarked for Canadian e-reader
It was a kind of a surprise. We were in Yahoo email when we saw an e-reader with the name Kobo – and the interesting aspect is that it is named Kobo. And that Kobo is trademarked. Is Kobo not the Nigerian lower currency? Does it mean that this product cannot move in Nigeria where we are sure all of us will violate the trademark since we use Kobo every day.
The Kobo eReader is an e-book reader produced by Toronto, Canada, based Kobo Inc. The original version was released in July 2010 and was marketed as a minimalistic alternative to the more expensive e-book readers available at the time. As of March 2010, fifty-eight percent of Kobo Inc is owned by Indigo Books & Music.Like most e-book readers the Kobo uses an electronic ink screen. (wikipedia)