Highway Africa, regarded as the largest annual gathering of African journalists on the continent, took place this past weekend at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The conference, themed 'African Media and the Global Sustainability Challenge', brought together media and key ICT players from across the continent to converse on important issues and challenges that face Africa.

Keynote speaker Koos Bekker, on the topic 'How do we innovate in the media?', suggested that Africa was failing at Internet innovation. Columnist Gill Moodie tackles the question, "What kind of innovation does Africa need?" Some of the other topics that were discussed included, 'Regulating the print media', with speakers from Ghana, Uganda, South Africa and the UK sharing their experiences.

To find out more about what was discussed, listen to the podcasts on www.highwayafrica.com.

In other news, the Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Malawi) appointed a new National Governing Council amid protests from members who were against the proposed changes. Anthony Kasunda, the newly elected chairperson, pledged to continue fighting against repressive laws of the media in the country.

In what's been claimed as a 'world-first', Airtel Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Worldwide have announced the availability of a virtual payments card that operates off a mobile phone-based wallet in Kenya called PayOnline.

If Africa 'has failed' at internet innovation, I certainly don't think that we have failed at mobile innovation.

Evan-Lee Courie (@evan1985)

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