Jack Ma’s Africa tour reminds us how technologically behind Nigeria still is
The African continent welcomed Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, to its shores last week. On this trip, Asia’s richest man made cursory stops in two African countries, preaching the gospel of entrepreneurship to thousands of entrepreneurs. While his visit reaffirmed the growing influence of the African continent, (un)fortunately, it is Kenya and Rwanda that would be leading this narrative — not Nigeria Last year, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg visited Africa in what many perceived as the beginning of greater things for the continent. Of course, Nigeria would be the epicenter, considering that Kenya was a bit sidelined in the media narrative. Many article headlines such as; “Facebook’s Zuckerberg Visits Nigeria on First Sub Sahara Africa trip” also amplified the Nigerian narrative. Although a few publishing houses chose their words carefully, with liberal headlines which referenced the “African continent”, it appears they tried not to overplay the significance of Nigeria alone in the grand...