'NDC adoption is slower than two elephants making babies', among some of the more colourful quotes at the first WiT Africa.

“Isn’t it wonderful to wake up to views like these?” said Farai, our driver, taking the very words from my mouth as we weaved through the coastline from Llandudno to Cape Town airport, to catch our flight home to Singapore.

For the past seven days, I have woken up to these views and every evening, I have seen sunsets so beautiful they bring tears to your eyes. Yesterday, on Sunday, we did an epic road trip to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, two places long been on my bucket list.

Cape of Good Hope, one of the great capes of the South Atlantic Ocean.

Cape Point, situated at the south western tip of Africa, where two oceans meet – symbolic of WiT Africa, where Asia and Africa meet.

At every turn, wow moments of blue waters meeting white sand, fringed by cliffs and rocky outcrops, and in one bay, kite surfers having the time of their lives, with the strong windy conditions of the day. Seeing them fly literally through the sky to land in the water made me gasp and wonder, why would anyone ever work here when there’s so much beauty and nature to be enjoyed?

But of course, that’s through the eye of the traveller and underneath every beautiful façade are human stories of strife and struggle, and strive and success.

This is my take on the African travel story – Part 1 of my key takeaways from the first WiT Africa, held in partnership with Innovation City and Travelstart.

Investors sharing their insights, from left, Zachariah George, Launch Africa; Shiela Yabo, head of ecosystem development, Ayoba; and Natalie Kolbe, Norrsken22

1. The Next Generation is here – VCs betting on Africa’s youths

Natalie Kolbe, managing partner of the pan-African venture capital firm, Norrsken22, said if one took a bird’s eye view of the continent, “the median age is 18, and so the next generation is here”.

Norrsken22, set up by a group of Swedish technology executives led by Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of the Stockholm-based ecommerce platform Klarna, closed a $205m fund this year and invests exclusively in growth-stage technology start-ups in Africa. The fund has made five investments, including challenger bank TymeBank, B2B commerce retail platform Sabi, identity verification solution Smile Identity, auto financing platform Autochek and financing app for informal merchant communities Shara.

Zachariah George, managing partner of Launch Africa, considered the most active investor in Africa’s tech startups, cited the key factors driving change – Africa has the fastest growing and youngest population in the world and there are more mobile phones today in Africa now than anywhere else in the world. “14 years ago there were more mobile phones in Manhattan than the whole continent, cost of data has dropped significantly, it’s a carbon copy almost of where India was 12 years ago.”

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