It is evident that mobile phone technology is taking Africa by storm, with regional and multinational investors looking at the mobile telephony sector as a majour source of income. As much as mobile phone technologies benefit the investors, the technology in itsself (or the idea behind mobile telephony) is without doubt positively influenced relationships as well as businesses.

Commentary in the Economist last week about the three undersea cables that are FINALLY getting connected in Kenya. East Africa may  the last highly populated area on earth that has been getting by with slow and expensive satellite internet. The new cables, the first of which is due to come online very soon, should dramatically improve speed and dramatically lower the price of access.

Great story from the BBC on how Africa is pioneering the use of mobile banking. Award for most honest quote goes to Mark Pickens of the World Bank's Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). "There's a lot of excitement, but very little understanding what's going on."  

While spending my 6 hour layover in the airport of Lagos, Nigeria, I noticed numerous ads like the one pictured. More proof that Google gets it: the mobile phone is the computer for the world, and SMS is the dominant non-voice communications medium, and SMS needs things like search.

On the day before Child Health week, at the National Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, we trained 17 officers on how to conduct their surveys using Nokia 6300 mobile phone.   We asked the staff to work in pairs and taught them how to download surveys from the online Episurveyor server, fill out surveys, and send the surveys back to the episurveyor.org website.   A couple hours later, they were ready to start their actual interviews!  The next day, the health ministry officers were off to conduct their intervie

In the March 21, 2009 Wall Street Journal, Dambisa Moya argues that foreign aid is hurting more than it is helping.