Harriet Constable of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Global News recently wrote an article titled, ‘‘Why millennials are heading for vibrant tech city of Nairobi.’’
In my view, this is the most balanced article on Kenya in many years. Although written from the perspective of a young British investor in Kenya, it is a Kenyan story.
The story highlights the latent potential that lies in Kenya. We still have not exploited this potential. In my book with Tim Weiss, we profiled Timbo and his start-up OkHi.
While at the ministry I used to visit the OkHi team in their early stage growth at their offices. They were different in that they wanted to share knowledge and be part of a wider ecosystem.
When Tim caught up with Timbo for the interview, he expressed concern that “as entrepreneurs we do not do a good enough job of sharing, learning, and generally making the most of each other.”
He emphasised that, “there is no way the successful companies coming out of London today could have done so back in 2008, because there was not the capital, the mentors, or employees to make it happen. There just was not the ecosystem, or community.”
This is where Silicon Valley beats everybody. As a result, the output of new innovations coming out of the Silicon Valley is there for everyone to see.
Today, many European countries including Britain have adopted the US model. France, the latest to build such an ecosystem, developed Station F.
Started just last year, Station F’s 34,000 m2 space is home to more than 1,000 start-ups and early stage businesses and is arguably the largest of its kind globally.
Owing to lack of an ecosystem locally, the University of Nairobi embarked on a journey to address the problem of a disjointed technology environment through an annual Nairobi Innovation Week expo.
The idea is to bring together the academia, private sector and the government to encourage a knowledge sharing culture.
At a meeting to shore up interest in the upcoming innovation week, the private sector was conspicuously underrepresented. Yet the programme needs their partnership.
More specifically, private sector funds are needed for the growth of the many start-ups in the accelerator programs in Kenya.
The government, led by Information, Communications and Technology secretary Joe Mucheru and principal secretary Victor Kyalo, reaffirmed its commitment to building an innovation ecosystem in Kenya.
In last year’s Innovation Week, the President made a promise to support the initiative with seed funding of Sh100 million, but this amount has yet to reach the project.
The concept of building an innovation ecosystem is no longer abstract as it was when we conceptualised Konza Technology City. It is a concept that has been proven over and over that Kenya should be at the forefront in transferring that knowledge to other countries.
So many countries that borrowed our innovation ecosystem development strategies went ahead and actualised what has remained a concept in Kenya. We have everything in writing in some report somewhere except for their implementation.
As the President embarks on realizing his four key areas of focus, I hope implementers take a step back to read past reports.
Specifically, they need to look at Sessional Paper No 2 of 1996, Industrial Transformation to the Year 2020 which sought to encourage private sector to invest in technology development, and Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation (2003-2007) that recommended enhanced support for R&D for industries by reviewing the tax incentives for doing research and zero rating research-related equipment.
More importantly, they must review the Vision 2030 documents on value addition and the role of universities in enhancing research.
In Vision 2030, the ICT strategy for example included manufacture of light electronic products, an area where China is increasingly losing competitiveness.
We have great potential in manufacturing, one of the flagship areas, but we must embrace the concept of triple helix (partnership between universities, private sector and government) and invest in research and development.
We must therefore support the Nairobi Innovation Week initiatives.
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