Mediaboss Marketing

14 May 2012 Last updated at 09:22 ET

For internet entrepreneur Njeri Rionge, Africa represents the next economic frontier. She say strong indigenous, African-owned companies are needed to take advantage of the boom times ahead.

Ms Rionge is as famous in Kenya for her success in starting up several companies at the same time as she is for Wananchi.com, a cable, broadband and internet-based telephone company.

She started her dot com dream and first big venture, Wananchi.com, with the hope of bringing internet connectivity to the masses. Today the firm has grown to become the largest internet service provider in East Africa and is worth $173 million (107 million) a huge sum for a firm with an initial start-up of $500,000 (308,000).

Despite her determination to succeed, she has not always known what she wanted to do.

"I touched many things before I touched the thing that I turned to gold," she told the BBC's African Dream series.

"I did hairdressing, I did buying and selling of clothes in London and then the thing that actually created the opportunity for success."

That opportunity came in the form of Wananchi.com in 1999, at a time when very few people had internet access.

She envisioned the easy access of information via the internet as a way of bridging the gap between East Africa's educated elite and the rest of the population.

Despite the necessity of the internet in modern communication and education, the beginning of Wananchi.com was not without its hurdles and frustrations.

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Africa's new digital frontier