IST-Africa Roundtable on Supporting Entrepreneurship in East Africa
This Roundtable Panel took place on Thursday 30th May during IST-Africa 2013 Conference and Exhibition.
Moderated by Paul Cunningham (IST-Africa Coordinator), the panel consisted of representatives of Independent Innovation Spaces (Catherinerose Barretto, KINU, Tanzania; Rachel Gichinga, iHub, Kenya), HEI based Innovation Spaces (Emmanuel Kweyu, @iLabAfrica, Strathmore University, Kenya; Martin Tubula, Inoorero University, Kenya), and other organisations (Mary Kiguru, Kenya Methodist University, Kenya - focusing on BPO training; Simon Stumpf, Ashoka East Africa, Kenya - focusing on fostering Social Entrepreneurship) supporting Innovation and Entrepreneurship, especially at the pre-incubator and incubator stages of development.
Each panelist briefly introduced the activities of their respective organisations.
Launched in July 2012, KINU provides dedicated and co-working space, application testing facilities, workshops and training for over 700 members of the technology community in Dar es Salaam, with a particular focus on supporting early stage start-ups and women entrepreneurs. KINU cooperates with relevant stakeholders in a range of ICT entrepreneurship activities (e.g. hackathons).
Launched in 2010 as Technology pre-incubation and collaborative working space, iHub now has over 10,000 White (Virtual), 250 Green (shared space) and 14 Red (dedicated space) registered members registered. iHub hosts regular community events and other activities include iHub Research (March 2011), m:lab (June 2011), Pivot25/Pivot East (mobile app competition), UX Lab and Supercomputing Cluster (2012). 48 companies have been established since its launch.
Established in January 2011 as a Centre of Excellence in ICT Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Incubation, and Policy Research for Africa, @iLab Africa is hosted by the IT Faculty at Strathmore University. @iLabAfrica has successfully built action research partnerships, launched an entrepreneurship focused Master's programme (MSc. TID) and established @iBizAfrica as an Incubator in January 2012.
Inoorero University has established a Regional Centre for Enterprise Development, which provides business-mentoring courses to support SMEs in Kenya and East Africa. In partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Inoorero has developed a Practical Enterprise Training Course offered to Kenyan entrepreneurs from February 2013 as a four-month part-time programme. Inoorero also offers a 3-month Personal Development Skills course for school leavers to equip them with 21st Century Skills for university or employment and develops tailored industry training.
Kenya Methodist University (KeMU) is the first East African institution to be licensed to establish an International Center for Outsourcing Studies (ICOS) by the BPO Certification Institute, Inc. (BCI). KeMU will spearhead BPO education in Kenya by offering market driven courses.
Ashoka envision an Everyone a Changemaker world. A world that responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and where each individual has the freedom, confidence and societal support to address any social problem and drive change.
Ashoka East Africa is part of a global organization that finds and fosters the most effective social entrepreneurs and helps to facilitate a shift in worldwide existing conditions of education, nutrition, youth development and business practices. Ashoka was the first organization to publicly recognize social entrepreneurs as a major driving force in transforming human welfare in the East African region. Since 2001, when two Ugandans were recognized as Ashoka Fellows, the region is now home to 43 Ashoka Fellows who are creatively restructuring society's health, environment, human rights, education, civic engagement and economic development in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
The panelists discussed a number of topics including
- Challenges associated with ensuring services provide are kept aligned with the emerging needs of ICT entrepreneurs in East Africa
- Need for mentorship and developing role models to develop the innovation eco-system at national and regional level in East Africa
- Sustainability for both entrepreneurs and Innovation Spaces
There was a rich and dynamic discussion with lots of practical insight. The IST-Africa 2013 Conference Report provides a full report on the discussions during the Roundtable.
In conclusion, there was a general consensus that there was a need for something different, agreement that social and commercial entrepreneurship are not mutually exclusive, and that it was possible to find ways of identify cooperation opportunities between all key stakeholders (including HEI hosted or independent Innovation Spaces) supporting entrepreneurs for mutual benefit. The panel agreed that this was the start of a process of culture change going forward.
