Timbuktu Chronicles

From Rwanda NewTimes reports:

...Yego Moto is a new technology system that allows taxi-moto operators to charge passengers without bargaining. It is a ‘metre’ service which uses Global Positioning System (GPS) devices installed on motorcycles to deliver information about the journey covered by a passenger.More here

Lynsey Chutel writing for Quartz Africa:

The first Africa Architecture Awards will be held this month. It’s easy to be cynical about handing out trophies when so much development still needs to happen on the continent. Still, judging by the shortlist, the awards could help to identify what a uniquely African aesthetic is, while also highlighting the importance of incorporating environmental requirements and cultural identity. If anything, it’s also a welcome celebration of leaving behind colonial-era building.More here

Preeti Varathan writing in Quartz:
There’s a temptation to see burgeoning venture capital, home-grown businesses, freshly minted startups, and the potential for big financial exits as omens of the next Silicon Valley. The Bay Area has become synonymous with a young, digitally-creative generation that connects technology to change. Many believe this culture is now sprouting in Africa...[more]

Alexis Okeowo writing in the New Yorker:
Is conservative Nigeria ready for Amaka Osakwe?More here

Founder of:
UGOvations™ Engineering is where ingenuity, innovation, creativity, electronics and technology meet.

Matt Petronzio writing in Mashable:
image viaFor many hospitals in rural parts of the developing world, electricity is unreliable at best. In the course of one day there can be brownouts and power spikes. Electricity may cut off for hours or even days at a time, without any warning.

If this happens during surgery or forces surgeons to postpone operations — and it does — it will often cost people their lives.

But an innovative device called the Universal Anesthesia Machine (UAM), from nonprofit medical device company Gradian Health Systems, allows health workers in countries like Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Zambia to deliver anesthesia without any electricity, and helps save patients' lives in the process.More here

Sushma U N writing in Quartz

Laborx
Has sent candidates to Amazon, Google and more...Founded in 2015, LaborX is an online platform that matches high-tech employers with skilled but nontraditional job candidates — such as those with technical training but no college degree. Taglined “the LinkedIn for the LinkedOut,” LaborX highlights candidates’ qualifications with video resumes and work samples.More here

From the Bank for International Settlements:New cryptocurrencies are emerging almost daily, and many interested parties are wondering whether central banks should issue their own versions. But what might central bank cryptocurrencies (CBCCs) look like and would they be useful? This feature provides a taxonomy of money that identifies two types of CBCC - retail and wholesale - and differentiates them from other forms of central bank money such as cash and reserves. It discusses the different characteristics of CBCCs and compares them with existing payment options. More here

Nataliey Bitature writes:
image viaAfrica’s urban areas are booming, experiencing a high urban growth rate over the last two decades at 3.5% per year. This growth rate is expected to hold into 2050. With this growth, street food is going to become one of the most important components of African diets. The formal sector will just not be able to keep up!

Enter my company, Musana Carts, which tackles the #FoodRevolution challenge from the end of the food value chain. Musana Carts, which currently operates in Uganda, streamlines and improves the production and consumption of street food.

Why did we decide to focus on street food?More here

In Tunisia,Qatar & Jordan:

Sahara Forest Project: From vision to reality from Sahara Forest Project on Vimeo.

The Sahara Forest Project is a new environmental solution designed to utilize what we have enough of to produce what we need more of, using deserts, saltwater, sunlight and CO2 to produce food, water and clean energy. The Sahara Forest Project has set out to establish groups of interconnected economic activities in low-lying desert areas around the world. The simple core of the concept is an infrastructure for bringing saltwater inland. Through establishing this saltwater infrastructure, The Sahara Forest Project aims to make electricity generation from solar power more efficient, operate energy- and water-efficient Saltwater-cooled greenhouses for growing high value crops in the desert and sequestering CO2 through revegetation of desert lands...[more]

EarthEnable: Sustainable earthen flooring for Rwanda from EarthEnable on Vimeo.


Dust is kicked up, spills and puddles stick around, and the floors of peoples’ homes become a breeding ground for mosquitos, parasites, and all of the disease that comes with them. But concrete floors are just too expensive for many families, especially in Rwanda.

EarthEnable’s custom-developed earthen floors are the solution. EarthEnable eliminates unsanitary dirt floors and provides affordable, sanitary flooring that can be washed, cleaned, and used to create a healthy home environment for millions of people.

ESI Africa reporting from Ejigbo, Lagos on a project by Concept Technologies founded by Tokunbo Tonade:
Officially launched our Solar house that powers six aircons on Saturday 9th of SepA post shared by Tokunbo Tonade (@tktonade) on Sep 13, 2017 at 5:14am PDT“The home is a five-bedroom bungalow powered by a 12.6KW Solar Off-Grid System that runs 94 per cent on the power of the sun and 6 per cent on diesel during cloudy weather. Off-grid means it has been completely disconnected from electricity distribution companies and has been running without power outage in the last one year.” More here

The Sun Exchange is a marketplace where you can purchase solar cells and have them power businesses and communities in the sunniest locations on earth, earning decades of income backed by the power of the sun...[more]

SciDev reports:
An innovative household biodigester has proved itself to a point where a consortium of international investors has put down US$1 million for further expansion in Cambodia and for exploring new markets in other countries.
According to its developer, ATEC Biodigesters — a social enterprise co-owned by Engineers Without Borders, Australia, and Live and Learn Environmental Education, Cambodia — the biodigester uses an anaerobic chamber to break down organic manure from livestock to produce biogas (CH4 and CO2), which is piped to kitchens as cooking gas. Consequently, the resulting residual sludge is transformed into high-quality organic fertiliser. “For isolated, rural and less wealthy populations, the benefits of a sustainable anaerobic digestion system are more direct than for urban populations in developed countries.”More here

David Rochelet reporting for the Makery

Pierre Thiam at TEDGlobal 2017

Forget quinoa. Meet fonio, an ancient "miracle grain" native to Senegal that's versatile, nutritious and gluten-free. In this passionate talk, chef Pierre Thiam shares his obsession with the hardy crop and explains why he believes that its industrial-scale cultivation could transform societies in Africa.

From Medical Futurist:
Artificial intelligence has an unimaginable potential. Within the next couple of years, it will revolutionize every area of our life, including medicine. I am fully convinced that it will redesign healthcare completely – and for the better. Let’s take a look at the promising solutions it offers...[more]

From SOSV

From Shell LiveWIRE's Top Ten Innovators founder of De-rahbs Energy Services, Atalor Ngozi Deborah: