 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Africa Gets Inspiration, Net Initiatives
By William New
An effort is afoot to get more Africans on the Internet, and several visionaries gathered in Washington last week to celebrate the move. Rebecca Enonchong, a founder of the Africa Technology Forum, announced several initiatives to help Africa overcome the digital divide.
The keynote speaker, Reggie Aggarwal, CEO and co-president of the Indian CEO High Tech Council, offered something less tangible but equally valuable: Inspiration and insight to African entrepreneurs using his and India's success as an example. Aggarwal was an attorney at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Shaw Pittman before leaving to start the group that now includes about 2,500 executives.
Aggarwal said Indian CEOs come to his events for four reasons. They are speaking, on the board, there are people they want to meet, and they're not going to be asked for anything. He does not fund the events. Rather, that is done by bankers, lawyers or others who want access to the executives. So he does not have to ask them for money right away.
Not long ago, his group merged with an Indian entrepreneurs' group whose philosophy was to create wealth. The strategy is that if you can help the members get wealthy, they will be in a better position to give back later. In fact, the group has been so focused on that philosophy that it is only now getting focused on direct assistance to India. But when an earthquake hit India hard recently, the group quickly raised $15 million in aid, he said. One of the group's charters is to become more involved politically, he said.
Many members of his group have focused on the high-tech industry, an area of rapid growth in India. The conversation turned to the current problems in the stock market. As a visionary with a practical side, his view of the current situation is one of opportunity. "We're obviously going through a tremendous time," he said. "At the edge of chaos is opportunity. Right now we're in chaos. It's not an abyss, it's an opportunity."
Aggarwal predicted the market will fall further, and that the "correction" in the United States will continue into 2002, with some 90 percent of Internet businesses failing in a "weeding out" process. But this is favorable for an industry in which a lot of institutions were hastily "built to flip," like fast-food chains. Ironically, he said, firms are being forced to follow "a new business model: to sell something at more than the cost to create it." This was lost in the rush to get market share, he said.
Small businesses will get hit as well, he said, but they generally have better, more supportable infrastructure. "The more money you raised, the more likely you will fail," he said, because the investment was based on your ability to get millions more in the next phases.
Aggarwal, who has been profiled in several national magazines and newspapers, is 31 years old and lives with his parents. He has a small company that increased from eight to 75 employees in the past year. He said most important is to "get the right DNA in your organization," and focus on building an institution to last.
"At the end of the day, we're in the middle of a revolution," he said. "This is the first year of a 30-year revolution. We're never going to see this again in our lifetime." He encouraged people to take a chance at entrepreneurship, because the benefits will be significant. "When there is a tornado, even cows fly," he said.
As for India's success in the high-tech industry, that has happened for several reasons, he noted. English is a common language, the country produces a lot of engineers, many U.S.-trained Indians return to the county, and the government is supportive.
Africa Tech Forum Looks To The Model
Much of the Africa Technology Forum's work will focus on education, but in one of its initiatives, the group will try to get the ear of African governments in order to explain to them the successes other developing countries, such as India and Costa Rica, have had with the Internet. Some African countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, are more advanced in using the Internet, but others are far behind, Enonchong said.
However, she said there are many hurdles to the plan, including corruption, slow infrastructure development and government bureaucracy. She also sees little hope for catching up by pushing for landlines through Africa, so the emphasis will be on cellular technologies.
The group is a "purely a humanitarian" non-profit and receives support from development organizations like the World Bank. The goal of the forum is "not to sell products in Africa or be used to sell products in Africa," but in order to be self-sustaining, it needs the support of businesses, she said.
Enonchong is CEO and founder of AppsTech, a global IT consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., but with seven offices worldwide. She is a well-known expert in Oracle financial applications.
Another company, AfricaToday.com, also launched an initiative at the event aimed at tackling the digital divide by providing an online platform for commerce and information for Africa-based and focused companies.
Visions From Above
The event was held at WorldSpace, a company that helps spread information by using new audio technology to deliver programming to three-quarters of the world's population that lacks adequate radio reception and program choice. The company has launched several satellites and has plans for more.
African-born Noah Samara, chairman and CEO of WorldSpace, offered his view of the world at the event as well. He said that too often, when speaking of Africa, people consider the continent's limitations. But there is more to it. For instance, he noted, cell phones could not exist without raw materials from there.
The most neglected resource in Africa is its human resources, he said. The limitations are only what people in Africa and those who observe it imagine are there. Samara encouraged everyone to go out and bend technology to find new ways to solve problems. If one looks past perceived limitations, "there's really no difference between you and Bill Gates," he said. In order to innovate, Samara said, "we have to bend [technology]. If we fail, it's not the limitations that fail, it's us."
India's Spectrum Allocation Plan
India's telecommunications department on Saturday announced a spectrum allocation plan for basic telecom services that effectively removes the last hurdle to awarding basic telecom licenses, the India Economic Times reported. The telecom market was opened for competition on Jan. 29, with nearly 150 applications received to date. These can now be processed and licenses awarded, the report said. The Times of India reported Wednesday that the government has issued 40 letters of intent to three companies — Reliance, Tatas, and Himachal Futuristic.
U.S. Ambassadorial Activities
The White House has sent to the Senate the nomination of Argeo Paul Cellucci, governor of Massachusetts, to be ambassador to Canada. President Bush also said he would nominate former Tennessee Senator and Reagan chief of staff Howard Baker to be ambassador to Japan, and would nominate businessman and financier Howard Leach to be ambassador to France.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
