In his post on "Innovation in Africa," Dave Tait lists some key tips from various sources. One in particular stood out to me:
"Innovate on existing platforms (We’ve got bicycles and mobile phones in Africa, plus lots of metal to weld. Innovate using that stuff, rather than bringing in completely new tech.)" -
Ethan Zuckerman
I've been learning about about a project to create low-cost 3D Printers that can reproduce themselves out of discarded plastic bottles, but that technology is not really here yet. To hear that we have abundant scrap metal in Africa (I wasn't able to find any information about quantity or ubiquity), seems like a valuable resource that may come in handy for certain ideas.
As always, the African people are crafty when it comes to devising tools out of few resources:
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