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Africa: Sharp Contrasts Amid Diversity
The World Comes to Africa As the World Cup gets underway this week in South Africa—the first ever to be held on the African continent—the world media is turning its attention there. Typically,...
View ArticleIn Praise of Impalas
The swift and agile A recent Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation study revived the term “gazelle companies” to describe the young, rapidly-growing U.S.firms that are producing the majority of new jobs in...
View ArticleAfrica’s Latest Asian Wave
India’s top mobile carrier, Bharti Airtel, is bringing its ultra low-cost services to the sub-Sahara. Can it adapt its managed services model to penetrate Africa’s under-served, low-income markets?...
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Lessons From Emerging Markets
Turning the page… Another interesting year is rapidly winding down. This year, I had the chance to work with many gifted business and tech leaders, but it was particularly satisfying collaborating...
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Cairo Streaming
Cairo on the Nile The images streaming in from Egypt are stirring. It’s evident that this uprising will reverberate not only in the region but around the world. What comes next is hard to fathom, but...
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Ingenuity Born of Necessity in Kenya
Nairobi Skyline “This is the future of African technology, and if you blink, you’ll miss it.” ~Erik Hersman On the ‘Silicon Savanna’ Last month in Nairobi, Kenya, a conference called Pivot25...
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Song of Africa
Mapping the Fiber Revolution Most everyone interested in Africa’s connectivity revolution has seen the handiwork of Steve Song, a South African social entrepreneur who wants to make telecommunications...
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The Disruptor: Dr. Ngozi Oknjo-Iweala
An African Narrative The misdeeds of Africa’s despots get plenty of media attention because they fit a Western “plug-n-play” narrative about the region. Conversely, the work of Africa’s exemplary...
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Blazing Trails in Africa
Accra, Ghana In reflecting on the year ending, my thoughts turn again to Africa, home of six of the world’s top 10 fastest growing economies. Africa’s mobile revolution is spawning exciting, new...
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Africa’s Great Boom
City Bowl – Cape Town, South Africa Cause for hope Another sanguine feature story came out about Africa’s economic growth. The Economist ran a cover story in 2000 headlined, “The Hopeless Continent”,...
View ArticleMENA 2.0: The Arab Digital Market
A new engine of economic growth is quietly emerging in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Demographics, rising purchasing power and a burgeoning private sector are fueling economic development in...
View ArticleA New World Bank Leader for a New Era?
A gentleman’s agreement Since its inception in 1946, the World Bank has had 12 presidents, each of them an American. The practice of choosing an American for the job has gone unopposed given that the...
View ArticleGhana’s Unremarkable Transfer of Power
Smooth and swift President John Atta Mills of Ghana, 68, died unexpectedly of throat cancer yesterday in the capital, Accra. His vice president, John Dramani Mahama, 53, was sworn in as his successor...
View ArticleThe Revolution Is Being Televised
Africa has arrived Have you noticed the recent uptick in media coverage on “Africa Rising”? It seems like every week, another column is published mentioning that six of the ten fastest growing...
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Africa — Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Bend of the Nile, Khartoum This month (September, 2012) marks the 25th anniversary of my first trip to Africa. Wandering the souqs and dusty streets of Khartoum, I discovered that Africa was too...
View ArticleAfrica: The Best Guess
Sometimes a thesis comes along that’s so incisive, it upends the orthodoxy. Morten Jerven’s proposition is capable of that. His book, Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled By African Development Statistics...
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