54 countries make up Africa Clearly higher is the number of languages spoken and ethnic groups each exceeding 2 000 from the Berbers in the north to the Khoisan in the south During and after the colonial period little if any consideration was given to inter societal compatibilities and incompatibilities when borders were drawn up which has led to many conflicts on the heterogeneous continent that still exist today Peter Kariuki was 11 years old when he taught him self to code In his village in Kenya the internet was un known at the time Most of the villagers not even had access to the power grid By chance the son of small farmers met an IT student at a copy shop who was the first person to talk to him about computers His enthusi asm was instantly inspired says Kariuki The young boy printed out 400 pages of a C pro gramming guide on his uncle s creaking printer and got started Today the Kenyan is 25 years old and co found er of SafeMotos a kind of Uber for motorcycle taxis in Rwanda The startup is so successful that it s been at tracting international attention Its current statistic re flects 600 000 trips and SafeMotos keeps growing Kariuki is a perfect example of the young genera tion of entrepreneurs that s surging ahead in many plac es of Africa They re well educated full of zest for action with a contagious kind of optimism Kariuki s generation is no longer willing to accept Africa s image of a back ward continent The future is African he says The power of youth The forecasts of the global population develop ment prove him right Four in ten people in the world will be living in Africa by 2100 according to United Na tions estimates Even at this point the continent has the world s youngest population In 2015 226 million people in Africa were between 15 and 24 years old By 2055 this number is likely to have doubled The population growth goes hand in hand with increasing migration from rural to urban areas New megacities are developing which entails enormous socio economic challenges to the continent as well as business potential Technological progress plays a key role in Africa s future The industrial revolutions of the past largely bypassed Africa South of the Sahara only South Africa has seen an appreciable industrial development Today renewable energies the internet and mo bile telecommunications offer opportunities also in the remainder of Africa that would have been inconceivable just 20 years ago According to Dianna Games CEO of business consultancy Africa Work in Johannesburg particularly the young population in Africa is pushing for modern technology and innovations Development leaps instead of steps Leapfrogging is the keyword skipping develop ment levels from chaotic share taxis to app based local public transportation from smoking kerosene lamps to households supplied with solar energy from traditional farmers markets to online shops modeled on Amazon In some areas Africans are even surging ahead of people in other parts of the world The M Pesa mon ey transfer system enabling bank transfers via smart phones that was launched in Kenya in 2007 is a case in point Millions of people use M Pesa not only in Kenya but also in other African countries In fact 49 percent of Kenya s economic output is transacted via this sys tem A large proportion of Africans has no access to con ventional banking services but almost everyone has a smartphone Ironically Africa s backwardness provides The future is African Peter Kariuki Young mobility entrepreneur outlook 87

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