World Economic Forum Looks to Tech for African Growth (Marketplace)

From the article:

Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, said digital technology has a big role to play in keeping sub-Saharan Africa on its path towards development, but countries should be cautious about how they invest their technology dollars.

“If countries are using money for rolling out fiber optic cable [for broadband], then they’re not using it to vaccinate kids or hire another teacher for the classroom,” said Kenny. “So there are real trade-offs there.”

He points to the successful use of smaller-scale technology making big impacts, like fishermen using mobile phones to determine the best places to dock in order to get top price for their catch.

Read full article here.