Enterprise Kenya heralds a new dawn for the growth of aspiring innovators
M-Pesa changed how people send money and pay for goods or services. FILE PHOTO |
What you need to know:
- There was a 3G wireless router called a BRCK, wearable technology designed for boda boda drivers to help save lives in the form of Clad Light, and Fun Kidz, functional furniture that educates, too.
- Hordes of entrepreneurs showed up at the makeshift Innovation Village at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, eager to talk about their products.
- We have already proved, via products such as M-Pesa, M-Farmer, and M-Kopa, that our nation has a knack for creating innovations that transform lives and communities.
In global strategy consultant Scott D. Anthony’s book, The First Mile: A Launch Manual for Getting Great Ideas into the Market, he describes the innovator’s first footsteps into launching a business as being both an exhilarating and perilous place.
It can also be a lonely place.
This hard truth is borne out in statistics, which show that while innovators start with gusto and shimmy with entrepreneurial zest, most are unable to reach the second mile, let alone the finish line.
Following weeks of early mornings and late nights, and more than a few cups of chai and coffee, in which I led a strategic advisory committee in tandem with the ICT Authority and Ministry of ICT, I can attest to the combination of passion and purpose that helped make Kenya’s first National ICT Innovation Forum last week a success.
Many voluntarily gave up their time so that they could help Kenya’s future entrepreneurs live a dream — a dream that will soon become a reality.
INNOVATION VILLAGE
Hordes of entrepreneurs showed up at the makeshift Innovation Village at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, eager to talk about their products.
There was a 3G wireless router called a BRCK, wearable technology designed for boda boda drivers to help save lives in the form of Clad Light, and Fun Kidz, functional furniture that educates, too.
All of these were worthy examples of Kenyan innovation and a testament to the fact that our national entrepreneurial flair runs deep, with the nation’s start-up success stories and tech boom sparking international headlines in recent years.
However, the statistics tell another story: 60 per cent of small- and medium-size businesses in Kenya fail within the first few months.
What is clear, therefore, is that the innovators need a home away from home. Due to the support of President Uhuru Kenyatta, ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, and the ICT Authority, that home will soon be called Enterprise Kenya.
This institution will be the go-to point of help and support for every innovator, from understanding how to commercialise your research to getting ready for export. It will not be a home for just the Kenyan innovator, but also those from Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe. If the expatriate innovator needs help, support, and even a homemade cup of coffee to fuel their product that can help create change here and spark prosperity for our emerging talent base, we will be there.
STAVING OFF BANKRUPTCY
Another entity — more than 11,000km away and a Kenya Airways flight via London — has shown how successful this journey can be.
Enterprise Ireland, which helped support an export sector running to €17 billion, and was the rock that contributed to the small nation of four million people staving off bankruptcy back in 2007, showed that collective prosperity wins out over personal achievement every time.
As President Kenyatta said at last week’s forum: “Innovation is the catalyst of civilisational evolution. The entire history of socioeconomic revolutions rests on inventions and strategies borne of innovative minds.”
We have already proved, via products such as M-Pesa, M-Farmer, and M-Kopa, that our nation has a knack for creating innovations that transform lives and communities. But let us be frank: creating an ecosystem that encourages international business to come, see, and conquer without leaving a discernable legacy is not sustainable.
Now we need to support Kenya’s future innovators on their journey so that the ICT sector’s legacy becomes a shared phenomenon that we can all be proud of.
AFRICAN INNOVATION
As I told one audience, Kenya can be the home of African innovation if we want it enough. And as an entrepreneur myself, I am only too aware of the long and winding road that must be traversed to scale up an idea into a business.
My message to the struggling innovators out there is this: you are not alone. Innovators change the world. This much we know. In the years to come, with the support of Enterprise Kenya, the Bill Gateses and Mark Zuckerbergs of this world will be called Jonah, John, or Mary and have Kenya’s ICT thumbprints emblazoned all over them.
Mr Macharia is founder and CEO, Seven Seas Technologies Group; chairman, Kenya IT & Outsourcing Society; and was one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders last year. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeMachariaSST.
