Africa - why are we not as united as other parts of the world like Europe or the United States?
I am South African and proudly African. Although I'm sort of an import from India as well (India is a good friend and we should explore that too).
I don't normally write these sorts of articles, but it pains me to see the state of Africa in 2023. Unemployment, poverty, and just hopelessness run wild here.
I want a better Africa, It can be achieved in this generation but we need to work together, united as one people - "Ubuntu".
We have the talent
Elon Musk, Mark Shuttleworth, and Shola Akinlade to name a few are some shining examples of what Africa can produce, however, we tend to export this talent overseas - Why?
In a continent with so much poverty and suffering, tech can be the catalyst that transforms our countries from 3rd world poverty-stricken nations to thriving new emerging markets.
Stop relying on foreign services
I have nothing against services like Netflix, Google, and so forth. These are all great and I use them often, however, we tend to use 90% of international services and only 10% of the equivalent local services.
A Good example is Google Adwords, in some instances - bidding for a keyword costs $10-$15 (~180 ZAR) and most of the sponsored ads are from American companies even though I am searching on google.co.za.
Google tends to default to global, thus giant American companies are always going to outbid local brands. We need to do more to support local brands.
Google is the best search engine in the world and it makes sense to use it, but in other categories - there are plenty of good local options that we can use instead.
Example: PayStack is one of the best payment providers around, but why are we still using PayPal, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, etc...?
Can you imagine if 10-15% of the money we spend on foreign services is redirected to local companies, how many people will this employ and empower here on African soil?
We need a unified currency
The dollar to our local SA rand is currently sitting at R18.35. if I had to trade with a fellow African - in let's say Nigeria.
We most likely would use dollars, but this doesn't make any sense, because this currency is 18x stronger than the Rand, and nearly 800x compared to the Nira.
We need an African currency that we can trade with across the continent, side by side with our native Rand or Naira currency.
This will open up the market, and give us a broader group of people to service.
Since there's no currency conversion - it doesn't matter whether you are in South Africa, Botswana, or Nigeria; we all will have equal opportunity, and this will drive competition and ultimately better products and services.
We can't change governments
Unfortunately, politicians in Africa are mostly corrupt and self-serving. They don't care about uniting the continent or even eradicating poverty.
We as developers can change this in small increments. We need to build more local startups and network better.
We need to build a culture of putting Africa first and celebrating local brands. The next time you need a product or service, look local first.
If you spot local startups on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc... - support them in whatever way you can and be engaged in their community to give feedback and help them grow.
If we consciously make this effort and educate those around us, we can make a huge difference.
Conclusion
I love the continent of Africa. It's my birthplace and will always be special to me. I feel we have so much potential, especially in the tech space.
We need more African startups. With community support, pooling our resources, and helping to upskill each other, we as developers can help Africa grow and take its place on the global stage.
To our international friends, this is not an attack on your country or products. I merely want to motivate African developers to unite and do more, so that we can build a better Africa.
Africa needs massive growth soon. Too many people are living in dire poverty and hopelessness. We need to change this, there is a better way.
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