Developing in the Developing World

“What’s the story with Africa’s tech scene?”, you might ask. Well, here’s one.

Arjun Khoosal Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 9, 2017

After gruelling pitch-offs across Africa, the best startup from each country converges at the Seedstars Africa Summit. IDWork was chosen to represent South Africa.

Soon after arriving in Rwanda, I hear another travelling South African broadcasting that it’s his first time being in Africa. While some of us eagerly await the next season of Xenophobia, other Geographical Denialists are hard at work walling up their little piece of Europe.

IDWork, it must be said, identifies as an African startup. In no particular order, here are some involved factors:

Geography

Eligibility for Seedstars Africa Summit

My first major learning came sooner than expected:

Fly with Socks

They made me take off my shoes at the airport checkpoints, twice, and it got pretty embarrassing.

Rwanda is tightly managed. We pass through another military checkpoint outside the airport, where you’re not allowed to take photos.

At the military checkpoint, we remove our bags from the bus to be sniffed.

Closer to the city centre, the bustling streets are flanked by little shops with hand-painted signs. These streets primarily carry scooters, which carry paying passengers — essentially, they carry the public transport system.

The first thing I notice are the helmets. Every scooter driver and passenger wears a helmet.

It takes a bit longer for me to realise: there’s zero litter. Rwanda was the first country to ban plastic bags a decade ago.

During the summit, the trendy thing to do, I notice, is to call Rwanda a startup nation.

Well, if it were my startup, the first pitch slide would be: