Before any of the numerous stumbling blocks we currently experience until we have POLITICAL stability . any serious impacts by such an industry remain DIM . Laws governing theft and prosecution through telephone technology for both companies offering these technologies and consumers is also a must , because in africa especially where you start talking about a whole continent transferring money through phone you can be sure how much interest that will attract from unsavory characters from all corners of the world .

true cell phone technology and technology as a whole is fuelling a generation of african innovators and consumers and also creating new wealth from non traditional income generators , its all fantastic but to really be able to compete in a growing global economy african govts need to go along way in developing and enforcing laws that protect against intellectual property theft , go further and develop seriously competitive IT schools or create scholarship programs that send kenyans out of country to learn and develop these skills , supporting private sector investors or even better supporting the local innovation/starups in so many ways and hugely investing in IT infrastructure so we can consume locally and export. what we have to realize is people are developing these same products or jumping on the african IT band wagon with alot more govt support making it cheaper for them . Until some of these things start happening well keep hearing of one off success stories that dont impacting much coz its either bought and rebranded or cannot be developed to full potential .

Building an African middleclass (the A2s referred to in the article) is key to getting some African economic giants. Some will come out about due to redistribution of wealth from natural resources. But it’ll mainly be service-driven companies, IT, and Biotechnology.

Even though Rwanda has alot of potential, Kenya will still remain the dominant player in East Africa for the next several decades.

Safaricon: It was a duopoly. Little competition as mobitelea protected safcon vs Econet & other competitors. Not so easy going forward.

I so agree with you.
Anyone who sets their sights on these new emerging Web 2.0 and mobile technologies will be laughing all the way to the bank in the not-so-far future.
Just look at Safaricom with their obscenely huge profits?
France Telcom, Zain and all the other Telcomms are not crazy when they eye Kenya and Africa as a whole.
There is awesome potential in Kenya especially. Now is the time to invest.
Looking forward to your article.