African digital entrepreneurship

"Silicon Savannah", "Africa is rising" – much attention is directed at Africa as a continent of economic opportunity and growth. In this episode, HIIG researcher Nicolas Friederici stresses that relative to the hype and hope, things are not that easy and we shouldn't limit our focus on how to copy silicon valley models.

The research presented in this episode is part of the ERC-funded Geonet project by the Oxford Internet Institute (check the show notes for more information on the project).

Nicolas Friederici on tech businesses in Kenia, Ghana and beyond

"Silicon Savannah", "Africa is rising" – much attention is directed at Africa as a continent of economic opportunity and growth. HIIG researcher Nicolas Friederici stresses that relative to the hype and hope, things are not that easy and we shouldn't limit our focus on how to copy silicon valley models.

Friederici has been doing field research in different African innovation hubs while working for the world bank and the Geonet project of the Oxford Internet Institute and is now researching at the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) about digital innovation and entrepreneurship. One of his questions: how does digitalisation of the economy affect people and places at the world's economic margins. In this episode, he spoke with Wouter about what are the local particularities of setting up a tech business in one of the African innovation hubs and what are the problems face on-site.

In this episode:

Friederici on innovation hubs in Graham's Digital Economies at Global Margins (2019)

Agrocenta: https://agrocenta.com/about

More about the Geonet project at the Oxford Internet Institute

More about Nicolas Friederici on hiig.de