IBM Jams looking for ideas to use IT to bootstrap the african economy. and they put real money behind it. i suspect IBM will soon be an essentially an emerging markets company with their move to such large scale outsourcing. no wonder they fund things like this.
2007-05-28:

the terrain of the technology game in Africa has changed. As personal computers have continued their spread, there has been more use of software and there is now a market for such services – cash registers, payroll systems, inventory control and so forth – the guts of modern business infrastructure. The major change has been the ascendancy of networks – the internet, with its great popularizer, the web, and, of late, mobile telephony. This has lead to more interest in collaboration as distribution and coordination costs have been dramatically reduced. Also the costs of starting up internet-related business have vastly decreased and we have experience dealing with Moore’s law in the network-enabled datacenter. You can even lease internet infrastructure if need be.

The Masai example however should give an idea of the challenges. Structurally, many businesses are undercapitalized and on the surface, disorganized. There are lots of good ideas, and indeed there is much entrepreneurship but when you come into the continent and partner up, you should know that your partners may not have the single-minded focus that you have. They are juggling constraints you can’t imagine and have adapted their strategies and behavior. Also keep in mind that sustaining investment will be like keeping up a good conversation – if you don’t pay attention to your interlocutors, they, and Africa itself, will remain opaque. Nigeria is a case in point, its brand of capitalism is a cauldron of creative destruction. But if you can master it, well… they don’t call it black gold for nothing.

insightful and fun to read analysis

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