Latest updates on technology and innovation trends in Africa

Popular tags: All Tanzania Startups Innovation Mobile
Showing posts with label GadgetBOX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GadgetBOX. Show all posts

The return of the King or let's say the King and the King's brother; Samsung S6 and Samsung S6 Edge are already here. Although they are not going to be available globally until April 10th this year. Already everyone on the wide web village knows about this cool gadget.


Among the distinguished features of the phone includes wireless charger, high speed charging capacity with estimated 50% battery charge 30 minutes after plugging the phone on the charger. Oh, I forgot you don't have to plug anymore. The phone also have upgraded the camera to a new amazing experience. Does it have what it takes to make 2015 good year for Samsung lets wait and see, game on Apple!!!
The First e-waste 3D printer in Tanzania.

It is great to see what is happening at Buni Hub, a local technology hub in Dar es Salaam. The hub has been the first space in Africa to produce the e-waste 3D printer. The printer has been developed from printed 3D parts, used motors and recycled iron bars.

 What does this mean? Is Africa ready to leapfrog and start to manufacture devices and sell to the global market? The idea sound ambitious but already STIC a local fabrication laboratory have developed interest to pioneer the first small scale e-waste 3D printer production plant just outside Dar es Salaam.




3D printing technologies have already shown its ability to revive the manufacturing sector in Africa. The technology can be used to print; models to teach science subjects, artificial body parts for disabled and allow innovators to prototype quickly, smartly and in the most effective way. Is this the day we witness the South start to produce for the North to use? Let’s wait and see. 
Image from the GSMA report

According to report by GSMA over 3.3 million Tanzanians have been reached by mHealth services. Although Tanzania is among the countries suffering the most on maternal mortality, the mHealth initiative has shown a lot of promises to improve the health sector although up to now only 32% of the interventions made by mHealth are related to improving the status of maternal mortality rate. 

The full detailed report has released by GSMA can be accessed from here
Mobile industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Tanzania. Tanzania has more than seven mobile network operators (MNOs). The exponential increase in terms of number of mobile subscribers is due to the role played by mobile phone on improving people's lives.

Is this the right time to cut down the cost of importing mobile phones in Tanzania ? By reducing tax and creating supportive ecosystem for growth of the sector will encourage even more people to access mobile phones at a cheaper cost.

"TANZANIA is the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa and ninth globally for demonstrating most conducive environments for financial inclusion, according to the new Global Microscope 2014 by The Economist Intelligence Unit. " Daily news

Among clear reasons for Tanzania to perform brilliantly on financial inclusion is due to the fastest adoption of mobile money services. People access to mobile phones simply means they can have access to the formal financial system. Some of the services that comes from the MNOs these days includes ability to deposit and access loans from your mobile money account. 

So, what is this weird stuff ? this cool but weird stuff is called nano drone, something that might transform Africa through so many different ways. 

Already there so many people who have shown the interest to buy and import the product for different uses; covering sports events, national public events, monitoring road traffics and getting real time news coverage from up above since its cheap compared to using a helicopter.

The nano drone is already available in Dar es Salaam local innovation hub called 
Buni Innovation hub to help local techies to get a feel of piloting a drone. Buni Innovation hub also have plans to make drones using e-waste materials and the project is already on the pipeline.

The brother of this guy who his bigger in size can take pictures and record event from up above is the one we are talking about. These guys can transform so many things in Africa. 

 · Feb 3
The world smallest affordable drone, The Nano drone, already in Tanzania


Already there is a project by World Bank consultant, Frederick in Tanzania which uses drones to improve the sewage and sanitation systems. The drone take pictures from the above and help experts to analyze areas where the sewage systems are not working properly. The project is piloted on slums of Dar es Salaam and help to encounter sewage blockage which cause a lot of problems to the city's sewage system.

This is just one area where these toy look alike gadgets can be used to create an impact. There are so many areas such as large scale farming on agriculture sector and animal husbandry. The device can be used to supervise and monitor while recording videos from above. Recently, there were suggestions for wild animal poaching control agencies to use drones to control poaching.


As smartphones are getting cheaper by day they are becoming even more accessible to the people at the bottom of the pyramid as this report by InfoDev analyze.

 While everyone is busy talking about Internet of things in Africa we will be more practical, if we talk mobile of things.

Things that you can do with your mobile phones are surprisingly increasing; you can even pay for the football match ticket using your mobile phone now, you can pay your road license using your phone or even get a bank a loan. This is the reason the financial inclusion of Tanzania is improving day by day.

 In Tanzania while internet penetration is still at 20%, the mobile penetration rate is approaching 70% and mobile phone subscriptions at 30 million according to the GMSA report, mobile money for the unbanked.