Africa's Mobile Revolution

How the Cell Phone is Transforming the Continent

 

The mobile phone has evolved from a communications tool to a device, on which much of Africa’s economic aspirations rest. Innovations built around the mobile phone have improved the population’s inclusion in financial markets and have helped to work around the continent’s infrastructure problems. In some regions, more Africans have a mobile phone than have access to electricity. This has opened up opportunities for entrepreneurs and has changed the way business is done in the continent’s banking, agricultural, telecoms and pharmaceutical sectors. But it has also helped to increase transparency in politics as activists use mobile applications to monitor political violence and fight against state control of free speech.