MyWeku

Is something happening on the African tech scene? In East Africa, Kenya’s Ihub is gearing itself to provide a platform for technologists, investors and tech companies in the hope of fostering collaborations. In West Africa, Ghana has recently announced a 2 billion dollar project to develop Ghana’s first technology park, Ghana Cyber City to “bring together experts from across the scientific, technological and industrial disciplines for collaboration and nurturing of ideas for the growth of companies and firms that would reside at the Park and to enhance technology-based industries with development capabilities and training while partnering with industry leaders”. In Southern Africa, Silicone Cape, as described by one of its founders, Justin Stanford, is “a masthead that the community can own, that everyone can rally around to focus their energy on in a cohesive effort…..attracting the best entrepreneurs, technical brains, and foreign direct investment”

This step change is by no means on the scale of the “Industrial Revolution” and there are no expectations that African tech hubs are about to assume the clout of America’s Silicon Valley any time soon. However, it is plausible to assume that pioneering individuals on the continent and in the African diaspora have triggered an underlying attitude towards creativity and ingeniousness that makes the creation of “Bangalores” in cities such as Accra, Lagos, Cape Town and Nairobi a real possibility.

This emerging attitude is slowly and gradually beginning to manifest itself in the creation of entities such as Ushahidi.

However, it is not unreasonable to state that:

1. there is a real gap between the pace of development of high tech and low tech start ups in Africa

2. as well as a gap between the success of African tech start ups compared to others in countries with similar socio-economic indices.

The sort of capricious ingenuity, resourcefulness and inventiveness that provide real and simple solutions to “everyday problems” faced by the rural masses and urban poor does exist. The exploits of William Kamkwamba and others in using primarily locally sourced materials in solving problems in their villages, towns and sprawling urban cities are not rare. What is rare is scaling up, bringing to market and commercialising the myriad of low tech innovations across the continent. Thanks to dedicated and persistent individuals in the African tech “sphere” such low tech innovations have become easily accessible through showcase events held on the continent and promotion in the African technology blogosphere. These events in their own right are innovative, easily accessible, engaging and adapted to suit local environments.

No other organisation seeks to promote low tech innovations more effectively, in a largely informal setting, better than Maker Faire Africa, an organisation largely brought to fruition by Emeka Okafor an entrepreneur, supported by co-organisers Nii Simmons (co-founder of Afrobotics), Henry Barnor (co founder of GhanaThink), Eric Hersman (co-founder of AfriGadget) and Mark Grimes (Founder Ned.com) to mention a few. Emeka Okafor describes Maker Faire Africa as “a celebration of African Ingenuity, innovation and invention”. Maker Faire Africa’s maiden event, was held in Accra last year and this year’s event will be held in Nairobi, Kenya on August 6th and 7th 2010. “Makers” across the continent are encouraged to showcase something they have made, in the hope that these inventors will not only inspire others but promote the importance of such grassroots inventions in meeting the immediate needs of people and ultimately of socio-economic development. In a recent Africa News interview with Emeka Okafor, he stated that “From hi-tech to low-tech, these people are making products — not because they are told to, but because of necessity.” He asks, “What can we do to nurture and nudge the self-sustaining fabricative process?”

It is apparent that seeking and showcasing tech innovations and developing competencies through the benefits of tech hubs contribute immensely. Ensuring that institutional systems are put in place to scale up and to “harness” financial resources and Venture Capital (VC) funds to transform ingenious prototypes and products from “mere” exhibition items to full scale product development and commercialisation is imperative.

African High Tech firms going through the various stages of maturity are not immune to the sort of funding problems experienced by scaling up low tech prototypes and products either.

Institutional and Cultural challenges remain the main barriers hampering turning ideas and prototypes, into full scale viable commercial products.

Failure in business in the USA and elsewhere is often seen as a necessary step to build competencies whereas failure in business across many parts of the continent is often seen as socially unacceptable. Private financiers, either through, foundations or small privately run VC fund enterprises tend to be risk averse and are thin on the ground. Too many academic institutions still focus on post colonial curricular which tend to focus less on entrepreneurship, providing students with the necessary skills and confidence to focus more on conceptualizing, designing and engineering products to solve every day problems.

Eric Hersman, a dedicated advocate of African tech and an organiser of Maker Faire Africa believes, as alluded to in a recent post on his blog – WhiteAfrican.com, that the main prerequisites for growth (i.e. taking tech across the continent to the next level) revolve around actively engaging Africans in the diaspora and established tech hubs to “help incoming African tech companies”. He gives the example of Yola, a South African company that has been able to secure $20 million worth of investments after moving its executive team and a division of its operations to San Francisco. He also believes that stream lining existing and formulating new policy and legal framework that facilitates tech entrepreneurship, integrating a more focused entrepreneurship based training in tertiary institutions and making it easier to access start up capital or seed money to bring viable prototypes on stream are equally crucial.

Eric Hersman’s views are valid and should work as long as African tech entrepreneurs and start ups can build strong professional and cultural ties with external investors and tech hubs. It is also fair to state that, in seeking external support, Maker Faire Africa, and others need to unearth “genuinely” innovative prototypes and products that will not only “solve African Problems” but products that are internationally viable and can potentially make a world wide impact.

It is evident that, the support of governments in setting up, encouraging and empowering venture capital businesses, guaranteeing and providing zero or low interest loans, especially to people who live in deprived rural and urban areas is imperative.

Domestically, good ideas and concepts are springing up that aim to minimise some of the funding challenges for start ups and scaling up. CrowdFunding SA and VC4Africa both Venture Capital entities and others, have potentially crucial roles to play domestically.

There are a few schools, colleges and tertiary institutions, mainly in South Africa that have begun to recognise the need for a more skill based curricula to take fabricative industries, I.T and engineering to the next level. I was fortunate to attend Bar Camp 2009, in Accra, Ghana which was held on the premises of one of these forward thinking institutions called Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST). The event – Bar Camp – was partly organised by students at MEST to bring people together to share ideas. MEST is a non-profit entrepreneurial school that runs a two year programme for graduates, providing them with support, guidance and encouragement in their quest to acquire entrepreneurial skills. The Meltwater Incubator (which is an essential part of the two year programme) “helps MEST graduates validate their ideas and get their new business off the ground. Enrolment is based upon approved business plans. Participants are awarded initial seed funding and office space in the Meltwater incubator in Accra, London, or San Francisco. From these strategic locations, participants have easy access and exposure to global markets”.

Maker Faire Africa, as has been stated, is a fine organisation which I believe already has and will continue to play the role of highlighting ingenuity. There is evidence that some collaboration, notably, with the folks behind AfriGadget, ned.com and Butterfly Works made last year’s event, by all indications a major success.

However, as Maker Faire Africa becomes more established, fans will expect stronger and more formalised partnership with other key “players”. There is as yet no evidence of collaboration with “players” either in North Africa or in West Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.

Fans and “punters” will also expect to see, to what extent past “Makers” have been able to take their products to the next level, a clearer strategy of where the organisation wants to be in the medium to long-term, and a more robust strategy on what others could contribute especially in terms of sponsorships.

How to contribute

 

To those “Makers” who wish to embrace the promising opportunities that Maker Faire Africa offers, do click MakerFaireAfrica.com for more information.

 

As with new concepts and ways of doing things, it is always a challenge to get word out, especially to all four corners of the continent in time for the submission of projects by the deadline date of June 1^st 2010, so please do spread the word.

Featured Makers – 2009

Details of the Makers below and their ingenious inventions can be found here: AfriGadget.com

Photo Courtesy: Maker Faire Africa 2009 Flickr Photo Group

Nii Thompson