Monday, July 04, 2011

Africa - Report on the role of MXIT in development of the information society

[guardian] The mobile phone will have a dramatic impact on development in Africa over the next five years, declared Rakesh Rajani of Twaweza at the Activate conference this week on technology and social change in London. The technology industry has a track record of hype, but Rajani's comments sound plausible given the huge number of pilot projects for mobiles in Africa in all areas of development. A race is on to find what mobiles can do in areas as disparate as public health, governance and education.

The effort pouring into mobile phones in Africa is largely driven by the realisation that it is likely to be the only connection to the internet for the vast majority of Africans for many years to come, argued Herman Heunis, the founder and chief executive of South Africa based MXit.

Activate 2011: Mobiles look set to play a big role in Africa's development

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