For centuries Africa has provided most of the world’s natural resources, but for centuries it has lagged behind in development. Still today, more than half of Africa lives on a Dollar or less a day. Yet Africa, despite its many challenges, is seeing good growth even in these tough economic times.

With a population hungry for products and services, and telecommunications on the continent growing rapidly, enterprising companies are seeing – and taking – the opportunities being presented in Africa. The continent is using its entrepreneurial spirit to uplift itself and co-exist in a competitive global economy, and is growing as a result.

“Africans have realised that there is a need to work towards and record a higher economic growth rate, which must be sustained and accelerated in order to have a significant impact on eradicating poverty and increasing living standards,” says Jeremy Waterman, Managing Director of Softline Accpac.

According to Waterman, Accpac has found this reflected in the number of well-trained financial staff across Africa. “We have found many willing partners and a very good understanding of the benefits of implementing efficient IT systems in every African country,” he says. “There is a challenge, however, in getting these systems accepted and users trained at the lower end-user level.”

Despite these issues, trained systems analysts, software engineers and network managers, coupled with successful site reference implementations, are much in demand. Waterman says that a major strategic mindset is taking place to accommodate the changes technology is providing across the continent, and that successful projects are becoming increasingly common.