Education is always better than dumbed-down services. Bitcoin's killer apps for Africa may (should?) come from Africa or Africans.
They most probably will. m-Pesa is a classic example of something which developed in Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa#HistoryIn 2002, researchers at Gamos and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, funded by Department for International Development UK (DFID), documented that in Uganda, Botswana and Ghana, people were spontaneously using airtime as a proxy for money transfer. Africans were transferring airtime to their relatives or friends who were then using it or reselling it. Gamos researchers approached MCel in Mozambique, and in 2004 MCel introduced the first authorised airtime credit swapping a precursor step towards M-Pesa