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.

In this article, Briony Hale describes how — starting with a battered old personal computer in his bedroom — Hesse developed Ghana's own software firm which, for the moment at least, is holding Microsoft at bay.

There needs to be software that takes account of Africa's unique circumstances, he explains. For example, it must be simple and cheap, tropically tolerant and able to cope with frequent power cuts.

Link to full BBC Online article