Tanzania Tech Ecosystem Rising: Kinu Innovation workspace, Competitive mobile money & mCommerce Kicks off

I have now spent a good few weeks (maybe months) in my home country of Tanzania. I begun my efforts to help Tanzania’s tech scene 2 years ago when I directly brought i/o ventures mentor network to Dar es Salaam. At the same time the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), a Govt agency was put in charge in setting up the first incubator/workspace in the country known as the Dar es Salaam Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBI). That incubator is now fully running with TANZICT, a bilateral project between Tanzania and Finland is operational in the space having run a few events, conferences. Envaya (team behind Telerivet) are one of the tenants at DTBI. Meanwhile, I decided not to get involved anymore because I fundamentally believe that Governments should form an enabling environment and not over-stretch themselves in startup ecosystem. Secondly, I believe there were too many parties at the table with multiple agendas that was not conducive to focusing on supporting entrepreneurs.
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Disruptive Innovation in the African Tech Context

What is it really to disrupt, or what is a disruptive innovation? And to put it in the African context, what does ‘disruption’ mean for the continent and what are the opportunities to disrupt?

A dictionary definition of the term … Read More

The ICT Funding Gap in Kenya

 The Missing Middle

While capital has flowed rapidly to satisfy the needs of the largest and — thanks to the microfinance boom – the smallest African companies, SMEs have fallen into a “missing middle.” SMEs in the missing middle are … Read More

An East African Mobile Entertainment Overview: Music Discovery, Nano-economics and Mobile Money

Recently, All Amber invited Afrinnovator down to cover and participate in Mobile Entertainment Africa. Below is a summary of that first talk, which painted a snapshot of some trends and key learnings from the East African mobile entertainment scene.

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How not to launch a Data.gov

I woke up this morning at 4am US West Coast time because I went to bed very early in anticipation of some early morning phone calls to East Africa.

Checking my twitter stream I saw that the Tanzania Government … Read More

Tanzanian & Rwandan Startups Making Content Publishing via SMS Work

According to an official report released by the GSMA, Africa is now the second largest mobile market in the world. The report showed that over the past five years, Africa’s mobile subscribers has increased by 20 percent every year, and … Read More

The Africa Tech Parks & Cities Arms Race- Is it worth it?

One of the most debated topics in IT innovation industrial policy is the place of tech parks and cities catalysed by African Government’s role in helping lay down important infrastructure.

Kenya’s Konza Tech city is slated to cost $7B. … Read More

Exclusive: Inside Look At The Pivot25 Startups [Part 2]

So we began by looking at some of the apps that are set to launch at Pivot25 this week and we continue with the scoop on more great apps to look out for. Our format is simple. In 160 characters (the same number as an SMS, given this is a mobile app and developer conference) they give us:

Their Pitch: What are they trying to do?

Their Problem: What are they trying to solve?

Their People: Who are some of the names behind it?

Catch up with last week’s group here including some great insights.Read More

Afrinnovator Year 2010 in Review Part 2 – July to December

One more day to the close of 2010 and the decade and today we continue on our journey through the year that’s just passed. Yesterday we took a look at key happenings as we covered them here on Afrinnovator. Today … Read More

So you want to be the Silicon Valley of Africa?

This is the second installment in a series of guest articles to be done by Mbwana Alliy, a Tanzanian tech entrepreneur on the state of the Tanzanian tech scene. In the first installment Mbwana took an overview of several startups … Read More