Ecosystem: The pedal that will power innovation for transformation
Innovation’s substance is not in inflated egos, it is lodged in the solutions we breed. Therefore, an ecosystem’s purpose is to avail cooking stones which smelt knowledge into creations that solve human problems. In the pillars of the ecosystem, inventors find the moulds that reshape ideas to fit the dictates of society’s sustainability.
Ecosystem: The pedal that will power innovation for transformation
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OPINION
By Stephen Christian Kaheru
Uganda recently hosted the 11th Africa Engineering Week during which the 9th African Engineering Conference convened, and I was privileged to attend as a guest. Themed “Leveraging Engineering Innovations and Technology to Accelerate Africa’s Socio-Economic Transformation,” the forum drew over 1,200 of the continent’s policymakers, practitioners and academics to engage on how to nurture engineering-led solutions.
From the proceedings, some of the loud voices that kept re-echoing in the walls of Speke Resort Convention Centre pitched the case for an ecosystem to support innovation. Indeed, be it infrastructure, energy, agriculture or climate resilience, commercialised inventions to transform our economy can only thrive on a robust ecosystem.
Conceding to financing indigenous research, Tanzania’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Doto Biteko, in 2024 committed the government to raise funding for innovation, paving the way for an additional TZS 32 billion (about $1.3m) to science-bred inventions. Similarly, the 2024 Tanzania Startup Ecosystem Status Report cited intellectual property protection as an untapped opportunity, rooting for an intellectual property-conscious culture to enhance innovation outputs.
With Vodacom embracing digital banking in 2008, followed by Tigo Pesa, financial inclusion became a dream come true for smallholders, micro-businesses in rural Tanzania, as competition ushered in microloans and microinsurance. In response to this trajectory, Bank of Tanzania crafted an oversight framework for mobile payment services in 2015, stressing the seriousness of regulatory transparency for fintech innovators.
Sprouting from Kenya in 2007 as M-Pesa, mobile money quickly gained a continent-wide footprint as a digital banking invention, making Africa the world’s largest digital currency hub. From Nairobi to Dakar, Abidjan to Lagos, mobile phones are now pocket-size banks with Africa registering 1.1 billion accounts that represent $1.1 trillion in transactions. Recognising that the future belongs to tech-savvy graduates, Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) established the Kenya Network of Entrepreneurial Institution Leaders as a nexus of academic institutions that spur innovation.
With regulatory obscurity for climate-tech innovations cleared, Astanah Energy is now a reprieve for homesteads, schools and small enterprises from darkness through its sustainable solar power solutions in Zambia’s off-grid locations.
Riding on a supportive regulatory architecture and boldness of political will, Rwanda is shaping Africa’s air mobility solutions with eVTOL, a self-flying air taxi. This headway builds on the assembling of batteries for Zipline drones in Rwanda.
To catalyse the interaction between knowledge and solutions, Ghana paved its way to develop Science, Technology and Innovation Parks. Since 2023, this kind of infrastructure has provided a dependable ecosystem where government, research institutions and entrepreneurs are co-located to jointly support incubation, commercialisation and linkages to capital sources.
Originally famed for its fruits, Silicon Valley, working with Stanford University’s engineering expertise, evolved into an axis for advanced technological creativity in the 1950s. The invention of silicon transistors broke ground for tech firms to set up shop in the valley, including Hewlett-Packard. Thus, since 1971, Silicon Valley stands tall as the world’s nucleus for scientific discoveries, tightening the unbreakable bond between academia and innovation.
Innovation’s substance is not in inflated egos, it is lodged in the solutions we breed. Therefore, an ecosystem’s purpose is to avail cooking stones which smelt knowledge into creations that solve human problems. In the pillars of the ecosystem, inventors find the moulds that reshape ideas to fit the dictates of society’s sustainability.
The proximity of incubation, infrastructure, knowledge, talent, capital, regulatory direction in expediting value creation is indisputable. The question, however, that has to absorb the minds of policymakers is - how can we render the ecosystem penetrable for indigenous innovators?
Africa’s claim to indigenous ingenuity is dependent on a thriving ecosystem for homegrown solutions to our peculiar problems. Our strategic investment in a multipronged habitat of support that sustains native creativity through incubation, ideation, proprietary protection and funding is what will embolden our readiness to leverage knowledge that drives socio-economic transformation.
The writer comments on national and regional development issues.
skaheru@hotmail.com