Tie small enterprises growth to innovation

Last week, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Jane Marriott, inaugurated an Innovation and Research Challenge Board in Nairobi.

The 10-member Board with expertise in Science, Technology and Innovation has been set up to advise the British High Commission’s work in Science, Technology and Innovation.

The purpose of this Challenge Board is to support the British government in Kenya to be innovative and ambitious, to test and validate strategies that will work best for the Kenyan ecosystem.

Already, the British Government has set up UK-Kenya Tech Hub and appointed an experienced lawyer, Sheena Raikundalia, to be the its first director.

The Hub has been in operation since last year with the aim of working with the local tech ecosystem, build talent and linkages within Kenya and the UK.

The focus of the UK-Kenya Tech Hub covers emerging technologies, technology as an enabler to reach the excluded and operational tech to help MSMEs/SMEs use technology to grow.

A release after the launch said that Science, Innovation and Technology underpins the UK’s strategic partnership with Kenya, bringing connections that make both countries flourish.

The research and innovation initiatives come at a time there is a renewed interest in streamlining supply chains for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and linking some to global value chains. Tech has disrupted the MSMEs sector and created more value out of especially the many informal enterprises.

Major progress has been made with several startups in agritech but there is still some work to be done. Farmers are still unproductive; middlemen exploit them and there is a lot of waste amid food insecurity.

In the 1960s when we faced similar challenges, the Government introduced sessional paper No. 10 of 1965 that created the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (Kirdi) and Kenya Industrial Estates (KIE) to conduct research and incubate MSMEs respectively. In their formative stages, these two organisations created Kenya’s industrial base that is now faltering.

Some of the major brands incubated at KIE include: Haco Industries, Mastermind Tobacco Ltd, Spectre International, Pioneer Foods, Nice & Lovely, Ramboo Furniture, Buffalo Millers, Moiben Agro-chemicals, Mareba Tiles Enterprises, Kuguru Foods, Makiga Engineering, Leather Masters, Line Plast, Specialised Towel Manufacturers and Menengai Millers.

Although Kirdi continues to support MSMEs with industrial research, resources for research have dwindled. Their good work is rarely communicated to the youth who need it most to develop products and it lags behind in technology.

KIE, after a long period of inactivity, has managed to build several industrial workspace (Parks/Sheds/Incubators) in 37 counties.

It is also revamping new products on MSMEs credit finance, built Business Advisory Services and is facilitating backward and forward linkages between large and small enterprises as well as sub-contracting.

Experience from these key organisations show that research and innovation is critical to economic expansion. Had these organisations kept the initial tempo that helped create several brands, Kenya could be industrialised today.

Nevertheless, we have an opportunity to leverage UK-Kenya Tech Hub, and hopefully a better funded Kirdi and KIE to acquire new technologies for fostering the renewed effort to grow manufacturing sector.

Emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing provide new opportunities to create new products that bring greater value to the customer.

Since the technology does not require complicated commercial infrastructure, it is likely to create several small producers addressing local demand. This will demystify the fear that new technologies will displace many people out of their jobs.

Let us communicate the benefits of research and development in all communication channels.