{"id":109,"date":"2013-11-15T15:20:08","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T07:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=109"},"modified":"2013-11-15T15:20:08","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T07:20:08","slug":"africa-future-innovation-ecosystems-need-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/africa-future-innovation-ecosystems-need-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa is the future, but their innovation ecosystems need help"},"content":{"rendered":"

The quality and\u00a0diversity<\/strong>\u00a0of panelists and delegates of the\u00a0Global Entrepreneurship Summit<\/strong>\u00a0in Kuala Lumpur make it possible to\u00a0learn a lot about distant innovation and startup ecosystems<\/strong>, as we’ve shown with these\u00a0insights from Russia, Indonesia and New York.<\/a>\u00a0We’ve also met with a lot of people from\u00a0Africa<\/strong>\u00a0and have tried to connect as much as possible. As a speaker said during a panel,\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0we all know of the unavoidability of Africa in the 21st century\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>, but to build local ecosystems and make them grow regionally and globally, many\u00a0obstacles<\/strong>\u00a0will have to be solved.<\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The African Startup Context<\/h2>\n

Across Africa,\u00a0\u00ab\u00a060%<\/strong>\u00a0of the population is\u00a0under the age of 25<\/strong>\u00ab\u00a0<\/em>, said\u00a0Lanre Akinola<\/a>\u00a0from the Financial Times blog \u00ab\u00a0This is Africa<\/a>\u00a0\u00bb as an introduction to this huge and diverse continent. The clich\u00e9 of people living on the streets and trying to make a living is gone, he adds, but it has a\u00a0heritage<\/strong>: in Africa,\u00a0you cannot divorce business from development<\/strong>, as there are still numerous crucial issues to solve, from access to electricity and education to a better government.<\/p>\n

Most of the African innovators present or speaking during the GES in Kuala Lumpur have a\u00a0big social driver behind their businesses<\/strong>. Yet\u00a0Africa is also the worst place to do business. <\/strong>The\u00a0ecosystem<\/strong>\u00a0doesn’t exist,\u00a0government<\/strong>\u00a0support is erratic at best. People willing to be entrepreneurs have no access to finance, to mentoring\u2026 the problems go on.<\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/a>

Mobile markets in Africa<\/p><\/div>\n

As a consequence,\u00a0changing the world does not necessarily take the shape of a business.<\/strong>\u00a0I’ve met with\u00a0Benjamin Freeman Jr<\/a>, from\u00a0Liberia<\/strong>, and his history is a case study on how African entrepreneurs have to be more creative to reach their goals and make real change. In a country torn apart by\u00a015 years of civil war<\/strong>, Benjamin wanted to address the basic need for an education. He created\u00a0LIPACE<\/a>, which stands for the Liberia Institute for the Promotion of Academic Excellence. What was a business initially was forced to\u00a0turn into an NGO to gain support from international institutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/a>

With Benjamin Freeman Jr from Liberia, and his LIPACE Project.<\/p><\/div>\n

Solutions to create African Startup Ecosystems<\/h2>\n

There is a consensus amongst the speakers and delegates that\u00a0better government\u00a0<\/strong>is required.\u00a0Corruption<\/strong>, lack of vision and poor regulation are turning business projects into obstacle courses, thereby stifling an\u00a0African population hungry for entrepreneurship<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0Kenya is the most innovative African country in ICT by far, because they have good regulation and support from the government\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>, explains Lanre.<\/p>\n

Big multinationals<\/strong>\u00a0can have an impact too. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is famous for its activism in healthcare and education in Africa, but it’s more of a charity.\u00a0IBM<\/strong>, represented in Kuala Lumpur by its\u00a0Venture Capital group<\/a>, has opened in\u00a012th research lab in Nairobi<\/strong>. Across the continent, they also organize\u00a0SmartCamp<\/a>, a business plan competition on Internet and Communication Technologies.\u00a0Google<\/a>\u00a0has been instrumental both in\u00a0Kenya<\/strong>\u00a0and in\u00a0North Africa<\/strong>\u00a0too. Companies can fill the void of poor government, not so much from a business perspective, but\u00a0as an ecosystem enabler<\/strong>, helping entrepreneurs to have the tools, space and connections to transform their ideas into businesses.<\/p>\n

Universities can also be ecosystem enablers. A recent\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0Stanford alumni network<\/strong>\u00a0showed how former students help create jobs, revenues and social impact out of California. An example drawn from the complete report involved the\u00a0d.school<\/strong>, known for its expertise in design thinking, and how they developed a course called\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0Designing Liberation Technology\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0to better use technology for development and democracy in Africa. Many projects abound in this field.<\/p>\n

We’ll be visiting and reporting on\u00a0two innovation and startup ecosystems in Africa<\/strong>\u00a0before the end of the year, in\u00a0Ivory Coast<\/strong>\u00a0during\u00a0Innov’Africa\u00a0<\/a>(Nov. 25-29) then in Nairobi,\u00a0Kenya<\/strong>, so stay tuned for more feedback on their local innovation ecosystems. Before this, check-out\u00a0Mashable<\/a>\u00a0list of 20 hot African startups.<\/p>\n

Martin Pasquier for\u00a0Agence Tesla<\/a>,\u00a0Knowtex<\/a>\u00a0and Innovation Factory<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out our\u00a0report on Malaysia innovation ecosystem<\/a>\u00a0on Slideshare too<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quality and\u00a0diversity\u00a0of panelists and delegates of the\u00a0Global Entrepreneurship Summit\u00a0in Kuala Lumpur make it possible to\u00a0learn a lot about distant innovation and startup ecosystems, as we’ve shown with these\u00a0insights from Russia, Indonesia and New York.\u00a0We’ve also met with a lot of people from\u00a0Africa\u00a0and have tried to connect as much as possible. As a speaker said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47,48,49,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-countries","category-government-innovators","category-innovators-category","category-markets-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}