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Agony of an African programmer

iafrikan.com

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Re: Agony of an African programmer

#131

Post by mahyarm »

wilsonfiifi wrote: post #77

This article is an interesting read that I can relate to, moreover, the author is from Ghana where I currently reside so I understand the challenges he's referring to. I however think that the issues raised are the same generalist ones being made about business/entrepreneurship in Africa that don't go deep enough to address the root causes of the challenges, the solutions successful people are implementing and some p…

Is bitcoin practical somewhere like Ghana? It's practically a use case for the people who have bad banking services, and service providers don't have to worry about fraud from buyers.

You could even start an exchange in Ghana, like these guys do in the Philippines: http://buybitcoins.ph/

Re: Agony of an African programmer

#132

Post by BrandonMarc »

buyx wrote: post #94
wilsonfiifi wrote: post #77

This article is an interesting read that I can relate to, moreover, the author is from Ghana where I currently reside so I understand the challenges he's referring to. I however think that the issues raised are the same generalist ones being made about business/entrepreneurship in Africa that don't go deep enough to address the root causes of the challenges, the solutions successful people are implementing and some p…

Regarding fraud, I think that African (huge generalisation) governments just don't seem to take it seriously enough. Even in South Africa, where every SIM card should be registered, it isn't uncommon to see phishing emails with local numbers. Companies also don't really care: phones stolen in one African country are sold in others (South Africa to Nigeria seems to be one popular route), and blacklists aren't shared c…

Very true. PayPal has an incentive to handle more transactions, not fewer ... so making the deliberate decision to blacklist a region wouldn't happen lightly, wouldn't happen without careful study, and likely would be revisited from time to time.

The article writer speaks in this general direction, actually:

It is also high time our governments start to stand firmly behind young African men and women developers ... It is not enough to congratulate them vocally of their achievements, it will be right if you can support them with your resources be it financially, intellectually, skills and much more.

I would call taking their reputation seriously and dealing with the problems falling under the "much more" category.

Re: Agony of an African programmer

#133

Post by BrandonMarc »

graemian wrote: post #78

Get out of Africa. Africa will steal your life. If you choose to stay in Africa and have your potential limited by silly things like bad Internet and no electricity, then make that choice consciously, and for good reasons, like wanting to be near family. If you stay because you feel some deeper connection to Africa because you were born there, get over it. Get out of your comfort zone, live your own life. Consider ca…

In other words, vote with your feet. I get it. The idea being, if the government notices (and cares) that it's losing smart, productive, tax-paying (I assume) citizens then the government will have an incentive to do something (hopefully, something good) about it.

This is one of the reasons for the mass exodus away from certain US states and into others. People vote with their feet, and eventually policies catch up due to consequences.

Re: Agony of an African programmer

#134

Post by wobbleblob »

graemian wrote: post #127
wobbleblob wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like someone who has never lived or worked abroad, and n ever met anyone who has. You can't just move to another country and expect people to let you in.

FYI: I've lived in San Francisco for 1.5 months, and I've met plenty people who have lived and worked abroad. I'm not sure what your point is.

The point is they don't just let people in at the border, especially not from non visa waiver countries, and especially especially especially not when they think you might want to stay to find a job.

Re: Agony of an African programmer

#135

Post by mcv »

KhalPanda wrote: post #92

> A web and software developer in Africa earns from $10,000 to $20,000 dollars per annum whereas their colleagues in Europe and the US earns at least $100,000 dollars per year. "at least $100,000 dollars per year" ..."at least $100,000 dollars per year" Where can I find one of these mythical minimum-100k-salary programming jobs, without having 10+ years of experience and working for a massive tech company? Source: UK…

Silicon Valley and the financial industry. Those have always been the high paying options. But outside those areas, most normal programming jobs are closer to half that.

Honestly, if an African programmer makes $20,000 per year, he's not that far behind a starting Dutch programmer (though programmers here are seriously underpaid compared to managers, for example).

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