A nearly cashless Zimbabwe tests the limits of mobile money
Currency depends on trust and confidence. Years of economic crises in Zimbabwe have left all three in short supply, spurring a boom in “mobile money” [read more…]
Technology
Cancer Scientists Have Ignored African DNA in the Search for Cures
Charles Rotimi first realized the future was passing him by around 2005. The Human Genome Project had recently finished spelling out an entire set of [read more…]
Ugandan wins Africa prize for bloodless malaria test
A Ugandan inventor has won a major prize for a device which tests for malaria without drawing blood. Brian Gitta, 24, won the Royal Academy [read more…]
Should Africa let Silicon Valley in?
African countries should be nervous about the big technology companies sweeping through their economies, knocking out established businesses and crushing startups before they have had [read more…]
School in Ghana where teacher taught computer tech on a blackboard receives computers
With just a blackboard and a talent for drawing, a Ghanaian teacher has explained in detail to his students the secrets of Microsoft Word, earning [read more…]
Why Kenya’s push for nuclear power rests on false or fanciful premises
Kenya wants to go nuclear. Since 2012, Nairobi has been talking the talk and walking the walk. It has engaged the International Atomic Energy Agency [read more…]
Africa’s First Digital Free Trade Area for Rollout in 2018
Businesses within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) could save up to $450 million in clearance documentation once the bloc adopts blockchain [read more…]
How investing in solar energy can create a brighter future for Africa
A new scheme aims to lighten the lives of millions who live without electricity, with the promise of a possible 6% return Now would you [read more…]
A city in Niger worries a new U.S. drone base will make it a ‘magnet’ for terrorists
AGADEZ, Niger — Beyond the sign reading “Military Zone,” beyond the olive-green Humvees patrolling near a security tower, rows of tan tents stretch across the [read more…]
How Africa’s Tech Generation Is Changing the Continent
One day in 2004, in the Kenyan farming village of Engineer—so named because an Englishman once ran a mechanical repair shop there—a slight and nearsighted [read more…]