News
Africa Tempts Hi-Tec Companies
Multinational HighTech companies looking for new frontiers and fresh ideas are lining up for a slice of Africa’s relatively untapped consumer market.
Many experts are saying the continent is poised to be the next hotbed of technological innovation. Others are even more optimistic.
“Africa is that frontier right now,” said Douglas Idugboe, Canada-based New Media marketing strategist.
And it is the place where “a lot of technology innovation” is taking place, added Mark Walker, a research director at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
“In Africa, the consumers are using technology in new and creative ways,” Walker said. “The most obvious ones are the ones that relate to … payment mechanisms, or transfer of information or just basic human communication.”
Walker said technology development in Africa is the opposite of conventional markets, where innovation has come to be considered more of an improvement on existing products, and less of a breakthrough.
Africa Rising
“If you look today, you see a glut of capacity on the east coast of Africa,” he said. “And you see places like Kenya, places like Tanzania, becoming very, very innovative and using the technology very, very quickly.”
He said Africa also is developing outsourcing companies that provide multinational companies with local talent and labor, and that has been “stealing some of the market away from India.”
“They’ve got a great English-speaking population … They are on the same time zone as Central Europe, and [have] a reasonably well-educated workforce who is able to deploy at a price more competitive that what India would do nowadays,” Walker said.
Marketing strategist Idugboe says Africa has a potentially huge consumer base and companies such as Microsoft, Google and Samsung are paying attention.
“Africa today wants the same things the West already has or wants as well. They want [a] better life,” Idugboe said.
“You’re talking about a market that has over a billion people, a market that is young and growing,” said Nmachi Jidenma, founder of CP Africa, a website that focuses on the continent’s technology and socio-economic progress.
Jidenma said Investors interested in the continent are basing their decisions on an expected “exponential growth in the earning potential of the average African and the fact that conflict is going to continue to decline considerably in most African countries.”
“If these two conditions materialize over the next few decades,” she said, “what we would have is a continent that would be growing exponentially fast, with a young labor force and as a result, a thriving consumer market.”
Jidenma said these companies are looking to Africa as both a consumer of high-tech products and eventually a developer of innovative products that can be marketed to the rest of the world. She cited two African companies that already are successful innovators – Open Source platforms M-Pesa and Ushahidi.
M-Pesa is a mobile phone-based payment, money transfer and microfinancing service.
Since its beginning in Nairobi, Kenya in 2007, it has expanded operations to more than 154 countries.
Ushahidi is a crowdsourcing website that relies on user reports to map incidents of violence. It got started in Nairobi in 2008 to track post-election violence in Kenya and has since been used track Kenya’s peace efforts and to help locate survivors under the rubble of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.
“What makes Ushahidi so inspiring is that it was started by Kenyans for Kenya,” said Jidenma. “It has become a perfect example of what it takes to develop Africa solutions for African problems and how to export these solutions to other areas of the world.”
These two tech companies aside, Jidenma acknowledged that Africa is still not where it needs to be in high-tech development.
She said companies such as Google are working with telecommunications providers and universities to help make the Internet more useful to Africans.
And Microsoft has recently announced its 4Afrika initiative in Tanzania, where it is teaming up with local companies to provide broadband Internet access to the University of Dar es Salaam.
The company is also working with banks to help African students get loans to buy computer hardware using its Windows 8 operating system.
No Yet ‘Ripe for Picking’
But large parts of Africa lack adequate basic utilities and infrastructure, so even optimists like Walker, the IDC research director, warn that Africa’s market potential is not yet “ripe for picking.”
What’s needed to fix that, Walker said, is a collaborative approach between African companies and the high-tech multinationals. And both sides, he said, need to understand that “it’s not going to be all moonlight and roses along the way.”
Idugboe said the Chinese were the first to take advantage of the opportunities.
“Chinese companies are willing to give a certain quota of the labor force to the local market and give ownership stake to the local market for them to operate, so that you get an incentive as well,” Idugboe said. “And the governments are really catching up to that … kind of initiative and [it] is becoming common ground.”
Culled from Voice of America (Washington, DC)
New data from CFA Society Nigeria is reshaping how the country’s financial sector thinks about talent development, with Access emerging as the single largest source of CFA candidates in Nigeria, distinction industry watchers say signals a deeper shift in how leading institutions are building investment expertise from within.
In its Where Nigeria’s Finance Professionals Work series, published in a national daily, CFA Society Nigeria placed Access first among employers of CFA candidates nationwide, with 82 candidates enrolled in the programme, more than double the 38 recorded at the next-placed institution and well ahead of every other bank or financial services firm on the list.
Access also ranked second among employers of CFA charterholders, with 11 professionals who have completed all three levels of the Programme and met its experience and ethics requirements.
For an industry that has long measured itself by balance sheet size and branch count, the rankings point to a different kind of competition: one over who is building the deepest bench of certified, globally credentialed talent.
CFA Society Nigeria compiled the data from its Salesforce Membership Database as at June 2026, and described the exercise as a way of recognising employers whose people “bring rigour, integrity and global best practices into the workplace every day.”
Analysts following the sector say the outcome is notable less for the ranking itself than for what it suggests about talent strategy across Africa’s financial services industry. A single institution developing more aspiring charterholders than the rest of the market combined raises the floor for professional standards nationally, not just within one balance sheet.
Every candidate who advances through the CFA Programme adds to a shared pool of ethics-trained, analytically rigorous professionals that Nigeria’s capital markets, pension funds and asset managers all eventually draw from.
Access Holdings Group Chief Executive Officer Innocent C. Ike, commenting on the rankings, framed the achievement in terms of institution-building rather than recruitment: “Every candidate on that list represents our commitment to building institutions and professionals that endure.”
The remark echoes a broader thesis increasingly voiced by market observers, that talent depth, not scale alone, is what will determine which African financial institutions earn lasting global credibility.
That distinction sits at the centre of Access’s stated ambition to become the World’s Most Respected African Financial Services Group. If the CFA numbers are any indication, the Group’s route to that goal runs less through square metres of branch network and more through the calibre of the people sitting inside it, a bet that Nigeria’s finance professionals, and the institutions that will one day hire them, are already placing alongside Access.
Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has announced plans to introduce Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) baggage tracking technology across domestic and international airport terminals to tackle the growing problem of delayed, misrouted and missing luggages
Michael Achimugu, director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, NCAA, disclosed this at a stakeholder engagement forum in Lagos.
Achimugu said the RFID-enabled system would replace the traditional barcode-based baggage tracking framework and provide airlines and passengers with real-time visibility of checked luggage from check-in to final collection.
According to him, the technology would improve baggage traceability, reduce mishandling and strengthen accountability across the baggage-handling chain.
Unlike conventional barcode systems, RFID technology allows baggage to be automatically scanned at multiple points without requiring direct line of sight, enabling real-time tracking of luggage throughout its journey.
Achimugu said issues involving short-landed, missing, lost or damaged baggage had remained among the major complaints from air travellers, alongside flight delays.
He said the introduction of RFID technology was therefore aimed at improving baggage-handling standards and restoring passenger confidence in the aviation sector.
The NCAA said the initiative also aligns with IATA Resolution 753, which requires airlines to track baggage at key points during the passenger journey.
The authority expects the technology to provide more accurate information on the location of luggage, facilitate quicker resolution of baggage-related complaints and improve the overall passenger experience.
The NCAA said the initiative would also strengthen accountability among airlines and other stakeholders involved in baggage handling at Nigerian airports.
eTranzact International Plc has called for increased adoption of digital payment solutions among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), saying access to technology is critical to improving business efficiency, financial inclusion and growth.
The company also said it was deepening its partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to expand digital access and financial literacy among small businesses across the country.
In a statement, the Divisional Head, Merchant Services, eTranzact, Mrs. Abimbola Reis, stated this at the SMEDAN/eTranzact Town Hall Engagement in Lagos recently, themed, “Financial Literacy and Inclusion for MSMEs Leveraging on Fintech Innovation.”
Reis described MSMEs as the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, noting that the sector comprises almost 40 million businesses and contributes significantly to economic growth and job creation.
However, she said many businesses continue to face challenges including limited access to finance, inefficient payment systems, weak financial reporting, cash-flow constraints and inadequate access to digital platforms.
She added that trust concerns also affect businesses’ ability to access finance, while heavy reliance on cash increases exposure to theft and makes payment reconciliation more difficult.
Representing the Director-General of SMEDAN, Prof. Yinka Fisher said the town hall was aimed at generating practical ideas and solutions that would support the growth and expansion of MSMEs.
“The essence of this engagement is to share ideas and concepts that will help MSMEs thrive and expand. Our partnership with eTranzact is about expanding the frontiers of MSMEs and ensuring they continue to grow,” he said.
Also speaking, representative of the Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. Praise Adedigba said businesses could no longer depend solely on hard work to remain competitive.
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