Ericsson announced that it will establish an innovation center in sub-Saharan Africa to develop mobile applications that will have focus on meeting the needs of poor and rural populations.
A Xinhua report quoted Ericsson president in sub-Saharan Africa Jan Embro saying the center will include three application development hubs, in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya.
'Mobile communication significantly improves quality of life, providing the tools to deliver enormous socio-economic benefits to people in developing countries. Connectivity helps to offset a lack of resources, particularly in rural areas, and provides access to a range of services, including education and healthcare,' said Embro.
These applications will, for example, enable health workers to gather, monitor and share data on things like births, deaths and epidemics, and to use smart mobile decision support tools in their daily work.
Other applications will relate to education, agriculture, business development, finance, government services and the overall improvement of communication capabilities.