<![CDATA[IBM and Airtel Ghana today announced two initiatives to drive innovation in mobile technology in Ghana – one of Africa’s fastest growing economies. As part of IBM and Airtel’s pan-African partnership, the companies today opened a new Mobile Centre of Excellence at the University of Ghana, Legon – the first facility of its kind in West Africa.
In parallel, the companies also held a competition for Ghanaian university students to encourage the development of new mobile solutions and lay the foundations for start-up enterprises in the country.
The new Mobile Centre of Excellence will provide students at the University of Ghana with access to cutting edge mobile technologies in order to foster an innovation ecosystem in academic institutions.
In coming months, IBM and Airtel plan to also launch other Mobile Centres of Excellence in select universities across Africa, with labs in the key markets of Nigeria and Kenya expected to open later this year.
“Airtel Ghana is proud to partner with IBM to drive mobile innovation across Africa,” said Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, Philip Sowah. “We have been impressed by the level of talent and dynamism amongst students in Ghana and are confident that with the right support and access to technologies, they can go on to play an important role in developing the mobile technologies and businesses of the future.”
According to a recent GSM Association Report, Africa is the fastest-growing mobile market in the world, and is the biggest after Asia. The number of subscribers on the continent has grown almost 20% each year for the past five years reaching over 700 million subscribers at the end of 2012.
Africa is also known for its quick adoptation of new services using advanced mobile phone technologies, including mobile money transfer services like Airtel Money and HD Voice services which Airtel is currently rolling out across Africa,
“Africa is gaining a reputation for innovation in mobile technology with a number of applications and startups coming under the global spotlight,” said Joe Mensah, Country General Manager, IBM Ghana. “For this momentum to continue, it is essential to foster the culture of innovation in African academia and build the skills and experience required for the development of commercially viable businesses in the future.”
The mobile innovation competition was launched with the University of Ghana, Legon last year. This year the competition has been extended to the students of Ashesi University and the University of Cape Coast.
Last year, an application dubbed ‘Check It’ that allows mobile phone users take a photo of goods and send them to a standards body for verification, was developed by a third year Computer Science student, Divine Puplampu.]]>
