Darling, the pan African hair extension brand owned by Godrej of India, has just released an app in Nigeria aimed at helping customers choose their latest hair style on their smartphone. The implications are enormous, imho.
Mobiles are ubiquitious. E-commerce in Nigeria is becoming commonplace. Smartphones are default. The African consumer market is sophisticated in its own inimitable way. The hair extension industry is as informal a sector as you can get. Digital Africa straddles this complexity and exemplifies the Prepaid Economy.
It really should be considered a wake up call to the ict4d & m4d industry to rethink their assumptions on “poor Africans” and their cellphones.