Prosperity beckons for Africa with its growing middle class. This is important because the history of resource extraction in Africa and elsewhere, is a history of plunder. The big opportunity facing a lot of Africa is its natural resources with commodity prices high, and over the next decade that will result in a lot of natural resource discovery. However, the true test of progress in the continent is whether new riches trickle down from the elite to create consumers to sustain growth in manufacturing and services.

There is evidence of change in progress and mobile phone use has grown faster in Africa than in any other region of the world since 2003, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

While South Africa—the most developed nation—still has the highest penetration, across Africa, countries have leapfrogged technology, bringing innovation and connectivity even to remote parts of the continent, promoting mobile banking and changing the way business is done.

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