Dr. Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications in Kenya, in a video message by the Open Institute, talks about the importance of Open Data for Africa.

Saying that a 5% increase in internal African trade would bring ten times the amount of money as currently is being received in foreign aid, he argues that lack of openness of information is making more internal trade difficult. If African nations would release much more information, such as on goods and produce available for export, more transactions would be possible, while at the same time cutting out various middle men that now drive up the cost of trade. Increased open data, making new trade possible, "would change Africa forever". "There's no continent that needs Open Data more than Africa"