African tech gives businesses homegrown tools to grow
Africa trades more with the rest of the world than within the continent itself. That’s true for physical products, and for technology that could let businesses work better. At the Africa Business Forum in Ethiopia, tech entrepreneurs working with ITC showed their home-grown solutions to meet the continent’s needs.
Samrawit Arekegn created Mogzit In-Home Care Services, an app that connects people to home care service providers while providing training to improve their caregiving.
Araya Mengistu founded Quanomic, which creates software that designs better ways to use limited water supplies for irrigation.
‘Demonstrating our innovative water management solution for farmers showcased our commitment to progress but also opened doors for collaboration and support with actors from across Africa,’ he said.
Both work with the Netherlands Trust Fund V at the International Trade Centre (ITC). The ITC booth highlighted collaborative work on regional value chains with the African Union Commission and the European Union.
The One Trade Africa Initiative organized ITC’s participation at the Forum, which gathers African leaders and businesses to harness opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The innovative solutions on display showed how technology can meet needs experienced around the continent, especially when women and youth help drive those business solutions.
ITC supports small businesses to use technology to access markets and compete with larger companies, through reducing costs and spurring innovation and productivity.
Technology are sizable in agribusiness. In Ethiopia, Ghana, and Senegal, ITC works with startups that offer digital advisory services, smart farming tools, financial services, digital procurement and ecommerce.
`Social media, online marketplaces and artificial intelligence enable local micro producers to market their products and technology facilitates upgrading in agri value chains through democratising information, offering traceability, optimising processes and cutting post-harvest losses by e-logistics’, said ITC Chief for the Office of Africa in her panel intervention.
The Forum, held on 17 February, took place after the annual summit of the African Union, at the revamped Africa Hall, the historical landmark where the Charter of the Organisation of African Unity was adopted in 1963.
