By Farid Omar.
Africa is fast emerging as a global south trend setter in social innovation and sustainability. While cynical western observers have often depicted what they deem "the dark continent" in negative light, Africa has proven skeptics wrong by turning its fortunes around amid adversity to present opportunities in virtually all sectors of development, be it technology, education, manufacturing, real estate development, media, arts, agriculture, transportation, telecommunications etc.
The world is now taking notice that in the coming decades, Africa is poised to take the centre stage in terms of economic growth and infrastructural development, providing investment opportunities for world governments and international business. It is now common knowledge that modern day investors from across the world are seeking to do business with Africa.
An international conference held last year in Ottawa, Canada, was rightfully titled;" Africa's New Frontier: Innovation, Technology & Prosperity". The organizers of the conference, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC),agree that "Africa is a continent of exciting possibilities", which in the 21st Century, is "emerging as a dynamic and innovative continent".
The official website of the conference positively depicts ´this new Africa" as a continent that boasts a reservoir of young talent, a growing market for cutting-edge technologies, and a source of fresh ideas".
Overall, the conference aimed to enrich Canadian conversations about Africa, highlighting "good news stories from Africa, and drawing on lessons learned, projecting trends, and focusing on the many ways in which Canada can support innovation on the continent".
On the media front conference themes focused on how to re-brand Africa for the 21st century, Africa´s place in the digital age and the cellular evolution in which mobile phones are making African markets work better. The film ´Nollywood Babylon´, a documentary from the National Film Board of Canada, was screened at the conference and later re-screened at Toronto´s National Film Board Theatre. The film presents an "electric vision of a modern African metropolis and a revealing look at the powerhouse that is Nigerian cinema".
On the economy, experts shed light on Africa´s Local Direct Investment, which sounds as a new concept to many and especially to those who in the past could not see beyond the northern-led calls for Foreign Direct Investment as primary source of capital inflow into Africa and the best available means for economic stimulation, growth and development.
For a continent that has suffered a large share of brain drain, the conference included a theme on "The health care brain gain: Networks, technology and access to care". In terms of education, a large number of Africa´s future generation of leaders now increasingly has access to post-secondary education.
Despite ongoing security challenges, African economies have experienced an accelerated growth over the last 5-6 years. The picture is getting rosier each passing year as three African countries, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt, have made the list of the Emerging Economic Report, published by India´s Bangalore-based, innovation consulting company, the Center for Knowledge Societies (CKS).
The CKS notes that "Emerging Economies are those regions of the world that are experiencing rapid informationalization under conditions of limited or partial industrialization". This new development according to CKS, "allows us to explain how the non-industrialized nations of the world are achieving unprecedented economic growth using new energy, telecommunications and information technologies"
Key regions of the world, the report states, are being transformed by the phenomenon whereby soft infrastructure -especially, mobile phone networks - is installed despite the absence of hard infrastructure (such as roads, or nation-spanning power grids). This is a crucial element of what Ezio Manzini, the Director of Unit of Research Design and Innovation for Sustainability at the Politecnico di Milano calls the "leapfrog hypothesis" in which developing countries jump over the environmentally most damaging stages of industrial development.
In sum, what the CKS report implies is that countries like Kenya, South Africa and Egypt, have joined four other emerging economies in the world such as India, China, Brazil and Indonesia as economies that will sustain global growth. Key findings of the CKS report indicate that Indian and Chinese Investments will drive Africa´s growth and that Africa´s once dysfunctional informal economy is now driving user innovation. More importantly, the report found that alongside other emerging economies, the three African nations are innovating environmentally efficient modes of energy consumption.
Africa is making important strides in innovation and technology and a brighter future that will usher in an era of prosperity is certainly on the horizon. The world is waking up to this important reality and strategic investors are eager to get on board Africa's New Frontier that promises unlimited opportunities.
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