Three Mombasa youth based tech ideas have been awarded Sh300,000 seed capital each by UNDP after emerging top during a two day tech hack-a-thon competition held last weekend.
The awarding took place during the Blue Economy Innovation and Investment Summit that took place on Wednesday at Sote Hub in Nyali.
The event was graced by the Slovakian Ambassador to Kenya Katarina Zuffa Leligdonova who said that innovations and new solutions are crucial while addressing climate crisis or any other challenge a nation might be facing.
“I have been inspired today because the topic “green and blue” is close to my heart, we always say that we are ready to support any good idea, and this summit is one of them”
“Better understanding of challenges, decreasing vulnerability to climate change impacts and building climate resilience and putting forward smart solutions ,these are the reasons why we met here today,” said Zuffa.
She said that the key factor of development is the support of sustainable economic growth, job creation, as well as supporting mobilization of the Slovak resources and improving business climate in the partner countries.
She alluded to the fact that private sector engagement is a necessary condition for the success of development activities in every nation.
“To achieve this, we have created a special Private Sector Engagement Program. And in the pipeline is a project on investment in youth business in Africa,” she said.
The ambassador said that for non-commercial entities, they had a small grant programme for supporting small-scale development projects to enable a flexible and effective response to development needs at the local level.
She also announced that the embassy was planning to bringing over 25 Slovak companies in February next year to take part in a EU-Kenya Business Forum.
This she said will be a second visit of Slovak entrepreneurs to Kenya in less than a year.
“Without doubt it is a clear signal of increasing interest from our business environment and unique opportunities to develop further cooperation between Kenya and Slovakia,” Zuffa said.
She added that, “Kenya is our long-term development partner and main programme country since 2014. Our sectorial priorities are agriculture, job creation, education and health.”
David Ogiga, co-founder and director of Sote Hub said that the aim of the summit was to bring together all the stakeholders in the blue economy sector to share on the opportunities available and brainstorm on how best to develop solutions to challenges faced.
He said that technology in the modern world is an enabler and also an engine that fuels development.
“If we are able to employ technology then it will be able to help us enable our businesses to scale up, run efficiently and be able to offer services the best way to customers. We have so many opportunities for business in the blue economy, tech will enable us to collaborate and be more efficient,” he said.
Ogiga said that the incorporation of technology in to the blue economy sector was also about data which he said would make it possible to track progress.
The data he said would be very crucial in planning and making decisions both at the county and national level.
“If for instance we know the number of fishermen in Mombasa, we also need to know how much fish they can catch and how many they are selling in the market,” he said.
He added that incorporating technology into the blue economy sector will also go a long way in promoting value addition along the value chain.
He argued that most of operations are manual, therefore by deploying technology then one is able to automate operations which mean that output will be faster and in higher volumes.
“Technology enhances value addition and when you enhance value addition, it means that you are creating a balance between efficiency and productivity “
“Some might argue that introducing machines might lead to job cuts, but at the same time it creates jobs to those who can operate them, maintain and automate them. You cannot limit human activity from the equation,” he said.
He added that young people in Kenya were very creative and had developed innovative ideas, but the challenge is that they don’t know how to patent them saying that some people come with big investments and steal their ideas making millions of shillings as they live like paupers.
“We also held a discussion to know how we can help our young innovators to know at what point they need to register, whether it’s a trademark, patent or IP, they need to register and secure it,” he said.
The week-long event that ends on Thursday was funded by Slovak Aid with UNDP funding the seed capital to the top three innovators. Other partners in the project included Segal Family Foundation, Konza Technopolis and KTN Global. It was attended by notable partners in the Go Blue projects including GIZ Kenya, Business Finland, MSEPT and KIMISITU SACCO.
The summit was co-organised by Sote Hub working with coast based hubs including Swahili Box, Close the Gap, BEI Hub, SwahiliPot, Tech Bridge and Global Youth Opportunity Network all under the Association of Countrywide Innovation Hubs in Kenya.
