It’s been a little over a year since I last provided an update on Raspberry Pi’s work in Africa. Quite a lot has happened in the last twelve months, and I feel truly excited to share the news with you.
More Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers in Africa
You might remember that in my last two blog posts, I mentioned that our key objective in the African region was making sure Raspberry Pi products are readily available at the right price point for the huge numbers of hobbyists and educational and industrial users across the continent. Increasing our footprint of Approved Resellers in the region has been central to achieving this objective, and I am pleased to share our current list of African Approved Resellers:
| Country | Reseller |
| Algeria | Dzduino |
| Ghana | Techten, DaakyeTech |
| Kenya | Ivy Liam Gadgets, Liquid Intelligent Technologies |
| Morocco | Innovlab, Robox |
| Nigeria | Swift Berry Limited, STEMCafe |
| Rwanda | Nyereka Tech |
| South Africa | PiShop |
| Tunisia | SNE SOMETEL |
| Uganda | Neriko Electronics |
| Zimbabwe | Telco |
This brings the count of Approved Resellers in Africa to 14, across ten different countries — over 50% more resellers than a year ago.
Visiting key regions and partners in Africa in 2023
A vital activity that has helped us in our understanding and learning across Africa has been to travel to the various markets to meet with potential partners, Raspberry Pi users, and key institutions.
In October 2022, I visited Ghana and Kenya with Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton and Chief Commercial Officer Mike Buffham. In Ghana we met with the Minister of Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum, with whom we had some important discussions around support for digital technology training in the country. In Kenya, Eben made the very important announcement that we are manufacturing Raspberry Pi Pico in-country, underlining our long-term investment in and commitment to Africa.
In March 2023, we began an initial engagement with the North African region with visits to Cairo in Egypt and Casablanca in Morocco. We were impressed to see great technological strides in these markets, and to discover how Raspberry Pi products are already being used in industry and in education.
One of our aims for the continent this year was to explore markets in francophone West Africa, and between February and March I had the honour of visiting strategic partners and potential resellers in Benin, Togo, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast. What I learned from these French-speaking markets confirmed the need to continue to democratise access to Raspberry Pi products across all parts of Africa.
In May, we were back again in East Africa, visiting Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. In Kenya, we were delighted to kick off our community engagement efforts with our first ever Raspberry Pi-led IoT Pico workshops in Nairobi; these were a great success, with participants telling us that the best way we could improve the two-day training sessions would be to extend them! In Kampala in Uganda, it was fantastic to see the buzzing hardware technology ecosystem, visiting companies like Microfuse, Kiira Motors, and Fundi Bots. In Kigali in Rwanda, we had the pleasure of visiting our local Approved Reseller, as well as senior civil servants working in the area of emerging technologies at the Rwandan Ministry of ICT, and other key partners.
Buy Raspberry Pi online in Africa
To deepen our sales channels on the continent, we have begun working with e-commerce platforms: these popular websites provide an enviable geographical spread and are trusted by customers. We have worked closely with Jumia to set up official online stores in the different countries where the platform is active. So far, we are live in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, and you can shop at our brand new Jumia stores in these countries. We hope to have Jumia stores in Morocco and Uganda up and running very soon, and we’ll continue to move ahead with other Jumia territories.
Raspberry Pi Partner Event
The annual Raspberry Pi Partner Event is a highlight every year for me and my colleagues. This year, we were immensely pleased to welcome representatives from Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers from seven different African countries, along with partners from all over the world. They had the opportunity to meet and discuss with Raspberry Pi staff as well as with other Approved Resellers, Design Partners, and suppliers from our global network, and to take part in workshops on Raspberry Pi products, including of course our brand new Raspberry Pi 5 — a highlight of the event for all of us! We hope that these experiences will serve them well as they return home and continue building their successful businesses in partnership with Raspberry Pi, and we are looking forward to welcoming friends from even more African resellers at our next event.
