Jon Gosier and Paul Engulu of Appfrica has just launched Afridex, an index of African tech startups. Anyone can submit their website or mobile application and be added to the index. What an excellent idea, and really well executed as well!
It’s still brand new, but I think it has a lot of potential - we should see a lot of mobile and web companies adding themselves to the index pretty quickly. As it grows, it becomes more valuable as a resource, thus feeding itself ad infinitum.
Why is it useful?
If you click on any company’s name, you will be taken to the detail page on them. On that page you will find a bunch of publicly available information, including everything from contact information to blog and Twitter posts. It’s really quite impressive.
In the lower-right corner you’ll notice the “embed” code that will allow you to add a widget to the sidebar of any website with basic information about that company. The one for Node Six looks like this:
#afridex { font-family:helvetica; font-size:1em; border:1px solid #ccc; padding:5px 5px 5px 5px; margin:5px 5px 5px 5px: color:#333; line-height:1.1em; display:block; width:350px; } #afridex img { border:3px solid #333; } #afridex h1 { font-size:1.35em; font-weight:strong; } #afridex a { color:#71000; } #afridex a:active { color:#71000; text-decoration:underline; } #afridex p { text-align:justify; font-size:75%; }
NodeSix
[Map]
URL - [www.nodesix.com]
Email - sales@nodesix.com

Node Six began life as a division of Elemental Edge, a leading multi-media and visual communications solutions provider in Kampala, Uganda.
Information Provided by the Afridex
SummaryThe only problem that I’ve found so far is that I can’t find a way to either “get listed” (it’s currently a dead link), or create a login so that I can submit a couple companies. I’m sure this is because it’s so brand new, and I’m sure Jon or Paul will leave a note here when that works.
I’m not surprised that this excellent idea came from Jon Gossier, I’m starting to expect this type of top-class work from him. I’m sure we’re going to see even more of this in the future. Brilliant.
Want to help out with this cool project? Get involved on the Afridex wiki
I was not surprised to learn that they are more renowned internationally than locally (read – our lack of appreciation of our own until the world discovers them).