Cape Town, 01 Sep 2014
Mobile technology has become a game-changer in many parts of Africa, with cellphones being used for everything from transferring money to providing healthcare information.
According to Toby Shapshak, publisher and editor of the South African Stuff Magazine, in his TED talk on mobile technology in Africa, 'Mobile is the new gold', and rather than being a mobile-first continent, Africa can be considered to be a 'mobile-only continent'. This very same phrase headlined CNN's mobile-opinion piece from Shapshak, where he boasted: "Already, 80% of the world's mobile money transactions are happening in East Africa... the epicentre of mobile innovation."
This is not only an opinion that is being shared by Shapshak; the entire world seems to be talking about Africa's mobile revolution. In a report on How Africa's mobile revolution is disrupting the continent, CNN looked at how, in a little over a decade, Africa has become the world's second most connected region by mobile subscriptions, has shown the fastest growth in mobile subscribers in the world, and according to Informa Telecoms, will most likely hit one billion mobile subscriptions by 2015.
Much has been written about M-PESA's success in Kenya - a true global success story with over 18 million active users - but there are so many start-ups revolutionising the mobile scene in this innovative continent. Take a look at some of the top mobile start-ups in Africa here.
At Grove, mobile is at the heart of innovation. Over the last two years, Grove has seen a massive surge in both the development and uptake of innovative mobile solutions within the African enterprise environment. Processes are becoming mobilised and new solutions are being developed that allow for cost-effective, efficient and easy to deploy mobility. There is no denying it: Africa has long been ready to take charge of this new mobile wave.
Grove's mobile app development platform, which focuses on B2E (business-to-employee), B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) mobile apps have been adopted by companies such as On the Dot, replacing paper-based processes with mobile developments, including electronic proof of delivery and sign-on glass. Grove has seen companies reduce their costs drastically, eliminate paper-based errors, improve efficiency and free up IT to do more with their time.
"People are solving real problems in Africa because we have to, because we have them. And when we solve real problems, we solve them for the rest of the world. Toby Shapshak"
Recently, one of Grove's newly developed mobile apps won a Mobile App Award through the MTN App of the Year competition. The app submitted was developed for a sales company, Maxidor, as a mobile business tool for the use of Maxidor's internal sales people, and its agents and distributors. The purpose of the app was to digitise and mobilise the traditional paper-based sales order process, and positively impact on the overall customer experience. The app has also help effect reduced business operational costs on consumables and human resources, and provided the ability for analytical insight into sales performance and sales trends.
It is evident that in Africa enterprises are hungry for new technology, innovation and movements forward. Grove is extremely excited about this era and what it holds for the overall enterprise market. Innovation is truly at the heart of Africa.
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