Surge in tech hubs give African startups a place to grow

There was recently an article in Ars Technica, that talked about the boost in technology and innovation in Africa. I really appreciated this article for two reasons:

1. It highlighted a lot of the grassroots innovations happening on the continent
2. It called out Western powers looking to exploit Africa's technological advancements 

I've had the opportunity to work with some amazing social entrepreneurs in Africa and I feel as if the work of social entrepreneurs coming out of African should not be over looked. Due to the negative perceptions the world has about Africa, it is sometimes difficult for the world to believe that Africans have the capacity to be entrepreneurs. And with the way western media portrays Africans' this is not surprising. For those who are familiar about innovations coming out of Africa, they are almost always seen as either, for socio-economic development purposes or not up to par with western innovations. As much as I want to play a role in the socio-economic development of Africa, all Africans do not think like that, some of them just want to make lots of money! Many of them aspire to be like the guys at Instagram or Groupon or any other for-profit startup. There are great organizations such has Venture Capital for Africa, VC4Africa, which recognizes and supports entrepreneurs and social innovators for these purposes. 


Although, many do not think like the folks at VC4Africa, and instead of working to co-create with African entrepreneurs they are looking to capitalize. The Ars Technica article noted:

Some geeks from Africa, however, take issue with Buch’s assessment of the continent's tech picture. To some it smacks of colonialism, with tech boom carpetbaggers descending on the continent. Wired’s article, "Want to Become an internet billionaire? Move to Africa,” cross-published from men’s magazine GQ, evoked a great deal of contempt in the African tech community. Forbes echoed the story in its post, "Africa Could Make You an Internet Billionaire," saying, “More than ever before, this is the best time for venture capitalists and Y Combinator-type incubators to set up shop in Africa, scout for internet deals and invest in budding African internet companies that’ll lead the future.”

With the technological boom African is currently encountering, there are droves of applications and innovations coming out of the continent. Some African communities have even been known to leapfrog the west in it's technological advancements and that says a lot for the potential of Africa's technology scene. Africans have the opportunity to leverage the same tools that there western counterparts are, in a locally relevant and contextual manner.