I.

Introduction
1. Overview
All across Africa, people are discovering that theres an economy to be built. If business leaders jump in, theres a glorious future for Africa, declares Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School. Not just IBM, but hundred of other organizations have seen the potential for such blossoming economy and opportunities in the African continent. The sense of using updated technologies and the market improvement will equip Africa to engage and success in the international market (1). Africa is however a no newcomer for IBM, it is dated back in 1911, when IBM sold its first product to a South African train station as the first business transaction (2). Since then, IBM has had its footprint in more than 20 African countries and been doing business in the continent for over 60 years. The business focus broad, whereas, several categories for IT development receive more attention from IBM, such as telecommunication, oil, banking or government (3).

2. IBMs Investment in IT
a. Education (4) Ask an outside observer which single resource is most critical to Africas participation in the global economy, and you will receive a host of responses, including oil, solar energy, gold, and diamonds. But any African who intimately understands the needs of this continent will quickly respond with one answer: its people. With more than 930 million inhabitants, almost half of whom are below the age of 15, Africas people, particularly its youth, are the key to its future economic development. But at the moment, this is a resource that is being severely neglected (3) In an effort to help cultivate local technology talent, IBM has begun partnering with universities across Africa as part of a global academic program to help teach

students the information technology skills they need to be competitive in the workplace. Members of faculty are being trained on a range of software products to help build skills in these areas as the courses are incorporated into the university curricula. students called Machocha Minds that pairs them with thought leaders and role models across the globe. b. Smarter Planet

(1)IBMs Smarter Planet agenda underpins its approach to doing business all around the globe. The world is increasingly instrumented, interconnected and intelligent, thanks to advances in sensors, networking, telecommunications and analytical software. Technology innovations will play a key role in making Smarter Planet solutions useful in Africa. For example, to make it easy for companies to launch new mobile commerce services, especially in emerging markets, IBM and business partner SAP in April, 2011, announced a server appliance5 designed specifically for mobile carriers, financial services and retailers. The computer can be up and working in a matter of days. Now, through its many Smarter Planet engagements across the globe, the company is helping governments and industries add another layer of intelligence to essential systems, or actually build new systems from scratch. support modern banking, telecommunications, retailing, and more BM helped the government establish a new digital land registration system6. Earlier, government officials and citizens relied on paper records and it took many visits and an average of 193 days to complete a typical registration. Today, the work can be done online and the entire process takes less than 30 days.