kwsompimpong

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No. 29: West Africa Vocational Education Set to Disrupt Unemployment

No. 29: West Africa Vocational Education Set to Disrupt Unemployment

Nigeria has some of the most successful entrepreneurs across the African continent. Individuals like Titi Odunfa, Tony Elumelu, Adenike Ogunlesi, and Jason Njoku have made their mark across a range of industries. While these individuals may not call themselves social entrepreneurs, their motivation to improve the lot of Nigeria and its people comes through in their work. Tweet me…

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No. 28: Kenyan Social Enterprises Attract Impact Investors Because of a Focus on Sustainable Growth

No. 28: Kenyan Social Enterprises Attract Impact Investors Because of a Focus on Sustainable Growth

Kenya has garnered lots of attention for Nairobi’s tech scene and the pending completion of Konza City – enticing talking heads to debate Nairobi’s status as the Silicon Valley of Africa. Yet, the technology space is not the only sector sector seeing exciting growth.

Participants in the Geeks Gone Global’s 2013 Africa Innovation Excursion witnessed the impact social enterprises are having in…

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No. 27: Innovation in Ghana's Social Enterprise Space

No. 27: Innovation in Ghana’s Social Enterprise Space

The Geeks Gone Global team is excited to lead you on an excursion to check out the innovative things happening in the social enterprise space in Ghana, Nigeria, South African, and Kenya. Check out the first of four country and company profiles to prep you for the trip.

Ghana is among the fastest growing economies in the world. The country has been known for its stable democracy, large deposits…

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No. 25: Infrastructure in Africa: Go Big

No. 25: Infrastructure in Africa: Go Big

http://www.ted.com/talks/eddie_obeng_smart_failure_for_a_fast_changing_world.html

In 2009, The World Bank estimated that it would take $93B annually over the next 10 years to bring Africa’s infrastructure to a healthy level. Four years later, how much of the $372B needed has actually been invested on the continent?

Watching Eddie Obeng give this TED Talk left me pondering on how we can think big…

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No. 24: Social Media a Key Driver of the Next Wave of African Growth

No. 24: Social Media a Key Driver of the Next Wave of African Growth

But I won’t argue the point too hard.

Yesterday evening, I attended the DC Africa Tweet up hosted by Semhar Araia. I learned about the event through Twitter and had a blast chatting it up with folks addressing the task of contributing to African development from different angles.

Of the ~60 or so people at the event, I met three through Twitter – Laura Seay, Semhar Araia, and Teddy Ruge. The…

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No. 23: Three Things Africa on My Mind This Week

No. 23: Three Things Africa on My Mind This Week

1. Mining and Governance in Africa – Kudos to Ghana for ramping up its move against illegal mining in Ghana with the arrests of several Chinese miners two weeks ago, and several Nigeriens a few days ago. I look forward to seeing how the country and others continue to build their capacity around governance to provide protection for their people.

2. Market Research and Private Equity – While…

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No. 22: Lunch with Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool

No. 22: Lunch with Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool

It usually does not take long to sense when certain people have wisdom, but when are you able to actually feel a person’s wisdom? One can feel Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool’s wisdom.

During our conversation over lunch on Wednesday, Ambassador Rasool stressed the importance of South Africa exporting the principle of Ubuntu – I am because you are. Our focus on meeting with technology companies in South…

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No. 56: 2 Thoughts - Future Africa | Acquisitions

No. 56: 2 Thoughts – Future Africa | Acquisitions

Welcome to the Future

Whatever Flutterwave and Andela cofounder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is building, its focus on building a shared vision for the future of Africa is something I can get behind. Excited to see where this goes.

Ghanaian startup mPharma is buying Kenya’s second-largest pharmacy chain

You don’t see too many deals where a startup acquires a legacy brand. To see that on the continent is…

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Black Folks Monetizing Black Culture

I’m writing this while sitting in peace after listening to Seinabo Sey’s latest album, I’m a Dream. It’s a very strong project you should give a listen.

It’s fitting that album put me in good mood, because a recent interview media critic Jay Rosen did with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had me shaking my head.

Dorsey has been doing something of a press tour to provide more transparency into what the…

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What Happens When AI Meets Africa's Demographic Boom?

What Happens When AI Meets Africa’s Demographic Boom?

Africa is projected to have more people at working age than the rest of the world’s population by 2035.

By 2045, artificial intelligence is projected to reach the singularity, where it will be self-improving rapidly rather than being dependent on human inputs.

On their own, these two developments are concerning. For years now, policymakers have braced themselves for what could happen once there’s…

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Top Podcasts of the Week - March 18-24

“Don’t ever tether your business to the benevolence of another company."

Here are some of my favorite podcasts from this week. Uber Chief Brand Officer Bozoma Saint John and Daymond John have a nice conversation about Bozoma’s origin story, her approach to work, diversity in the corporate world, among other topics. Takeaway: Believe that you are attracting good outcomes, and act accordingly.…

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Axios' Diversity Challenge

Building a newsroom is one of the things I'm most excited about in building CultureBanx.

https://twitter.com/roylschwartz/status/954097111246802945 This tweet exposed the work Axios has to do to improve the diversity of its news room. It was jarring to see how few people of color the startup had working there at the time. Lexi McCammond, one of their top reporters, wasn’t in the shot, but that’s not much help. If you click into the tweet, you’ll see folks going in on the lack of…

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Advertising vs. Subscriptions

In a world where advertising rules everything around me, how do I keep CultureBanx's subscribers front and center while growing this business?

In a world where advertising rules everything around me, how do I keep CultureBanx’s subscribers front and center while growing this business? Financial news streaming startup, Cheddar, announced yesterday that they raised $22 million. As part of the announcement, they declared that they are doing away with paid subscriptions. My mind went back to their constant stream of infomercially Instagram…

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Thinking About Ads Differently. Indexing Diversity.

Thinking about Ads Differently https://twitter.com/BenedictEvans/status/936323784155414529 One of the latent questions I’ve had about the tech industry is the seemingly unchecked dominance of advertising in tech company business models. Google. Facebook. Snap. Advertising is practically the sole driver of their businesses. Aren’t there more creative revenue streams for their businesses? Benedict…

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Gratitude

There’s so many incredible things on my mind for which I’m grateful: 1. My daughter is this incredibly sweet, hardworking, funny, disciplined little person. Just incredible to watch. 2. Hosted friends at my place twice this past month and got so much joy out of it. Grateful for the people who have invited me into their world. 3. 324 people are signed up for Black People Things and 30-40% read the…

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Guest Post: Rethinking Old Practices of Learning

Guest Post: Rethinking Old Practices of Learning

This guest post is by my friend Ifunanya Nwokedi. I’m excited about her starting to put her point of view out in the public square. While Africa needs a well-educated and experienced graduate to drive change and development, these are not the experiences students receive at universities. In their Quartz article, Seth Traudeu and Keno Omu detail the disconnect between market place skills needed to…

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Facebook to Get an African-American Board Member...Soon?

Facebook to Get an African-American Board Member…Soon?

Facebook has been on the hot seat as more information comes to light about the role it played in Russia’s meddling in the November 2016 election. The hot seat treatment brought the company’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, to DC for an exclusive interview with Axios co-founder Mike Allen to discuss the situation and what Facebook was going to do about. While in town Thursday, Ms. Sandberg visited with the…