5 top technologies changing African businesses, shared by Liquid Telecom

Liquid Telecom shared an infographic about the top technologies that are shaping business in Africa (shown above) and here they are in larger font if for some reason your device can’t zoom in. You’re welcome 🙂

These technologies are:

• Mobile Money:   19 countries in Africa now have more Mobile  Money accounts compared to bank accounts, showing that the rate of financial inclusion is now in the hands of mobile money services and are dependent on the range of services that can be carried out on the actual service and ease of access to the nearest agent.

• Digital Advertising: Bulk SMS are a big one in a country like Zambia where companies promote their products through SMS services are getting bigger, and there are more apps being created which are supporting ads as well. Liquid Telecoms estimates that in Africa the total profit from digital advertising will be $1.3 billion.

• eCommerce: Even though it’s not such a huge market in Zambia, other African countries are doing well with it, for example Kenya and Nigeria, but we’ll get there 😉 The estimated amount to be made by eCommerce sales by 2025 in Africa is $75billion as long as more business jump on that bandwagon and if more payment are introduced.

• Cloud: with more businesses looking for a secure data bank across their various centres in regions and the need for that information to be made available to employees when they need it, cloud for enterprise is becoming much popular. this reduces the risk of losing data from devices in the case of fire and theft or technical failures that are unprecedented events. Cloud service providers like Liquid Telecoms’ CrashPlan are an example of such a service.  Here’s an introduction to Cloud Computing.

• Internet of Things: Simply put, the Internet of Things (IoT) “is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.” (Source: Internet of Things Agenda) Over 5o bilion devices are expected to be connected to the IoT by 2020, and 1 billion of those will mostly be from Africa. From Liquid Telecoms info, South Africa is leading the way in IoT potential, with an estimated $2 billion made from it by the end of the century.  Question is, with this growth, are smart objects making us dumber?

What other technology do you feel has potential to grow in Zambia?