[kictanet] Regarding the Girls who created social network for farmers

[Matunda Nyanchama]

Congratulations are in order for these young girls in the above story; kudos.

My reading is that there are many such stories and potential successes that 
could happen. This was reinforced when I saw presentations at the most recent 
AITEC event in Nairobi. We just need the right environment and our tech sector 
will take off to even higher heights than the present trend suggests.

Couple of things that could help:

	* Protection of Intellectual Property: I marveled at the ease with which those 
at the conference shared their creations and even creations that were on the 
drawing board! Question: how do they know who the prying eyes are in the public 
event? And prying eyes with deeper pockets and better knowledge of the business 
of IT?
	* Risk Capital: Silicon Valley wouldn't have been without risk capital? RIM 
(that produces the blackberry), one of the most successful Canadian tech 
creations, would not have happened without risk capital. For the longest time, 
the latter depended on government grants, which allowed them to go thru' 
teething stages! In Kenya, we may not have the kind money Canada has thrown into 
R&D in form of grants. However, we can have a variation of this. One possibility 
I have shared with friends relates to incentives, i.e. tax credits, R&D Levy 
Fund from which companies can get back some of the money invested in R&D, and 
even some form of "insurance" where risk capital would be compensated at a given 
% should a venture not materialize!
	* Active scouting of ideas for development in science fairs, tech conferences, 
etc and investing in those that offer promise.

 Ukiona vyalea vimeundua or words to that effect from the wisdom of the 
old.Development cannot be left to chance. It reminds of a science project we did 
in high school: powering a radio using stored energy in a wind up spring! We got 
good marks; and off we went later to university, forgot about it and lo! years 
later, someone was selling wind up radios in rural Africa! 


Shukrani.

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Matunda Nyanchama, mnyanchama at aganoconsulting.com
Agano Consulting Inc.;  www.aganoconsulting.com
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“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you 
and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea 
and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”- George 
Bernard Shaw 

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