Noel Hwande is a tech entreprenuer who founded one of my favourite Southern African start-ups, Qiqima.

Qiqima call to fame is the heavy emphasis they place on SMS and text. This concept is especially attractive since mobile penetration is higher than internet penetration in some areas in the continent.

TechMasai: What is Qiqima and what inspired the project?

Mr. Hwande: Qiqima is a micro blogging platform that is built around mobile communication and promotes interactions in both public and private virtual communities.

Aneto Okonkwo is an entreprenuer currently in the African Dispora who founded a start-ups called MyRadeo. He also is a passionate blogger active at African leaders, discussing the type of leadership by people of citizenship of an African country he respects and appreciates.

We caught up with Mr. Okonkwo and asked him a few questions concerning his projects and outlook on the music industry.

TechMasai: What Is MyRadeo

Mr. Okonkwo: My radeo is a microblogging service for music. It helps you share and discover songs with your friends. It’s like Twitter for songs or Pandora if your friends pick the songs for you. Its free, easy and there’s no account signup.

We recently caught up with TMS Ruge, a blogger and social activist who co-founded Project Diaspora, a blog which profiles the African Diaspora community.

The team of Project Diaspora have made informed  use of social media to promote their ideas and brand.

TMS Ruge was also involved is creating a platform called Women Of Kireka; a project to help a group of poor women in Uganda, get a market for their arts and crafts.

The interview is below

TechMasai: As someone very active in the African blogosphere, what is your experience with starting an online brand, and the use of social media to market your ideas

Mark Kaigwa is Chief of Communications at Gotissuez.Com. A man who wears many hats from web to film, he recently directed his first film Dawa and is a co-curator of TEDxNairobi.

TechMasai: What is GotIssuez and how was it founded?

Mark: GotIssuez Limited (Ltd) is the web startup behind Gotissuez.Com. The website was originally founded by Kevin Rombe and Anthony Mwangi in December 2008 as a side-project, a “by the way.” However, by February 2009 it began to show its potential and a small community began growing within it. GotIssuez Ltd began to add members to its core team. By May 2009 Sarah Njeri, Esbon Wahome and Mark Kaigwa had all joined in to take GotIssuez.Com full on into its ambitious future.

Mambe Nanje Churchill

Mambe Nanje Churchill is an entreprenuer in the African tech community mostly known for co- founding (as the lead developer and CTO) Naijaborn a custom made Nigerian social network with his partner Francis Oghuma.

We find the team behind Naijaborn so creative and driven, it is only right we caught up with at least one of them to ask a few questions.

Fritz Ekwoge Ekwoge is a Cameroonian entrepreneur who founded Kerawa the African classified, and Iyam.mobi a mobile phone directory. He is also active in the Cameroonian tech community most noticably writing an article for Barcamp Cameroon, you can read here.

In this interview we asked concerning the trend of startups and technology culture in Cameroon.

TechMasai: What effect does the internet have on your country?

Fritz: In Cameroon, the internet is mainly used to read and send email, visit European dating sites, gather information from sites like wikipedia.org, and for local news via some of our portals.