Investment firm Omidyar Network has announced a $825,000 grant to support new technological innovations in Africa.
The grant donated to Praekelt Foundation, an African technological organisation, will be used to develop innovative mobile technology solutions to improve the health and well being of poor people.
The announcement comes in the wake of an increasing number of partnerships comprising billionaires and philanthropic organisations to improve the standards of living in Africa.
One of the successful billionaire-philanthropic organisation partnerships is that of Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates's Gates Foundation and UN organisations in fighting diseases and developing Africa.The grant will support Praekelt Foundation's pioneering use of mobile technology to drive positive change on the continent.
"The grant will be used to extend the Foundation's mobile technology platforms across Africa built to take advantage of rapidly growing mobile penetration throughout the continent," said Stephen King, investment partner at Omidyar Network.
A recent study conducted by Ernst and Young titled, Africa Connected: A Telecommunications Growth Story, found market penetration of cellphones in Africa standing at 37 per cent as at last year.
According to the study, from 2002 to last year, Africa's cellphone subscriber numbers climbed by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49.3 per cent compared with a CAGR of about 27.5 per cent in Brazil and Asia.By 2012, market penetration in Africa is expected to climb to more than 60 per cent. It is this increasing growth that Omidyar Network and Praekelt Foundation plans to exploit to come up with new mobile platforms that provide the technological infrastructure for a variety of initiatives focusing healthcare, education, human rights and government transparency initiatives.
"Omidyar Network is deeply committed to furthering the use of mobile technology to engage citizens on issues of importance to them, advance economic opportunity, and catalyse positive social impact," King said.
He described Praekelt Foundation as a leader in Africa, in providing open source, mobile tools to educate and motivate citizens on crucial issues, adding that Omidyar Network will help extend the successes to advance transparency and accountability on the continent.
Over the past two years, the firm has granted over $30 million to organisations such as Ushahidi, Refugees United, Global Voices and FrontlineSMS.
Ushahidi, a technology developed by four Kenyans is one of the success stories in Africa. It allows people to track data via SMS, email or Internet using a map. The platform was useful in tracking hot spot during the post election violence period in 2007.
Source: Breaking News, Kenya
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