Bill Gates Lauds African Tech Start-ups

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist has lauded African tech start-ups for the thousands of businesses they are creating as well as changing the daily lives of people across the continent.

Gates was speaking at the 14th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture Series at the University of Pretoria's Mamelodi campus.

This year's theme was "Living Together", with a special focus on those who gave their lives during the struggle for liberation.

The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture is one of the foundation's flagship programmes to honour founder Nelson Mandela, and raise topical issues affecting Africa and the rest of the world.

The multi-billionaire said for him, the most important thing about young people is the way their minds work. "Young people are better than old people at driving innovation, because they are not locked in by the limits of the past."

The African entrepreneurs driving start-up booms in the Silicon Savannahs from Johannesburg and Cape Town, to Lagos and Nairobi are just as young – in chronological age, but also in outlook. The thousands of businesses they're creating are already changing daily life across the continent, he said.

"When I started Microsoft in 1975 – at the age of 19 – computer science was a young field. We didn't feel beholden to old notions about what computers could or should do. We dreamed about the next big thing, and we scoured the world around us for the ideas and the tools that would help us create it.

"But it wasn't just at Microsoft. Steve Jobs was 21 when he started Apple. Mark Zuckerberg was only 19 when he created Facebook.

"In a few days, I'll be meeting with some of these young innovators. People like the 21-year-old who founded Kenya's first software coding school to provide other young people with computer programming skills. And like the 23-year-old social entrepreneur here in South Africa who manufactures schoolbags from recycled plastic shopping bags."

Speaking about education, Gates said: "A good education is the best lever we have for giving every young person a chance to make the most of their lives. In Africa, as in the US, we need new thinking and new educational tools to make sure that a high-quality education is available to every single child."