Browsing: Buying data in Africa

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize Africa’s climate-smart agriculture initiatives.
• Nigeria’s Data Science Centre in Lagos projects to train over one million Nigerians in data science by 2027.
• Rwanda is looking to invest $76.5 million over the next five years in setting up comprehensive AI ecosystem.

Across Africa, an increasing number of countries are embracing Artificial Intelligence (AI) investments. AI is programming that provides machines the ability to think, learn and act on their own.

In 2014, Africa Heads of State from 32 countries signed what has now become known as the Smart Africa Alliance. The deal was dedicated to identifying priorities and stimulating investment in AI-powered investments.

Through the alliance and with the backing of Facebook and Google, the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences has launched a master’s degree in AI. Since then, all around Africa, nations are embracing and investing in AI technologies.

African countries are

The Next Great Data Market 

In the last decade the field of data analytics has revolutionized the way business is conducted in the industrialized world. Data collection and analysis have allowed companies to boost efficiency and innovation and better tailor services to reflect consumer needs.  Likewise, mobile phone apps have created new opportunities for collaboration and investment and allowed for crossover between sectors.  

However, these rapid changes have barely made a splash in Africa, where only about 1% of the world’s research data is produced.  This is changing rapidly and the current dearth of data analytics means that there’s huge unrealized business potential waiting to be tapped, especially for first movers.  This is in large part because data analytics is not just a useful tool but rather a disruptive, market altering paradigm.  In the Western tech sector, the vast stores of data built up by giants like Google, Amazon and …