IBM opens its research doors into Africa IBM is very keen to say that its new Research Lab is Africa-focused, not Kenya-focused, but even allowing for the recent atrocity at the city's Westgate Mall, it is clear that the company could have chosen rival hubs such as Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg or Cape Town. The choose of Nairobi certainly made somebody happy, and that was President Kenyatta. who was understandably effusive in his praise for IBM (and who probably had similar feelings about the completion of the road to the Research Centre). The establishment of this research laboratory underpins the government commitment to innovation ecosystems that are already available in Kenya. My government is proud that Kenya, and indeed Africa, will benefit from the presence of one of the most advanced research facilities, with some of the world's most talented people," he said. IBM's establishment of such a lab in Nairobi may represent a belated tipping point for the future of city as a tech cluster. Hitherto, Kenya's greatest tech success has been the extraordinary adoption of M-Pesa, a mobile banking technology that has swept through the country. According to the company behind M-Pesa, mobile phone operator Safaricom, 21% of Kenya's GDP goes through the service and it has 17 million subscribers, more than two-thirds of the country's total population. Set up in 2007, the service is a world-leader in mobile banking. Even so, the success of M-Pesa has been a slow-burner for the development of Nairobi as a cluster of similar companies and the ecosystem of startups and investors has taken time to materialise. Whether IBM's presence it the city will transform this ecosystem remains to be seen, but it is a notable step in the right direction. Other initiatives in the city are hugely impressive. The iHub is based downtown and is a collaborative workspace for young entrepreneurs and is home to many startups including female coding and e-commerce companies. Its verve and vibrancy are similar to that of Google Campus in London, but the iHub feels more alive... even if it's table football machine lies quiet in the middle of the centre. Then there is Konza Technology City, a £9 billion Government-funded project that will be built 40 miles from Nairobi on the way to the city of Mombasa. The project is expected to take 20 years to build, in which time it should be able to tell whether it will be another one of Africa's many Government-supported White Elephants or the "Silicon Savannah" it aspires to be. "We are currently experiencing the emergence of a new Africa - one where science and technology are enabling a pivotal 'leap-frog' moment allowing governments and businesses to drive economic growth, raise the standard of living and compete with their global counterparts," said Dr. Kamal Bhattacharya, Director, IBM Research Africa. And so say all of us, but in the interim IBM's new Research Lab marks a turning-point in the development of Africa's future, a future that will depend on data and the ability to decipher it. Unlike President Kenyatta's route to the IBM Centre, the Westgate Mall Massacre may have created bumps on Nairobi's road to the future, but the road signs are clear enough; the city is going places and IBM's involvement is helping to keep the traffic moving.