Innovative Africa: The new face of Africa

Technology and Innovation are playing a big part in shaping Africa’s future and will continue to do so. This collection of essays on the ‘New face of Africa’ posits an African continent where technology, innovation and entrepreneurship create new opportunities for even further growth on the continent. The uptake and growth of mobile telephony on the continent, for instance, has been indicative of this. The continent has been a leader in innovations such as mobile money with innovation hubs springing up across the continent facilitating a generation of young tech entrepreneurs. Governments are also making significant investments in ICT development, but much more can and should be done. We look at a wide array of issues that affect the creation, growth and sustainability of startup and innovation ecosystems around the continent. The book does not seek to address issues at the level of a specific country or locality, but instead looks at things from a broad and high level, with the intention of highlighting issues that are pertinent across borders and cultures. Indeed, some aspects may apply more within some country or culture than others (“Africa is not a country”). The book is divided into two parts: The first, “Investigating Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Africa”, takes a look at the current state of things and makes observations of what progress has been made, existing challenges and opportunities as well as providing specific recommendations that startups, investors and government can use to further technology innovation and entrepreneurship on the continent. The second part “In Search of a Model for Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems that fits the African Context” takes a close up view of three innovative economies: Silicon Valley, China and Israel, from which we try to glean a few lessons about startup ecosystems that could be applied within the African context in order to come up with a (perhaps hybrid) model that works best for the continent and specific nations within the continent.