[kictanet] Kenya's Silicon Savannah & the Need to do more

Thu Feb 26 07:42:19 EAT 2015

Ngigi Waithaka
You make some good points; often innovation is as result of culmination of knowledge from different disciplines. Often also, by products of large projects (JFK promising Americans to land on the moon) can have substantive impact on the economy. It requires long-range focus.
African universities are very lowly rated on result output as measured by publication indices. South Africa leads in this respect on the African continent.
The other aspect is poor dissemination and which can lead to duplication. There is a cliche that a lot of research reports merely end up on shelves gathering dust. 
I would encourage us all to attend the ICT innovation conference to add your input and be regular in its planned annual occurrences.
Have a good morning.
      From: Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi at at.co.ke>
 To: Matunda Nyanchama <matunda at aganoconsulting.com>; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
Cc: Security List <security at lists.my.co.ke> 
 Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 9:06 PM
 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Kenya's Silicon Savannah & the Need to do more

Listers,

I don't see us getting to a level where we are doing serious innovation unless we get our "..We are going to the moon..." project(s).

There has to be a need and/or a market that we should be targeting, then we can throw our resources and brains behind it. This will kick-start serious innovation.

How do you measure innovation? My take..
1. How many internationally recognized patents are we filling per year? Whats their quality? What revenues accrues from these patents / year?
2. How many research papers are say published in the IEEE, Medical Journals or any equivalent fields
3. How many firsts are we doing, say in Africa? First processor design, first AIDS interferon (remember KEMRI in the 90's?)
4. How many of our scientists are getting international recognition in their various fields? Nobel nominees anyone in Physics???
5. Finally, what percentage of our national, companies revenues do we spend in R&D?

The biggest impediment to this is that we do not have a culture that sees past 3-5 years seeing innovation doesn't happen overnight. 

Anyone thinks the "..Heavens May fall..." if we took a 1/3 of the Konza Budget and pushed it to 5 target industries and came up targets to be delivered, guns to head if need be in 5, 10, 15 years.

One of the first, would be the first Kenyan Rover to Mars... The Indians  used $74M (Ksh 7B) for theirs.. That's a nice small figure which we can easily afford seeing we are to build a Ksh 1 trillion City....

Think how many industries could spring from such a move in Aeronautics, Electrical, Mechanical, Computer, Materials Engineering that could then be used to maybe design the first Kenyan plane, missiles, rockets, guidance systems, drones or whatever our neighbours would like to use to prolong their civil wars that much further...

Rgds

On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 7:13 PM, Matunda Nyanchama via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Friends, 
The MoICT and ICT Authority are planning a 2-Day ICT Innovation Forum on the 2nd and 3rd of March, 2015. See details on the ICT Authority website)
I offered (and the Technical Committee organizing the Forum agreed) that I do 2 Op-ed pieces on the subject as a lead up to the Forum.
Business News » Kenya as Silicon Savannah – The need to do more!; I will be posting the second piece in the next day or so.
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| Business News » Kenya as Silicon Savannah – The need to do more!Business News - Reading is FunDamental |
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 Kenya as Silicon Savannah – The need todo more!by Matunda Nyanchama*February 22, 2015
The National ICT Innovation Forum, convened by the Ministry ofInformation Communications and Technology and ICT Authority, is slated for March2rd and 3rd, at the Kenyatta International ConferenceCentre (KICC). Its theme is SiliconSavannah! Mind the Gap! Close the Gap! 
Participants are expected totackle challenges pertaining to ICT innovation in the country and the wayforward to ensure ICT innovation thrives in Kenya. Industry stakeholders areagreed: our ICT sector has reached a tipping point: no longer just a sexy idea,but an industry that is creating lasting change and impact.One may ask why the theme: Silicon Savannah! Mind the Gap! Close theGap!? 
The media coinage, Silicon Savannah, has become near-synonymouswith Kenya’s technology sector. The words carry a subliminal play with America’sSilicon Valley, home of many global technology giants such as Apple, Google,Oracle and many others. 
As a country, we offer a series ofadvantages to claim the Silicon Savannah brand. These include boasting a largenumber of academic institutions offering ICT programmes; taught in English, theglobal business language, steering our next generation of leaders; our laws andregulations, favouring free market economics and more. This is in addition toKenya being the region’s economic powerhouse despite lacking in resources (oil,minerals, etc.) that have been the curse of many African nations.
The Silicon Savannah label didn’tcome by accident. A lot of time and effort has been invested in promoting thecountry as a technology destination. Under a triumvirate of the Ministry ofInformation of Communications and Technology, the ICT Authority and BrandKenya, the nation’s image as a leader in the technology sector has continued torise. 
And the proof of the pudding isin the eating. Kenya’s image, as a leader in innovations, is well-known. Onecase in point is M-Pesa that stands out to become a global brand in electronicmoney transfer. The Konza Technology City plans, if well-executed, wouldfurther buttress the Silicon Savannah brand. In addition, there is a lot morein the works with the vibrant activities happening in incubation hubs,university ICT departments, government, and the private sector. The future isbright; the future is IT.
With Government and the privatesector working in tandem, the Silicon Savannah brand value can only grow. Otherswould claim that we have a huge gap between that brand promise and where weare. In spite of the achievements to date, serious work needs to be done tofully realize the benefits of that gilded metaphor.
There is a need to accelerate thepace of the sector’s growth via deliberate efforts, plans, actions andperformance monitoring. These efforts must tap into the amount of energydevoted to innovation in order to harness its full potential. The approachshould result in a well-oiled innovation ecosystem that would deliver thepromise.
A thriving innovation ecosystem needskey components synergistically working towards a common goal: exponential ICT growththat has wide-ranging, knock-on benefits. Key among these are the laws,regulations and policies; access to knowledge and expertise; access to capital;ongoing research and development; deliberate promotion of the sector’s productsand services; and a vibrant network of incubation hubs with clear tentacles tothe market, academia and financiers. 
Laws, Regulations and Policies & Promotion of Kenya ICT Products& ServicesThe public sector, includingnational and county governments, public agencies and state corporations, aremajor consumers of ICT products and services. The national ICT spending acrossthe public sector could be in the range of hundreds of billions of Shillings. Now,suppose Government regulations and policies required that we give priority tothe local ICT sector, driving innovation at home. This would assure a readymarket for Kenyan ICT products and services; the resultant process would createjobs, build local ICT capacity and provide a springboard towards regional andinternational growth for the sector.
There is more. 
With the recognition of thesignificance of the ICT sector, Government could make deliberate effort topromote the sector abroad. It is key to include ICT sector representation ininternational trade fairs and promotions the country participates in. In part,it would help the sector’s targeted contribution of 8% GDP and 180,000 jobs by2017. 
Knowledge and Expertise In recent years, Kenya has seen asubstantial growth of institutions: universities are expanding both in studentpopulation and in programmes offered. This is the good news.
The bad news is that higherlearning in Kenya appears to be more of the business of education than thequality of the programmes and relevance to the market. There is a disconnectbetween what we are teaching and the needs of local industry, such that universitiesstand accused of a failure to proactively tune their programmes to marketneeds. The term “yellow notes” has been mentioned in relation to use of thesame material from year to year by some lecturers and professors, caring lessfor the dynamic nature of knowledge.
ICT education and knowledge is afast-paced affair. Knowledge and its packaging evolves rapidly, as do the deliverymodes. Academic institutions must keep up with these changes if their graduates,especially in ICT – a key pillar to the President’s Digital Promise - have tofind relevance in the market.
There is more. There are fewinstitutions with focus on bridging gaps between what is learnt in universitiesand what the market needs. Further, as a relatively young (e.g. compared withengineering) discipline the sector does not have a clearly defined professionalpath for growth. 
Nonetheless, the need forprogrammes that bridge gaps between academic qualifications and practicalindustry needs has never been greater. There are yawning gaps in this space.Indeed, it is this realization that resulted in the establishment the recentlylaunched Presidential Digital Talent Programme to address government ICT needs.Sadly, there is still more badnews.
As we celebrate the mushroomingof universities we appear to have forgotten the key role played by tertiary andvocational training institution. Our universities appear to have grown at theexpense of polytechnics and, in the process, left a gap in human capital development.
Finally, considering that ICT isexpected to play a key role in economic growth, there is a need to ensure thatICT graduates come out of university equipped with even basic businessknowledge, such as knowledge of intellectual property and how to secure it; andhow to turn the intellectual property into a business venture, how to raisemoney and how to run an enterprise. 
Access to Capital According to recent privateequity surveys, Kenya is missing out to its African neighbours, Nigeria, andSouth Africa. The challenges in Kenya include lack of innovator awareness ofthe varied range of sources of capital and the required preparedness to obtainrisk capital. This has also been blamed on lack of viable business plans for early-stagebusinesses. 
On the other hand, most investorsstake their money in tried and tested ventures such as in real estate; and theyhave poor understanding of the technology sector. Clearly, there is a need toaddress the gap via (say) a venture capital fund that would help start-ups gothrough the early stages of development while raising awareness on thepotential for growth that the sector presents.
Research and DevelopmentInnovation pertains toimprovements (product, service, process) that addresses a key need. Ofteninnovation takes ideas from different disciplines, combines these to realizesomething new. A good example is M-Pesa that significantly improved themovement of money using mobile phone and messaging.  It was an innovation that has transformedlives.
In order to experiment with andtest ideas, there is a need to have ongoing research and development. The needfor collaboration and cooperation between the ICT sector and academicinstitutions, has never been greater. In addition, companies - public and private- need to set up research and development departments that would be chargedwith continual innovation.
Often significant value can berealized through incremental changes via co-innovation, e.g. throughcustomization and incremental change to an existing product, service orprocess. 
Research and development activitycan be substantially enhanced through government incentive programmes. 
The Innovation HubsA number of these exist in thecountry. They are run as independent businesses, components of businesses oracademic institutions. There is no doubt that a lot takes place in these hubs,with respect to testing and incubating ideas with a view to commercialization.
The need for stakeholder collaborationhas never been greater. There is a need for greater awareness of their role andstructure and value they add to the innovation value chain.…The need for focus in ICTinnovation has never been greater. Deliberate action is needed in order tocreate a well-oiled innovation ecosystem with a friendly policy and regulatoryenvironment, aided by a supportive incubation ecosystem, supplied with relevantskills, fed by ongoing research and development, served with risk capital, and activelypromoted nationally and globally by all.
Dr. Matunda Nyanchama is a Director and Managing Consultant at AganoConsulting Inc., and a Technical Advisor in the Ministry of Communications andTechnology and can be reached at mnyacnhama at aganoconsulting.com  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama at aganoconsulting.com
Agano Consulting Inc.;  www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda;  Skype: okiambe
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