Technology and Africa

Engineering in Africa, source : wikimedia commons

Hello steemians,

Today we will be looking critically at "technology and Africa", the success thus far and the way forward. It is said that any nation that wants to grow or improve on development must welcome new technologies.

Looking at the current trend or increase of technology and technological gadgets in Africa and compared to the dark ages, one will say Africa is fast developing.

Science and technology has no doubt contributed to development, both in Africa and the world at large.
Thank God for the gradual development and improvements in different sectors like transport, agricultural, economic, infrastructure, energy, industrial, health, education, communication, financial, entertainment, and environmental protection and so on.

Science and technology is very visible in the western world, to compare to African countries, here in Africa the velocity is slow. Most developed countries have invested a lot of money in science and technology with core aim to bring development in their countries. A lot of countries are advanced in ICT. Especially in the area of education and tackling of gender issues. As well as agriculture, health and banking.

Here in Africa, the most visible technology is based on communication.

How would Africa be without communication?

Life, business and education is all about communication. Technology has made the means of communication easy. People can now reach out to others in any part of the world and beyond through communication. The mobile phone communication technology for instance has become the tool for communication. People in this millennia can hardly do without their mobile phones as they seem to be glued to it always.

It is no doubt that mobile technology development or emergence in Africa has been very significant in the dissemination of information. This has contributed immensely in different sectors. From health, education, infrastructure, transportation, energy and so on.

Most health organizations disseminate information and as well gather data without stress. People can access health tips through the health mobile platforms. Education sector as well has benefited from mobile technology . Information can be disseminated, People can now school from their various homes through the internet. And this has made education cheap and easy.

Before now, Africa has been backward in database management and technology trends. But more recently, there has been a lot of improvements and innovations. We Africans may not have gotten to where we want to be, but its good to know that we are not where we used to be.

Africans are getting used to mobile devices, in this new millennia more youths and undergraduates are developing software programs and technological mechanisms to make life easy for us. This has been made possible to unlimited access to the internet. As they decode information from the internet, improvise, and come up with their own technology.

All thanks to the INTERNET...

The future of Africa is technology and the only key to open it is mobile technology. For example, recently there has been a robust increase of mobile phone technology users in Africa. Like I said earlier, Mobile phones are the only visible impact or presence of technology in Africa. Which tells that Africa is improving in technology gradually.

I remember sometime back, many years ago in Nigeria. Then there were no presence of mobile phones. I would board a vehicle to another location to make a phone call with my uncle who lives far away home . I would cue in the line until it gets to my turn to use the commercial landline communication system there.

After some years, mobile phones emerged but this time very expensive. People could not afford it. So I would pay some money to the call agent just to be able to communicate with my loved ones. It kept evolving until now almost every African have access to mobile phone technology and can communicate with anyone round the world.

The New World of Africans

I don't intend to dive into historic dark ages of Africans but then you will agree with me that over 90% of Africans who were born between 1979 and 1994, use the internet and grew up with the internet. As at 2009, 80% had cellphones and 36% use text messaging , most have broadband for downloading music and videos online . This group of people are millennials. They areally a proving ground for the future.
Millennials are confident, connected and open to change. 80% millennials text in the last 24 hours . 80% of millennials sleep with their cell phones on or right next to their bed making it the first and last thing they reach each day

This is to say that Africa has welcome technology and are striving hard to develop technological devices in its region.

In Cameroon, a 26 year old named Arthur Zang invented the Cardio Pad which was meant to be the first Africa's medical tablet. The device allows health care workers in rural areas to conduct a cardiac test and send results to specialist via mobile phone connection.

How does it work?

A wireless set of four electrodes and a sensor are attached to the patient and transmit signals via bluetooth to the Cardio Pad. The health care worker can transmit this information to the national data centre, where cardiologist in the urban areas can make a diagnosis and send the it back to the healthcare worker together with prescription and instructions.
One good thing about this device is that, all of these can be done without the specialist in the urban areas seeing the patient directly.

Omomi was developed by a Nigerian start- up company (Mobicure), it's aim is to improve maternal and child health. It is completely devoted to the health of a child . It covers all the aspect of the WHO survival strategies like the growth monitoring , immunization tracking, oral rehydration therapy, breast feeding, female education, family planning, and mother's community. It has special features like SMS alert, calendar synchronization and alerts, nearest hospital finder, automatic vaccine tracker, medical suggestions and and solutions and chat with mothers and doctors .

mPedigree is a phone-based system developed by a Ghanaian social entrepreneur named Bright Simons. The essence of this phone-based system is to tackle fake drugs problems.
It is an anti-counterfeit ICT software application that seeks to empower the consumer so that they have a way of verifying their medication's safety.
it allows buyers to verify the authenticity of medicines for free by text-messaging a unique code found on the product to a universal number. This request is routed to mPedigree's server and consumers receive a quick response to authenticate their purchase.
The system saves the lives of poor people who are vulnerable to insecure drug supply chains. Thus building confidence and trust in the healthcare system.

In Togo a man named Emefa Kpegba developed a mobile crowdfunding and micro finance platform to manage and fund projects.
One would ask, why a crowdfunding and microfinance system in Togo, in Africa? Reason is because it is very difficult for Africans in Africa to get support for their projects. So with the development of this device a lot of persons now have access to funds to carry out their various projects.

M-pesa (M for mobile and pesa for money in swahili) is a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service. Luanched in 2007 by safaricom and Vodafone, the largest mobile network in Kenya and Tanzania.
M-pesa allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer and pay for goods and services easily with a mobile device. Users deposit money into an account stored on their cellphones and send balances using PIN -secured to other users including sellers of goods and services and to redeem deposits for regular money.
The service has been lauded for giving millions of people access for the formal financial system and reducing crime in an otherwise largely. cash-based society .
This device has been expanded to Afghanistan, South Africa, India and in 2014 to Eastern Europe.

In Senegal, three students developed a Handi'Educ as an educative web/mobi app for handicapped children in a learning environment. Especially kids with vision, speech, hearing and mobility disabilities.
The app actually converts text to audio for the visually impaired and converts speech by the educators to text for learners who may be hearing and speech impaired.

In serra Leone, Archippus Sesay manufactured a SACH feet for amputees with the use of local materials . SACH is an acronym that stands for Solid Ankle Cushion Heel wedge that provides psuedo-plantar flexion after heel strike.
Archippus said " He was inspired to manufacture the SACH feet after he was bitten by a snake at the age of 9. As a result of that he was amputated, so he waited for 4 years to get a prosthesis". He also said "the effect of the civil war that lead to the amputation of many also inspired him to manufacture SACH, as would not want them to pass through his ordeals ".

In Ghana, farmerline is a mobile/web-based app that helps the farmers in rural Ghana to obtain the information they need to increase yields in the face of changes in the growing cities and climate variability.
Farmerline connect farmers to markets, financial information, weather forecast, farming tips and techniques and equipment services through the application of mobile technology.
The essence of this app is to help small farmers to help smallholders farmers increase their yields and productivity so that they can generate more profit and develop viable, sustainable businesses.

The goal is to empower about 2 million farmers by the year 2024 and to improve their livelihoods by helping them access information that results in improved harvests. One good thing about the farmerline is that service is provided for local languages.

In Nigeria, people can now buy goods online through Jumia, payporte, konga, and jiji. The goods will be delivered at their various homes.
Most mobile phones in Nigeria are produced by Nigerians. For instance the popular Techno and Infinix phones are produced by Nnamdi Ezeigbo.
Also people now have access to loans and financing without collateral through a mobile app called Paylater founded by Chijioke Dozie. The list is endless.

Unintended Consequences of Technology in Africa

In spite the positive contributions of science and technology to development in Africa, the detrimental effects to the society cannot be underestimated.
Most media and technology experts have warned that cyber crime is Africa's big threat.

The email scam (YAHOO YAHOO) using a message from someone pretending to be a relative of a dead African leader asking for bank details or the mobile text messaging asking customers to send their Bank Verification Number (BVN) as to unblock their blocked accounts especially in Nigeria is a well known tactics .

But now tactics have changed. Today's cyber -criminals do not need users' approval or awareness to access valuable data, which could lead to the theft of large amount of money.

All they need to do is to hack your credit and debit cards. This can be done by an expert in hacking using a sophisticated hacking device system.

Another aspect is the electronic waste which is fondly called e-waste. It's already used electronics or electrical devices singled out for reuse, recycling or disposal. These electronic waste could be mobile phones, computers, television sets and other electronic devices.

Electronic waste is a big security threat to individuals and even the exporting countries. Because there has been cases of Hard drives that were not properly deleted before the disposal. This computer hard drives could contain sensitive and confidential informations, account transactions/details, credit and debit card details. It can be reopened, and criminals will have access to this informations and defraud either the individual or organization.

This is the negative effect of technology in Africa.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we Africans must change certain existing factors that limit the progress of technology in our various countries, in other for us to achieve a significant development through science and technology just as the western countries have done.

Our ways of communicating ideas must be improved as well. We must engage in the creation of scientific journals, documenting information in books and the internet as to disseminate scientific information across African countries. And also more science journalists should be employed to communicate scientific information. By so doing, it will create public awareness and as well popularize science ideas

The detrimental effects of science and technology can not be overlooked. We must promote what is called sustainable development by strategically promoting the good technologies and over looking the bad technologies for effective development that will support humans and our environment.

I hereby call on all Africans for us to change our way of reasoning and face the challenges in Africa by emphasising on those major elements and measures that are of importance to development.

Thank you for reading!

References

[1] Science and Technology in Africa: The Key Elements and Measures for Sustainable Development
[2] Electronic Waste
[3] History of science and technology in Africa
[4] How Africa's Tech Generation Is Changing the Continent
[5] What technology can do for Africa
[6] How digital technology can help reinvent basic education in Africa
[7] Growth and Impact Of Mobile Technology In Africa

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