“The conventional thing to say about Africa is it’s cursed by a lack of infrastructure,” says Jesse Moore, the chief executive of M-Kopa, a four-year-old Nairobi-based company that uses mobile phone technology to lease off-grid, solar powered lighting and power systems in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. On the contrary, Mr Moore argues, the continent’s old infrastructure deficit is spurring innovation, pointing to m-pesa, the mobile money transfer system pioneered by Kenya’s main telecoms company, Safaricom, which is 40 per cent owned by Vodafone of the UK. M-pesa is now used by 22 million Kenyans — or more than 70 per cent of the adult population.

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