future of tech is Africa

Derrick Ceyrac | AFP | Getty Images

Jankara market, located on Lagos Island and the skyline of Lagos, Nigeria.

While ecommerce and mobile money companies are leading Africa’s tech race, solar technology and agriculture are also big sectors there. Ignitia, a startup based in Accra, Ghana has developed a weather model to help small-scale farmers in West Africa better predict water availability in order to manage their daily activities, optimize food production, and improve yields.

“Ignitia’s forecasts are twice as accurate as global forecasts, and are only improving. They are created based on remote-sensing data and the process is 97 percent automated, which means that we can scale geographically without the need to build expensive infrastructure,” Lizzie Merrill, account manager at Ignitia, told CNBC.

“Entrepreneurship is native to Ghana, and now, with an influx of resources, an increasingly educated population, and access to technology — new businesses, start-ups and social enterprises, are emerging en masse to try and solve some of the challenges here,” said Merrill.

“There are still gaps however: Funding is not available at all levels, and local entrepreneurs sometimes struggle to attract international awareness and funding,” she added.

As the tech scene in Africa continues to evolve, the continent’s biggest obstacle is keeping up with the rapid pace of technological innovation and adoption. “Technology in Africa is not where it should be but we are getting there,” said Nyenyeshi. “When it does, Africa could use technology to tell its story.”