How not to be in darkness in the alleged 'dark' continent, Africa should have been the caption of my commentary but I digressed as you will uncover. While visiting Africa three years ago I managed to have access to the Internet in a remote village without electricity and internet providers. How did I do it? I would sent my computer via a bike rider what you call in London escort rider with it to be charged in the town and pay Orange, a fiduciary company for a special USB that enabled me to capture signals in the bush. I had to send the computer every other day to get it charged in a nearby town before I could browse what you guys were writing in the USA or Europe and around the English-speaking world. I can tell you that I yearned for a solar computer as my solar Casio maths calculator that I have been using for donkey years without any hassles.
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| The lions and lionesses of Africa want your IT industries and many more before it is too late |
How many of them could even afford laptops, tablets things that are mandatory in all households in Malaysia a country that started with most African countries when they had their political independence? In most European states computing is part of the curriculum and it is introduced at kindergartens. The good news is that Smart Phones are gaining popularity in Africa at an amazing rate and permeating all villages with the availability of microwave systems. The question is how many are making good use of them to learn new technologies? They mostly engage in chatting and texting, then that is still good as information is exchanged faster and cheaper unlike in the days of analogue letter writing or where people had to catch bush taxis to visit friends or business partners so as to carryout transactions or exchange information. With smart phones they gain time and accelerate businesses.
How could they benefit from the projects mentioned in the article appended below? A nice one though with a weighty message that Africa has got IT talents and it is the dream of all and sundry to be versed in information technology (IT) and perhaps to outdistance the leading countries in the distant or near future. Could they have or be given a chance as in other continents?
How could they benefit from the projects mentioned in the article appended below? A nice one though with a weighty message that Africa has got IT talents and it is the dream of all and sundry to be versed in information technology (IT) and perhaps to outdistance the leading countries in the distant or near future. Could they have or be given a chance as in other continents?
In Ghana and Nigeria that I know, an educated person looks out of place if he or she does not operate upon a computer. Many are dabbling in programming, some doing great jobs of it and others frantically repair them along swarming avenues and alley ways. Surprisingly many working on computers are graduates from top universities and colleges in ICT and are literately waiting for opportunities being offered by Americans to other graduates in the sub continent of India and many states in S.E. Asia. Taking samples from these two African countries alone, I see burgeoning untapped workers all over Africa in this field. Then, could they set up their silicon valleys and woo investors and buyers as the Americans? Now American investors in the electronic industries stream to India, S.E. Asia and Africa is being neglected. Why?
Africans are not wanting in IT programming and others as seen from a distant. They are sidelined by North Americans who even have avenues for Indians to come and work as temporary workers in America and Canada but do not taken in young dynamic African graduates even to work from their homes at a dollar an hour, a pay they would be so grateful to have. The situations in a good number of African states are better than those in the Philippines where some American IT firms operate from. The question is why none in the electronic industry operate from Africa. It is still the darkness of Henry Stanley looming over Africa that makes Americans not to see the bright sites of Africa? This attitude in this field keeps Africa 'darker'still and its problems are being banked for the future American and European generations. No one likes economic migrants of the type that drawn in the Mediterranean Sea year in year out attempting to cross to Europe in search for better economic climes. Should it be so?
What are others doing that exposed Africans cannot do even better given opportunities? Should we attribute their being sidelined to racism or to some unreliable African governments that are chasing away foreign investors with their outlandish policies? Superficially, I would say no. True business ventures out to make profits, know no colors but looks for hardworking and perfect workers. Electronic industries cannot be restricted in one domain by artificial barriers. That is why your inquiries anywhere in North America on IT are answered by some persons in China, India or other SE Asian nation states. They speak with strange accents, yet perform the required tasks and earn cash for living. They do not therefore have the inclination to come en mass to settle in North America and Europe. Then why are Africans not included even in those regions where electricity supply is guaranteed and there is peace?
Africans are not wanting in IT programming and others as seen from a distant. They are sidelined by North Americans who even have avenues for Indians to come and work as temporary workers in America and Canada but do not taken in young dynamic African graduates even to work from their homes at a dollar an hour, a pay they would be so grateful to have. The situations in a good number of African states are better than those in the Philippines where some American IT firms operate from. The question is why none in the electronic industry operate from Africa. It is still the darkness of Henry Stanley looming over Africa that makes Americans not to see the bright sites of Africa? This attitude in this field keeps Africa 'darker'still and its problems are being banked for the future American and European generations. No one likes economic migrants of the type that drawn in the Mediterranean Sea year in year out attempting to cross to Europe in search for better economic climes. Should it be so?
What are others doing that exposed Africans cannot do even better given opportunities? Should we attribute their being sidelined to racism or to some unreliable African governments that are chasing away foreign investors with their outlandish policies? Superficially, I would say no. True business ventures out to make profits, know no colors but looks for hardworking and perfect workers. Electronic industries cannot be restricted in one domain by artificial barriers. That is why your inquiries anywhere in North America on IT are answered by some persons in China, India or other SE Asian nation states. They speak with strange accents, yet perform the required tasks and earn cash for living. They do not therefore have the inclination to come en mass to settle in North America and Europe. Then why are Africans not included even in those regions where electricity supply is guaranteed and there is peace?
The brewery, telecom, logging, petroleum, agriculture and mining industries are the best kept secrets among foreign investors in Africa. Even where there are wars or other interminable skirmishes there are North American investors there in full force battling for space with the new comers, the Chinese who do not care a damn about the nature of African governments (democratic or dictatorship) they are dealing with and are ever well protected. If IT is lagging behind then, why do we have the above-named industries? They yield interests a thousand-fold. Also, Africans are still lagging behind in certain technologies and managerial skills to make use of their natural resources and export finished products. In consequence, prices of their raw materials are rock bottom cheaper than elsewhere in the world.
Furthermore, when it comes to drinking, some Africans rather die than to belay drinking beer and whiskeys daily. They celebrate every blessed minute and alcoholic beverages are part and parcel of those celebrations. For example, the Heineken Company has got one of the most sophisticated breweries in the world in Nigeria, Africa and not in North America or Europe. The French Beaufort brewery had been in Africa since 1948 and had been growing from strength to strength. It is because there is a huge market that is expanding exponentially. These breweries have some of the most sophisticated distribution net works that rival FED-EX or the postal services in Great Britain, USA and Europe. There are no physical or artificial barriers to halt them from timely delivery of their coveted goods. If other industries were to be like them, capable of penetrating all known hamlets, villages, towns domiciled by man irrespective of appalling road conditions, law enforcement officers stopping vehicles at every hairpin bend for bribes and others, Africa would rival Europe in the next thirty years in its industrial development. Could they and why are there huddles?
Furthermore, when it comes to drinking, some Africans rather die than to belay drinking beer and whiskeys daily. They celebrate every blessed minute and alcoholic beverages are part and parcel of those celebrations. For example, the Heineken Company has got one of the most sophisticated breweries in the world in Nigeria, Africa and not in North America or Europe. The French Beaufort brewery had been in Africa since 1948 and had been growing from strength to strength. It is because there is a huge market that is expanding exponentially. These breweries have some of the most sophisticated distribution net works that rival FED-EX or the postal services in Great Britain, USA and Europe. There are no physical or artificial barriers to halt them from timely delivery of their coveted goods. If other industries were to be like them, capable of penetrating all known hamlets, villages, towns domiciled by man irrespective of appalling road conditions, law enforcement officers stopping vehicles at every hairpin bend for bribes and others, Africa would rival Europe in the next thirty years in its industrial development. Could they and why are there huddles?
As mentioned, North Americans focus on tapping human resources particularly in electronic industry from SE Asia and Latin America. Is that their interpretation of globalization? Then it is one-sided. One day these providers would flex their muscles after mastering the technologies (as the Japanese once did to the Europeans) that are being given to the China and others by the West for free. Perhaps, these foreign investors might think of the unemployed or under-employed human resources that is languishing in Africa. Would they? They better be fast as the next wave of investors, the Chinese, Indians and Japanese are not trumpeting to the world their love for African investments. They are doing it quietly, slowly but surely. Then where are the men from Rus? Some of these are coming to stay for good and will be natives and Europeans and North Americans of today endeavoring to put their feet in Africa will be aliens to them. The question is for how long will it take for the modern Westerners to invest massively in Africa, the last continent yet to be developed willy-nilly? Also, what should be the role of African leaders?
African governments got to motivate foreign investors by developing their infra structures, power resources, roads, housing, health facilities, managerial skills, water, good governance, stamp out bottlenecks, rampant corruption and many more to meet modern Western standards. If others are doing it in SE Asia, and Latin American states, why not them? They got to encourage manufacturing using their raw materials instead of importing second hand and often cheap, ephemeral goods from China made using their raw materials. They got to be modernized and stop thinking of living off the land as their great grand parents once did. They are living in a modern world and have to accept modern changes and not glamorize outmoded traditions of the past as those engaged in internecine wars for them, as sadly in the case of some Islamic countries. When we see the budding yet booming automobile industries in Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and of course South Africa, there is a gleam of hope. Then, they should not be like the Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that have been exporting copper vital in the electronic industries for the last 50 years but they cannot manufacture a simple television set, not to talk of a common wireless radio set. Are Africans not ambitious and want to advance as the rest of humankind?
African governments got to motivate foreign investors by developing their infra structures, power resources, roads, housing, health facilities, managerial skills, water, good governance, stamp out bottlenecks, rampant corruption and many more to meet modern Western standards. If others are doing it in SE Asia, and Latin American states, why not them? They got to encourage manufacturing using their raw materials instead of importing second hand and often cheap, ephemeral goods from China made using their raw materials. They got to be modernized and stop thinking of living off the land as their great grand parents once did. They are living in a modern world and have to accept modern changes and not glamorize outmoded traditions of the past as those engaged in internecine wars for them, as sadly in the case of some Islamic countries. When we see the budding yet booming automobile industries in Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and of course South Africa, there is a gleam of hope. Then, they should not be like the Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that have been exporting copper vital in the electronic industries for the last 50 years but they cannot manufacture a simple television set, not to talk of a common wireless radio set. Are Africans not ambitious and want to advance as the rest of humankind?
From what I experienced over there at one village in the Cameroons, rural electrification was welcomed and it was euphoric. The government sent 29 million francs, CFA, (that is a huge sum by local standards) and the villagers (700 strong) provided the required labor force. They dug holes, provided and planted the treated eucalyptus pools, carried sand and rocks for the building of the power house gratis. They used their human muscles. That was four years ago. Today (12/8/2015), the pools the poor villagers planted with the encouragement of a German expatriate who asked an honorarium of a roasted pig for his dinners and some Bamileke (Cameroun) business persons are still standing un-anchored to the ground and without a shred of high tension cable in its rightful place. What happened is the question I posed lately to a head villager and no one is able to give me an honest answer. The money has been siphoned and the hydro generator that was carried to the falls with pomp and pageantry is rusting in the bush. The question is, those villagers who could work from home if they had cheap electric power supply where they would not pay rents, or buy food stuffs, as in exorbitant townships, cannot live with promises and planning that are never ever fulfilled. Is the shelving of the project the fault of the government of the day, that of the providers or villagers? With this attitude, other perspective investors advancing in foreign investments and developments as in India, China and South America are indirectly chased out. Once more, Africans are under-developing themselves. Then for how long will it take for some of these economic and political wrongs be righted and Africa join the bandwagon of the industrialized world? How are decentralization and rural development the government of most Africans talk of to halt the exodus of rural population be realized when the electronic industry, a prerequisite of the modern industry is not wholeheartedly encouraged?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-africa-hiding-the-next-mark-zuckerberg-the-future-of-tech-talent-1449242360
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