What The Tech Africa Africa Tech Radio

African startups are taking the risky bet of expanding beyond the continent for growth and profits. In 2020, Nigerian mobile money service announced, Paga, announced expansion plans to Mexico and the Philippines as part of a $10 million funding round, while Swvl, the Egyptian bus-hailing service, has also expanded to Pakistan where it currently operates in three cities. The launch of Helium Health, an electronic medical records (EMR) and hospital management information (HMI) systems provider, into Kenya, among many other expansion moves by African tech firms, is remarkable.

As many tech companies envision providing services beyond borders, this episode has Mide Alonge of Endeavor Africa dissecting how tech startups can expand globally and the implication of such milestone.

Silicon Valley is a region in the South San Francisco Bay Area, made notable by the number of technology companies that started and are headquartered there, including Apple, Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Facebook, Netflix and other Fortune 500 companies. It sets the gold standard as a tech hub, so there is little wonder that so many locations around the world are attempting to emulate its success or perhaps become the next Silicon Valley.

However, as there are projections that some African states will soon rise to the status of being dubbed Silicon Valley, one wound wonder which African country first will achieve such feat.

Co-founder of Future Africa, Olabinjo Adeniran, navigates us to the location of Africa’s Silicon Valley.

Eko, as Lagos is called by the locals, has been dubbed by some as the Silicon Valley of Africa, with investors from around the world coming to invest millions of dollars yearly and producing some of Africa’s best startups such as Iroko TV, Jobberman, Flutterwave, Paystack and more.

This episode of What The Tech Africa, the Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Government on Technology, Olatubosun Alake, talks about How Lagos Became Nigeria’s Tech Capital.

The Crypto industry as a whole has seen a momentous year of growth heavily spurred by the entrance of institutional investors adopting bitcoin and African tech enthusiasts are not far behind. For now, it serves mainly as investment purposes, but can it disrupt financial institutions to become the future of money?

The CEO of Bitnob, Bernard Parah, gives his perspective to this.

The advancement of technology has helped people all over Africa numerous ways. One area that has seen a paradigm shift is the entertainment industry. Sure, entertainment can, in one form or another, be traced back to the dawn of man. However, Technology has lifted entertainment to a whole new level in Africa.

An international phenomenon who blossomed in this tech driven era, Oxlade, analyzes the impact of tech on showbiz.

The role of the media in the society in cannot be overemphasized. In the past, there were less tech blogs, tech podcasts, and tech channels. More than ever, before telling stories of the Africa tech, how does this impact the ecosystem?

For an insight, Media Executive and Tech Analyst, Victor Ekwealor, shares his perspective on this.