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The Rise Of Silicon Savannah And Africa’s Tech Movement
Nascent as it may be, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) does have a promising tech sector — a growing patchwork of entrepreneurs, startups, and innovation centers coalescing country to country. *
Kenya is now a recognized IT hub. Facebook recently expanded on the continent. And Silicon Valley VC is funneling into ventures from South Africa to Nigeria.
These pieces are coming together as Africa’s budding tech culture and ecosystem emerge.
The Rise of Silicon Savannah
Most discussions of the origins of Africa’s tech movement circle back to Kenya. From 2007 through 2010 a combination of circumstance, coincidence, and visionary individuals laid down four markers inspiring the country’s Silicon Savannah moniker:
Within two years M-PESA was winning international tech awards after gaining nearly six million customers and transferring billions annually. The mobile money service shaped the continent’s most recognized example of technological leapfrogging: launching ordinary Africans without bank accounts right over traditional brick-and-mortar finance into the digital economy.
Shortly after M-PESA’s arrival, political events in Kenya would inspire creation of one of Africa’s first globally recognized apps, Ushahidi. In late 2007, four technologists — Erik Hersman (an American who grew up in Kenya), activist Ory Okolloh, IT blogger Juliana Rotich, and programmer David Kobia—linked up to see what could be done to quell sporadic violence as a results of an inconclusive presidential election.
Notable as it has become, Silicon Savannah is but one corner of Africa’s tech movement.
Over a three-day period the techies came up with the Ushahidi app (meaning “witness” in Swahili) to digitally, rapidly, and publicly track outbreaks of violence during Kenya’s election crisis.
The Ushahidi software that evolved became a highly effective tool for digitally mapping demographic events. As Kenya shifted back to stability, requests came in from around the globe to adapt Ushahidi for other purposes. By the end of 2008, the app had become Ushahidi the international tech company, which now has multiple applications in more than 20 countries.
Soon thereafter Erik Hersman would flesh out the ideas that spurred Africa’s innovation hub movement. He wrote in a blogpost to other techies, that what African tech needed was “permanent community spaces. Hubs…in major cities with a focus on young entrepreneurs. . . . Part open community workspace (co-working), part investor and VC hub and part idea incubator. The nexus point for technologists, investors, [and] tech companies.”
These exchanges hatched the iHub innovation center on Nairobi’s now African IT–synonymous Ngong Road. Since 2010 152 companies have formed out of iHub. It has 15,000 members and on any day, numerous young Kenyans work in its labs and interact with global technologists such as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (a past speaker). iHub gave rise to Africa’s innovation center movement, inspiring the upsurge in tech hubs across the continent.
Rounding off Silicon Savannah hallmarks M-PESA, iHub, and Ushahidi was the completion of the TEAMs undersea fiber optic cable, which arrived in Mombasa in 2010, and significantly increased broadband in East Africa.
The project was largely the vision of Kenya’s then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications, Bitange Ndemo, who saw benefits in “developing Kenya’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure toward the country becoming a regional ICT hub.” An ICT master plan he shaped in 2006 would eventually became the template for the Kenyan government’s strong commitment to ICT policy. By 2013 Kenya formed its own fully staffed ICT Authority.
Nascent as it may be, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) does have a promising tech sector — a growing patchwork of entrepreneurs, startups, and innovation centers coalescing country to country. *
Kenya is now a recognized IT hub. Facebook recently expanded on the continent. And Silicon Valley VC is funneling into ventures from South Africa to Nigeria.
These pieces are coming together as Africa’s budding tech culture and ecosystem emerge.
The Rise of Silicon Savannah
Most discussions of the origins of Africa’s tech movement circle back to Kenya. From 2007 through 2010 a combination of circumstance, coincidence, and visionary individuals laid down four markers inspiring the country’s Silicon Savannah moniker:
- Mobile money,
- A global crowdsourcing app,
- Africa’s tech incubator model; and
- A genuine government commitment to ICT policy.
Within two years M-PESA was winning international tech awards after gaining nearly six million customers and transferring billions annually. The mobile money service shaped the continent’s most recognized example of technological leapfrogging: launching ordinary Africans without bank accounts right over traditional brick-and-mortar finance into the digital economy.
Shortly after M-PESA’s arrival, political events in Kenya would inspire creation of one of Africa’s first globally recognized apps, Ushahidi. In late 2007, four technologists — Erik Hersman (an American who grew up in Kenya), activist Ory Okolloh, IT blogger Juliana Rotich, and programmer David Kobia—linked up to see what could be done to quell sporadic violence as a results of an inconclusive presidential election.
Notable as it has become, Silicon Savannah is but one corner of Africa’s tech movement.
Over a three-day period the techies came up with the Ushahidi app (meaning “witness” in Swahili) to digitally, rapidly, and publicly track outbreaks of violence during Kenya’s election crisis.
The Ushahidi software that evolved became a highly effective tool for digitally mapping demographic events. As Kenya shifted back to stability, requests came in from around the globe to adapt Ushahidi for other purposes. By the end of 2008, the app had become Ushahidi the international tech company, which now has multiple applications in more than 20 countries.
Soon thereafter Erik Hersman would flesh out the ideas that spurred Africa’s innovation hub movement. He wrote in a blogpost to other techies, that what African tech needed was “permanent community spaces. Hubs…in major cities with a focus on young entrepreneurs. . . . Part open community workspace (co-working), part investor and VC hub and part idea incubator. The nexus point for technologists, investors, [and] tech companies.”
These exchanges hatched the iHub innovation center on Nairobi’s now African IT–synonymous Ngong Road. Since 2010 152 companies have formed out of iHub. It has 15,000 members and on any day, numerous young Kenyans work in its labs and interact with global technologists such as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (a past speaker). iHub gave rise to Africa’s innovation center movement, inspiring the upsurge in tech hubs across the continent.
Rounding off Silicon Savannah hallmarks M-PESA, iHub, and Ushahidi was the completion of the TEAMs undersea fiber optic cable, which arrived in Mombasa in 2010, and significantly increased broadband in East Africa.
The project was largely the vision of Kenya’s then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications, Bitange Ndemo, who saw benefits in “developing Kenya’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure toward the country becoming a regional ICT hub.” An ICT master plan he shaped in 2006 would eventually became the template for the Kenyan government’s strong commitment to ICT policy. By 2013 Kenya formed its own fully staffed ICT Authority.
