From poverty to CNN's Hero of the Year 💫

Welcome to Tech Safari!

Your tour guide on African Tech.

Today is Tech Roundup Tuesday, where we will dive into the biggest stories in the world's most exciting continent.

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We're three days into 2023, and I hope your New Years Resolutions are going strong!

Everyone is on vacay this week and it has been a slow one for news.

So I wanted to kick this off by diving into an inspiring African story from the end of 2022. Hope you like it!

Here's the tour plan for today 🧭

• Headline: Meet CNN's 2022 Hero of the Year

• Tech Roundups - Zimbabwe bans Lithium Exports, and a new country has Africa's fastest broadband speed..

• Tech Twitter - Predictions for African Tech in 2023

Alright, lets get this tour started 🦍

CNN's 2022 Hero of the Year

Meet Nelly Cheboi - CNN’s 2022 Hero of the Year

Nelly started a non-profit called TechLit, which has given computer access to over 4,000 students in Kenya to help them become computer literate.

But when she was in school, she didn’t even know what a computer was.

Nelly grew up in Mogotio, a rural village in Kenya.

She grew up in poverty and raised her sister from when she was just 9 years old.

“I never forgot what it was like with my stomach churning because of hunger at night.”

But with a lot of hard work, she landed a scholarship to Augustana College in Illinois, United States, to study Computer Science.

Her experience with a computer? Next to none.

In fact, she would handwrite in class and transcribe what she wrote onto a laptop.

But Nelly fell in love Computer Science, and realised it was a skill she wanted to bring back to her community.

She also realised that in the software industry, companies throw away computers when newer, better models come out.

So in 2018 she started collecting computers that were going to be thrown out and transported them to Kenya in her own luggage.

At one point, she brought 44 computers back to Kenya, and her extra luggage cost more that the flights home.

She would set up computer labs in with them in rural communities around Kenya.

This was usually the first time that students and teachers could access computers.

Seeing the impact, Nelly left her lucrative job as a Software Developer to bring tech to more schools in Kenya.

And that’s how TechLit was born.

Today, Nelly is in 10 schools bringing tech literacy to over 4000 students.

She believes that tech can solve poverty in Africa

'Redistribution and adoption of technology is the most effective equalizer.

Our research leads us to believe that this will increase GDP, decrease unemployment and improve the quality of life for any African country we partner with.'

We agree.

Technology is a key to the continent’s economic growth, but the World Economic Forum sees digital literacy as a key barrier to solve before we unlock this.

And we see this directly impact earning power, too. Landing a career in tech can earn you significantly more than other traditional roles.

Nelly wants to grow TechLit from 10 to 100 computer labs, and 40,000 students learning on computer in the next year.

And the way TechLit is growing and racking up grants, we're excited to see her get there.

The Roundup

All the other stories that went down last week:

• According to the Global Innovation Index (GII), Rwanda comes in first for the fastest broadband speed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rwanda is trailed by Madagascar in second place. Yep, Madagascar 🦓

• Zimbabwe bans the export of Raw Lithium. Zimbabwe makes the move to cash in on the mineral proceeds and become one of the world’s biggest lithium exporters. Mineral exports account for 60% of Zimbabwe’s export earnings, and the mining sector contributes to 16% of its GDP.

Tech Tweeters

I asked Twitter for their predictions on Tech in Africa this year, and it's been mixed.

So far we’ve heard:

• Enoch (Developer, Voltvue): A rise in social buying startups and a few fintechs shutting down

• Tesh (CEO, Marketforce): Two more Africa Unicorns 🦄 🦄

• Peter (Principal, Oui Capital): Startups will struggle to grow in real dollar terms

• Addis (Chairman, Kazana Group): Ethiopia grows as an investment destination

What do you think? Let me know on Twitter

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Catch you soon!

👋🏾 Caleb