So we have Hubs, what now?
Charlenne Onyango-Obbo
Senior Program Manager, Supplier Assurance (Bribery Anti-Corruption)
Kenya is listed as one of the top African Tech Hubs for innovation and is often referred to as Africa’s “Silicon Savannah”.
As such, large amounts of money is spent on research and development, not only by financing techies but also by developing more hubs and research centres, however, the translation into products, processes and services is wanting.
Before, you jump down my throat with all the different “M-something” apps that have been created from these hubs, my question is much deeper. From the products developed from these hubs, how many have been patented? How many have been sold for millions? How many have generated Intellectual Property strong enough to be used as security for financing? Unfortunately, very few.
Partly to blame is the lack of strong technology transfer processes to facilitate the creation of strong products from R&D and the general comfort in the space of research, and development to churn out results and ideas, get them published, but not monetize them. Even worse a scenario is created where Intellectual Property that is being developed locally in Kenya and has the potential to result in a product, process or service, is instead shipped overseas and Kenyans do not benefit from the Intellectual Property and instead are faced with the possibility of having to pay for it again to access the result.
South Africa has gone a long way to ensure that there is finality apart from publication for their R&D. The Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act (IPR Act) for example, came into effect in 2010 and focuses on R&D financed by the Government. This has lead to great strides being made in their Agricultural, Pharmaceutical and Technology sectors.
So back to Africa’s silicon savannah; what digital interruptions have been caused, and have they had a similar effect monetarily? How is the success of hubs measured? And lastly, is the hype around the countless number of hubs real? Or is the problem the lack of laws and regulations to support successful technology transfer? To be honest, apart from The Copyright Act and Trade Mark Act, there is very little in the intellectual property law space in Kenya to support the kind of growth that hubs aim to create, and maybe that's the problem.
Whatever the reason, it is clear that it’s only when we move past the fascination and hype of having hubs, and, focus more on a favorable environment for technology transfer and the worth of the final products that come of the innovation hubs in Kenya, shall we then have something to write home about.
Senior Partner at Frederick Francis and Associates Advocates
7yThe problem is that usually even if the would be entrepreneurs would wish to patent or trade mark their innovations and them scale them they lack either the financial muscle to do so or the knowledge of how it can be done as a result many never get protected as IP and yet protection is half glass full as you can always pull your innovation put and sell it to someone else later and people have earned from just registering their IP and bidding their time. The publicity aspect is another one. Many innovations are buried partly because of people fearing that they will be cannibalised before they see the light of day, although cost of launching products is another prohibition. Now this is a chicken and egg situation. Keep it under wraps - how will people get to know about it ?? - Take it out there and the vultures could steal it from under your nose. So the strength with which we enforce our legal provisions has a lot to do with it and the confidence this would give to would be innovators cannot go without saying. In other jurisdictions that is what is making the differentiating factor and one trades cautiously before they steal other's IP because the costs can be colossal. Not yet so in Africa and Kenya is not an exception.
ADVOCATE
7yKenya is on the way to protect is innovation and IPR's. This will be implemented through the Science and Technology and Innovation Act and the Industrial Property Act. Curiously, these acts make it imperative for innovators who import or export technology to make it known to relevant authorities. The recently held Nairobi Innovation Week touched on some of these issues. The stakeholders who were present were made aware of the loopholes . Other countries and international actors such as Israel provide a bench mark for us to follow. So the solution is to improve the Innovation Eco System.
Co-Founder, MD widu | ex-trivago | Passionate about Leadership, Product, Marketing & Content
7yThe education sector also has a fair bit to do. Unis are barely training tech students in product development and release. Many join the market with the expectation that writing some code on a machine is everything. Nobody wants to pay for code on a machine, they need to learn how to package and release a working feature or product.
Innovation, ICT4D, AI, EdTech
7yI doubt that lack of IP laws/regulation is to blame - ideas precede IP. Problem is that most 'innovators' are not driven by real needs that have been validated via need finding, ethnography and human centric insights, but rather, they rush to build the next 'cool' m-thingie driven more by the sexiness of the tech, ignoring viability and scalability aspects. Lots of hubs, very little to sing about!!
Technical Lead at Betwin Limited, Software developer 10+ yrs Experience in elearning platforms, Fintech and online gaming
7yThis is partly true but it does not require IP to have a great innovation work. Example what does uber have in terms of IP yet it is bigger than mpesa. IP is not guaranteed success there is more to it and those hubs so far have outdone themselves considering the oldest one ihub came in 2011 and they so far there are afew startups that have exited at a very good price like wezatele they sold at 154m yet their business was just an enterprise software they have no IP