Alice Interesting article. Long read but worth it. My take is that the author makes valid arguments. There are certain areas which I think he should have paid attention to:- 1. Comparing Africa and the rest of the world as if Africa is one country is a bit of a stretch. 2. The #BigTech example (Uber specifically) is not complete without taking into account that global companies fail in frontier markets not because they don't have the muscle to succeed but because they fail to understand and learn from local nuances. 3. Platforms are under attack by regulators everywhere and this conversation won't be complete if we don't pay attention to what regulation will mean going forward in Africa. 4. Scaling is not for everyone. To equate innovation to scaling doesn't in my humble opinion tell the whole story. 5. To tell the story of 'Leapfrogging' in Frontier Markets without talking about Mpesa is in my humble opinion missing a big part of the story. I'm hoping that the next part will probably cover this? Regards *Ali Hussein* *Principal* *AHK & Associates* Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with. On Sat, Mar 23, 2019 at 11:27 PM Alice Munyua via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Ali, Your thoughts?

https://www.cgdev.org/publication/why-leapfrogging-frontier-markets-isnt-wor...

_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/

Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com

The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.

KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.