From the Innovation Week’s kickoff to the wrap up celebration, I was trotting from one venue to another around the LAPF towers, Buni Hub, and other venues across what we call the Silicon Dar area, learning and capturing stories worth to tell. There were a lot of interesting events to attend but I couldn’t be at two different places at the same time so I picked those that interest me.
From the exhibition booths at Makumbusho village where innovators showcased their innovative solutions, an inspirational keynote speech by the superwoman Miranda Naiman to a spectacular arts performance at Little Theater, and a closing performance by the super talented Grace Matata —there were a lot of exciting moments throughout the week. Mambo yalikuwa mengi, muda kidogo.
The Innovation Week is Tanzania’s largest event held each year by HDIF in collaboration with COSTECH that aims to bring together technology industry players and leaders to promote innovation in the country. It provides a great platform for entrepreneurs, development partners, government agencies and every interested person to connect, learn and build networks. This year’s Innovation Week, themed Innovate for Impact, marked the sixth event taking place in six regions across the country.
With a total of 66 events that took place during the #IW2020 in Dar es Salaam here are interesting questions for stakeholders to take out with.
Can innovators go beyond the innovation stage?
While it is taking shape, the innovation ecosystem in Tanzania has a sustainability problem. Many innovations fail to scale to a profit making startup level. The main reason is that we still heavily depend on donors’ money. Speaking at the opening event, Deputy Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Ole Nasha challenged stakeholders to look for business models that aren’t donor dependent.
Why are donors not chasing good ideas?
This particular question was raised in a workshop held by HDIF discussing partnerships and joint ventures. While the discussion was expected to dive into collaborative models that drive innovations to scale, it weighed more on partnership and partially touched issues like actual joint venture agreements, trust funds and equity deals.
Most solutions discussed for startups involved the idea of how they can win donor money. And this brought the question; How will the innovation ecosystem in Tanzania thrive by depending on risk-avoiding donors who resort to funding the same people or projects every year?
Should innovation be regulated?
In trying to make sure that innovations are bringing a positive impact to people, it is tempting to think that innovations should be regulated. But is it possible? And what exactly should be regulated — the innovation process or the final product?
Hendi Hishan, Managing Director at Vodacom Tanzania says; “The moment you start regulating innovation it stops being innovation, because there are a number of trials before something succeeds” And I think that’s the answer. We cannot regulate innovation.
Who is innovation for?
Our cousins who lived in the caves discovered fire and since then the wheels of innovation have been in motion. Life is difficult without innovation. But the question is, are innovations reaching the end users? How is the target audience receiving the new solutions brought to them.
When I was talking to Pepper the robot, a new customer care AI introduced by Vodacom, I quickly realized this innovation is leaving nearly everyone behind. Majority of Kiswahili speakers can’t use the service, those who speak conversational English will leave Pepper in the dark. Even when the robot replies to you after repeating yourself at least twice, there isn’t much you can get apart from being redirected to dial star bla bla. So are we really innovating for impact or we are just innovating for the sake of innovating?
It takes an ecosystem to raise innovation
For development partners, private sectors, the government; we must offer opportunities to promote inclusive innovations so that none is left behind. We need to recognize homemade innovations and products and support them to scale.
All in all, the Innovation Week is the most influential and learning platform for innovation in Tanzania. Every person who attended any of the events will surely wish to attend the next one.
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