Bursting out of the 'Dark Continent' glove

There are plenty of interesting developments happening in East Africa today that considered on their own are disparate unrelated events, however, observed together, paint a picture of a region bursting out of the 'Dark Continent' glove.

The East African Community Integration is taking off - with plenty of hitches as expected, but nevertheless taking off. A 5 state regional bloc has greater visibility than a single nation and therefore more recognition and so is able to garner more attention.

The growth of academic institutions in the region has created a solid base of multi-skilled labour whose best qualities are entrepreneurship, working around obstacles and being the best copycats (which is good because that is exactly what is driving China's growth).

In East Africa, poverty has been a mixed blessing-forcing citizens and foreigners to create their own opportunities and thus we see businesses long established in the developed world only beginning to flourish here. East Africa has become a landmass of opportunities.

Finally, we have super-fast technology adoption, where the Internet has become the lifeblood for most businesses and should a bomb affect the fibre optic cable that brings that sweet tech blood to the multitudes there will be a massive outcry.

And since they say that what a man discusses most is a reflection of what he values most, then in I-Network Uganda will reveal just how East Africa's population can no longer exist without mobile phones and the Internet whose alias is Facebook. In fact if you are delirious about stats you can find East Africa's internet usage, down to the number, on this site.

What does all of this mean?

It was a phone call I received from a company in an OECD country that startled me out of the 'business as usual' trance. He wanted to know how Enterprise Technology could help his OECD company which was interested in outsourcing various services. He then promptly sent in a preliminary due diligence form to begin the process.

Wait a minute-what happened to the obvious 'India as first choice' and the 'Philippines as a second best' for outsourcing? What about all the other emerging nations?

Even though East Africa's growth seems to be a rickety show fraught with unresolved issues, from the outside looking in, it has become a viable option. Outsiders are anxiously seeking better rates for services and East Africa has most of the right ingredients including skilled labour, technology savvy, quick learning and hunger for the opportunity.

What East Africa now needs is to blow its horn loudly and sharpen its edge because inadvertently the economic conundrum and ensuing search for lower operational costs has turned the spotlight on the 'dark continent'.

Follow us on twitter.com/technologyEA