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Addressing Africa’s Problems Through Social Networking Sites

Challenges Entered: 
African producers depend on middlemen to access outside markets and, as a result, earn very little from their labor. This project will roll out country-specific social networking sites to give African producers direct access to outside markets.

Eighty percent of Africa’s population rely on self employment activities such as agriculture, handicrafts, and cooperative movement initiatives to make a living. Most of their hard-earned money is lost to middlemen who have access to outside markets. A direct access to these outside markets would right an injustice that has gone on for too long and reward African communities with a much needed income. The African technology landscape is changing fast and there are now internet cafes in many towns. My project taps into the potential of ICTs to connect African producers with potential markets. Here is how it works: Social networking may be a new buzzword in the West but it is actually a concept embedded in the African philosophy of Ubuntu (you are because we are.) That explains why cooperative movements are such a key part of African economies.. My project proposes to establish a social networking site for every African country to offer a platform for African producers to network with potential outside buyers and to offer them a place where they can market and promote what they produce. As a university professor who was born and raised in Africa but now works in the USA, I have been greatly inspired by Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank. I have therefore spent part of my salary to launch and promote one social networking site as a model of what I intend to do. The site is three months old and has successfully helped many Kenyans reach beyond their geographic boundaries. You can view this humble pilot project at http://www.mykenyanspace.net

WHAT WE NEED:

The project requires a grant to: (1) pay the company creating and hosting the networking sites (a scalable fee system)

(2)Finance the advertising campaign to inform potential members

(3) Finance the replication of sites throughout the continent

(4) Hire a small staff to oversee the project

(5) Travel

Project Details
Project url: 
http://www.mykenyanspace.net
Project Assessment
Sustainability Model: 
Africa is unique in that a huge percentage of its population live outside Africa. They send money back to their families to support them. A large number of companies have cropped up to service the needs of these Africans abroad. Chief among these are companies that offer money transfer services, banking, real estate, etc., targeting this niche market. The site will target these companies for advertising which will in turn help sustain it. The trick is to build a sizeable traffic attractive to advertisers. The experiences of running MyKenyanSpace have taught me how to target the individual populations of different countries by advertising in well selected media.
Expertise needed: 
Funding to create, host, market and promote the sites to target audience.
I think that if I could link up with someone with marketing expertise, this would help us in promoting the sites effectively.
Someone who has the technical expertise to create a customizable template. That way, all I would have to worry about is the costs for hosting, travel and administrative costs. 
Project goals: 
(1) Expand the advertising campaign to include media broadcasting in local languages(2) Network with producer organizations on the ground to create awareness about the project(3) Network with organizations of Africans abroad to enlist their involvement(4) Fine-tune the template and implementation plan for eventual continent-wide roll out (country by country)
Identified Obstacles: 
The first obstacle is in turning MyKenyanSpace into a high traffic site and replicating its model throughout the African continent. That will require a substantial investment and my professor’s salary can only go so far. And yet there is an acute need to help the many hard working but poor African producers achieve better results for their products. A sizeable grant or seed money would help me broaden my advertising campaign to reach more of them and make them aware of the site. I have so far advertised it in Kenyan media online but those who don’t visit such media are not taking advantage of the site. In other words, I need to spend more money for the site to achieve its true objectives. The second obstacle that I see is in form of the planned roll out plan. As the project expands to other countries, it will require more funding and take more than my individual effort and I may have to hire a small staff to oversee the project.

Location

Manhattan, KS
United States
See map: Google Maps
Submitted by samchege on April 6, 2007 - 12:51am

Social network

Submitted by menexis on April 5, 2009 - 9:38pm.

I also agree that social networks are  a great tools to foster existing relations. You can also build new ones by networking with others that have similar interest. Since twitter, facebook and myspace, and a few other website came on the scene, it has completely changed many things in the way we interact. I know a little too much about what my friends and family members are up to eveyday.

 Africa's probles can certainly be addressed via social network and web 2.0, this site for example, is making a differece in the sense that it is bring people with similar interest together for a common good.

social networking

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 13, 2009 - 3:16am.

Africa became an interesting, worthy place (an investement) to put it. Then a lot of division develop when new arrivals came and became of it.  Mistrust develop as some people became the merchandise and then there were also buyers. And then there would be the sellers. The whole scenario killed certain  aspects of the African  Being.

And then the new arrivals  introduced God like he was a new product. When God was already there.

I think  if all  Aficans can realise that we need each other. And if all human beings can know that  the next human being is carrying his destiny, we will treat each other with respect. YOU ARE CARRYING MY DESTINY AND I AM CARRYING YOUR DESTINY. You kill me, you kill your destiny, you ill treat me, you are ill treating your destiny.  

I would think that socialising with the same aim could be a way forward. When politicians socialise with the ordinary people it should be for a common purpose.

Regards

Social Net work and the Economy

Submitted by Jaylee Y on April 5, 2009 - 7:16pm.

Thanks for sharing this article! There are a lot of social networks in the web right now. Some of it has good effects on the public, others are not for some reasons. As we've observed even the remote areas already have internet services. But a lot of issues are occurring with regards to these social networks. One of the most popular website companies is Facebook. The present issue is that Facebook is facing hard time raising money for reasons that go beyond the credit crisis affecting so many US companies. Moreover, the fact that Facebook let go of CFO Yu without having a replacement suggests that this was an unexpected move. Gideon Yu recently left his post at Facebook, after helping the company build from a college student intensive network, to the mammoth that it currently is.   He helped raise millions in cash advances from investors, after his tenures at Yahoo and Google.   His usual gig is to come on board with a company, take them from where they are to superstar status and then leave once the company has grown significantly. This works great for a company who needs someone whose experience is in management of a large entity.   Still, it isn't likely that Gideon Yu will need cash advances for a while.

A noble cause deserves all the help it can get

Submitted by Thomas Smith (not verified) on December 2, 2008 - 11:32am.

Hi there,

 I would be happy to do two things for your site:

 1) if you can send me standard banners I will add them free of charge to www.tradeprofessional.net to assist you in getting the site known.

2) members of your site can avail of our Emerging Markets Grant Scheme to access our International Trade Online Training courses from www.ebsi.ie so that they are have the technical ability to expand their foreign markets.   We would be able to offer between 60-75% grant coverage off the cost of our course fees for exporting members of your websites from Africa.

 I hope this will help.

You can contact me at ts@ebsi.ie for more info.

 Regards,

Thomas Smith

Founder
www.TradeProfessional.net
Operations Director
electronic Business School International
www.ebsi.ie

 

Good idea, Social networks

Submitted by PK (not verified) on January 25, 2008 - 3:07am.

Good idea, Social networks are a tools to foster existing relations,they do more than that. I have been able to make new contacts, new relationships with www.hipipo.com a social network that provide free hipipo sms communication tools on top of the social networking service. If Internet penetration in africa increases,We shall be in better position to explore the power of online social networking. Africa is a big emerging market so social networks like the MyKenyanSpace, hipipo.com, will play a big role one day. That's if they leave to see that day of high Internet penetration in Africa. I guess with . I will visit MyKenyanSpace   and become a member to support another afican project.

support!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 5, 2007 - 3:09pm.

i am a student from tanzania but studying in the states. im just about to go college so i wanted to ask how i could participate in the movement because the i dea is realy good.

brilliant idea!

Submitted by rio (not verified) on June 12, 2007 - 12:08am.

Hi, I read about your project and it surely is very promising. More power to you!!

Try to visit www.micro-capital.com. This website offers new ways to get funds/ budget that you need for fascinating project of yours for African people. What I know is that they will help you promote your project and eventually get the budget that you need without having to pay back financially. This may actually help your project.

I believe in your project,

Rio

I could help you work on

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 4, 2007 - 7:49am.

I could help you work on that. We have started a similar project in Africa through Ivoire Consultancy Group which I am the owner. We already have 4 offices on he ground. We look for investors based in Europe, America and send them in Africa to visit businesses and clients. We provide business planning, financial analysis and other services.

 Please let me know how we could work together. Just so you know, I have worked for 5 years with a  corporate bank in London and I know the pre-requisite in obtaining finance for Africa. The main challenge is how to provie collaterals for projects. I have just returned from the Ivory Coast with some investors visiting some projects.

for more

Submitted by shweta (not verified) on February 19, 2009 - 10:53pm.

for more details
www.divinesaints.com

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