Just Soft
The tale of Soft and Microsoft is the tale of David and Goliath. UK-based Hermann Chinnery-Hesse was on holiday in his home country of Ghana when he accepted a school friend's bet to try to make his fortune in West Africa. Starting with a battered old personal computer in his bedroom, Mr Hesse developed Ghana's own software firm which, for the moment at least, is holding Microsoft at bay.
"No, no, we only use Soft," says the hotel receptionist where I am staying, when I ask if they use Microsoft. The shops around Accra say the same. "We're taking it industry by industry," Mr Hesse says, who has already designed e-SuSu software for microfinance projects and the Ndua system for Ghana's timber industry. [BBC]