Mobiles in Africa

The impact of mobile technology in Africa deserves its own post, but suffice to say it is incredible. Where Africa got left behind in physical infrastructure, it is compensating with mobile systems. The only land lines in Kawambwa are at NGO and UN offices, but literally everybody has a cell phone. There is a single bank that always has lines out the door and a broken ATM, but all bank customers can access their accounts and transfer money through their phones. Mail takes months to arrive in Kawambwa -if it arrives at all- but because of text messages and mobile internet, it is hardly even necessary. We don't get any newspapers, but regularly get texts from Congo with political updates.

From Kala

This is the tip of the iceberg - lots being written at the moment about the impact of mobile technology on Africa, development, and entrepreneurship - and also on humanitarian relief efforts. For a good resource on this see the excellent humanitarian.info.