<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:bookman old style,new york,times,serif;font-size:10pt;color:#0000ff;"><br>Congratulations are in order for these young girls in the <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Girls%20who%20created%20social%20network%20for%20farmers%20/-/1056/1085706/-/6c0qcjz/-/index.html">above story</a>; kudos.<br><br>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.<br><br>Couple of things that could help:<br><ul><li>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?</li><li>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!</li><li>Active scouting of ideas for development in science fairs, tech conferences, etc and
investing in those that offer promise.<br></li></ul><div> <span style="font-style: italic;">Ukiona vyalea vimeundua</span> 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! <br><br>Shukrani.<br></div><br>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Matunda Nyanchama, mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com</span><br style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Agano Consulting Inc.; </span><a style="font-weight: bold;"
href="http://www.aganoconsulting.com">www.aganoconsulting.com</a><br>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span lang="EN-CA"></span><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles
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mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Book Antiqua";"><br>“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.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Book
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