If you're an expert in information and communication technologies in Kenya, Nigeria, or Ghana, and looking for a new job, where do you find employment opportunities?

I was wondering this as I read about Jobberman, which Techmasi says is a Nigerian job site with promise. Yet it only has 20 new jobs in the last 7 days, none of them in the ICT field.

So if you're an telcom professional, where do you look for work? Do you really use the Internet? If so, which job boards work the best? Here is a few I've found, with my impressions of them. A motley lot for sure.

Kenya

• BrigherMonday: with 7 information technology jobs, its actually one of the better job boards
• BestJobsKenya: is another good employment site with quality opportunities and direct emails to employers
• White African Job Board: started as a response to the lack of tech-focused job boards, its the one job board I've used to hire a techie

Nigeria

• Nariland: while not a employment site, specificlly, its the largest forum in Nigeria and its job section rocks
• Jobberman: as I mentioned before, it has some jobs but few in the ICT field. I include it in hopes it will grow
• NaijaHotJobs: is a forum filled with job opportunities mixed with IT support requests, get rich quick schemes, and other chaff
• CareersNigeria: looks all swank, but the job selection is pretty thin - only 3 in the ICT field

Ghana

• BusinessGhana: is impressive - the most number of current jobs of any job site I found
• And that's it - Ghana seems to be lacking in the online job board front - or BusinessGhana owns the field

Does this selection mean that most people find employment through newspapers and personal connections, not online? If so, here is another African business opportunity for the right entrepreneur.

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Were you excited to hear that Google now has location-aware AdWords for Kenya and South Africa? I was overjoyed that Google is paying closer attention to African consumers and content producers, until Miguel pointed out one small issue:

Getting cash in African hands

[T]here is no mention of how people from Africa are to either pay for AdWords or for content publishers to be paid for AdSense displays. As I've mentioned before, Google has no practical payment set up for anywhere in all of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Google's lack of a payment system effects more than just its own customers - it holds back the entire web development community in Africa. How can organized efforts like Coded in Country or even personal projects hire Africans if we can't pay them?

Before you suggest Paypal, realize that it too does not support payments to anyone in Sub-Sahara Africa. It even actively harasses Americans in Africa who are legitimate, long-term customers, just because of their IP address.

Opportunity in Discrimination

Where others decry the lack of ePayment services, I like to look at an empty glass as opportunity - there is a demand for ePayment systems in Africa and the company that can fill this glass will be richly rewarded. But don't take my word for it. Here is Oluniyi David Ajao describing ePayments as the biggest business opportunity in West Africa:

Note that there are some limited international systems and a few decent nationwide systems in existance. Mac-Jordan has described Ghana’s cashless society and E-zwich, and Rachel's Bargain Corner see the emerging mPayment systems like Zap and M-PESA as a Kenyan eCommerce advantage.

But its a pan-African payment system that will, like David says, really empower intra-African eCommerce and online businesses - maybe even more than the current bandwidth bonanza.

Until then, this business opportunity is leaving cash on the table. Who will be the first to grab it?

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I've very excited about Maker Farie Africa, a celebration of African ingenuity, innovation and invention. Taking place this weekend at the AITI KACE in Accra, Ghana, the event promises to be a watershed moment for African inventiveness.

I'll be there looking for new and exciting business and technical opportunities to share, as well as manning the Inveneo stand. We'll be displaying our own hacks - an SMS-based conference feedback system and on-demand radio station.

SMS Conference Feedback

The real-time SMS-based conference feedback system allows attendees to make comments about featured projects, respond to speakers, and discuss their favorite inventions using text messages sent from their mobile phones. All appropriate messages will be displayed on a monitor at the Inveneo booth for the public to view, and via Twitter, the social networking website. You can follow the conference on the Inveneo Twitter feed.

SMS On-Demand Radio Station

Inveneo will also be taking SMS song requests for a low-powered FM-channel radio broadcast to conference attendees. This demonstration shows how Inveneo technology could be used to make local radio possible in rural and remote areas across Africa. Together the demonstrations show how ICTs can enable and expand communications across under-served communities around the world.

If you're around, please be sure to stop by, or give a call on 0265 24 43 24

The Ghana government has awarded a $150 million contract to Huawei Technologies, a Chinese-based ICT and telecommunication infrastructure company, to provide modern infrastructure to ensure internet broadband availability countrywide within the next 24 month.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, announced at the opening of a two-day international conference on Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) that the infrastructure was expected to facilitate the linking of Internet Point of Presence to all district capitals under the government’s ICT Backbone Development Programme.

Ghana invests $150m in nationwide broadband infrastructure