Mark Zuckerberg Goes On A Charm Offensive In Nigeria And Kenya

Published: Sept. 5, 2016, 9:39 a.m.

b"Mark Zuckerberg\\u2019s much-publicised trip to the continent spawned dozens of think-pieces in the blogosphere this past week.\\n\\nMany pundits clearly view Mark\\u2019s 'surprise' visit to Nigeria and Kenya as an affirmation of the continent\\u2019s importance as a valuable source of under-utilised tech talent, and as a hot-bed of home-grown innovation. Others read it as a pre-cursor to a massive wave of foreign investment that's expected to wash over the continent\\u2019s technology industry. We, on the other hand, can\\u2019t help sensing the calculated profit motive wrapped up in Mark\\u2019s impeccably orchestrated African safari.\\n\\n'Connecting Africa\\u2019 is no doubt a huge priority for Facebook, given the growth of the continent\\u2019s increasingly affluent middle class, the availability of relatively cheap labour, and the hundreds of millions of impoverished Africans who are prime for education\\u2014 read monetisation. Now, on some level Mark Zuckerberg must care about humanity and all, but it is curious how readily many of us have fallen for the man's trademark charm and humility without questioning his obvious self-interest.\\n\\nIn this week\\u2019s African Tech Round-up episode, Andile Masuku shares more insights gleaned from DEMO Africa 2016. Look out for snippets of conversations he had with the Publisher of CIO East Africa magazine and CEO of DEMO Africa, Harry Hare, the Principal Investment Officer for Africa at Singularity Investments, Lexi Novistke, as well as two promising startup founders who made it to the final pitching phase of this year\\u2019s competition (but didn\\u2019t win a spot in the top five), Ismael Rachdaoui of nextwi (Morocco), and Brian Ondari of AirKlip (Kenya).\\n\\nMusic Credits:\\nMusic by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)\\nMusic licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0"