Hot on the heels of the National Science Week that ended last week, the Kampala Innovation week will kick off next week.
One may ask why the two weeks didn’t coincide – after all science and innovation go hand in
hand, but for emphasis alone, it is good that they are held on separate weeks.
What is of particular interest to me with upcoming
innovation week is that it will bring together innovators, entrepreneurs,
investors and government stakeholders to “explore the role of innovators and
entrepreneurs in achieving Uganda’s development ambitions, deliberate on how
innovation and entrepreneurship can be harnessed for job creation and
employment.”
The best of innovation allows for more output from the same
inputs. Innovation comes with improvements on an existing idea.
"The challenge for innovators is often how to commercialise their innovations. It is not true that if you create the best mouse trap all the world will make a beaten path to your door. On the rare occasion that this happens look out for a good business mind supporting the innovators. It happened at Microsoft with Bill Gates backing up Paul Allen or at Apple with Steve Jobs providing the environment for Steve Wozniak to do his thing.
Left to their own devices innovators’ work will never
receive wide acceptability and the benefits lost to the wider world.
This is an important point to note, especially for a country
like Uganda.
I heard years ago that after an aerial geosurvey for
Uganda’s minerals, it was found we have so much mineral potential that were we
to exploit it fully, we would have to move all Ugandans out of the way,
essentially exile them. And that is all the natural endowment under the ground
without considering that we have a fifth of the region’s arable land.
The reason we are a poor country – judging by our sub $1000
per capita income measure, is because we have failed to unlock this value. That
we have failed to create an environment for our innovators to exploit this rich
bounty.
We have seen the artisan miners from Busia to Buhweju, that
the people are there, trying to exploit these mineral deposits. However, their
innovation is not being backed up by an enabling environment or the business
person.
This is just one example.
The point is, innovators cannot operate successfully in
silos. They are part of a wider ecosystem that includes business people,
financiers, academia and government and the sooner we appreciate this and act
on it, the better.
Hence the importance of the innovation week. When all these members of the ecosystem find themselves in one place it can only be a good thing.
As always happens the private sector leads the way. While
this week is sponsored largely by the UN Capital Development Fund and Startup
Uganda, an association of innovation and entrepreneurship support
organisations, in places from Kamwokya to Ntinda and Lubaga to Kanasanga there
are private operators who have tried to create spaces for the innovation
ecosystem to find root.
But beyond the lucky meeting of minds one week annually, government needs to take a more proactive role in creating the enabling environment to allow these players to not only survive, but thrive...
As stated earlier good innovation allows us to do more with
less. In a country looking to take advantage of our youthful demographic, our
appreciation of what it takes to make innovation work is more critical, if only
because it can be an engine for job creation.
Also especially because the covid-19 pandemic has reset the way
the world works. The reality is that many business models in trade, services
and manufacturing have been disrupted for good. For one, we are moving towards
more automation and digitization, minimizing the need for labour. The people
who argue for manufacturing as a driver of job creation have forgotten or are ignoring
the fact that fewer jobs than in the industrialization era, are required in
modern factories.
Which all points to the fact that we are going to have to
rely on our own ingenuity, to make paying work for ourselves.
"Government is always tempted to jump in and throw money at the problem, but this money will go a longer way if it is anchored by a good strategy that takes into account our endowments and capacities, our needs and the available markets in which we can compete...
The innovation week can be a good learning and networking
opportunity for all concerned. See you there.
