This week in technology by Digital Africa

This week, we looked at the Digital Africa 2020 fireside chat with Dr Ernest Ndukwe, Chairman of the Board at MTN Nigeria and former Chief Executive at the Nigeria Communications Commission.

You can watch the full video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVV2Fu6I8iE

We did learn that MTN, NCC and other partners ran a test of 5G this year. But more presciently, the fact remains that 4G is not even the current state of the art in Nigeria today, and other parts of Africa.

Essentially, most of the continent is still in the 3rd Generation of internet connectivity, while the rest of the world is in an arms race for the 5th Generation.

Is that necessarily a bad thing?

35 years ago, in 1985, if you wanted to send a message to Lagos, you would have to write it first, and be exactly sure of what you wanted to say. Then you found a way to physically send it. Today, that will take just over 2 minutes on your phone.

That brings up an interesting philosophical question – what happened to the rest of the time tech has saved for us? Newton’s 3rd law of thermodynamics assures us that the time and energy is going somewhere?

One quick answer is that we spend it online – chatting, fighting, learning, earning. The end result is that people are much more stressed and anxious, despite all the benefits of modern technology.

This is a problem – and where there is a problem…

There is an app with the solution!

Last year, it is estimated that the headspace app grossed $52 million in 2019. Calm, a similar app, was just $8 million dollars short of $100 million.

The point?

3, 4, 5 & 6G are only abstractions of speed. More speed is not necessarily the answer to every question, unless you are executing a great idea.

As you enjoy the weekend, keep working on building an amazing Digital Africa!

This post was facilitated by our friends at Studio Seigneur. Do you have an idea they can build for you?