OP- ED: On African Innovation - The Importance of Relevance (Part 1)

Map of innovation hubs across Africa. Source: VC4Africa 

If necessity is the mother of invention, then Africa, with its acute necessities should be the motherland of innovation. But this is clearly not the case, at least not as far as innovation is globally defined.

As someone who is passionate about Africa and passionate about innovation, I find myself always seeking to find out about African Innovation. Interestingly, there has been a lot of talk about that in recent times. Organizations like NEPAD the UN and British Council,  High profile publishers like Africa Business, All Africa and Forbes and high profile events, like the World Economic Forum, recently held in Abuja, have given a lot of airtime to Africa and how its development is linked to innovation, and how the creative industries are key to innovation and so on.

Innovation success stories like M-PESA (Great stuff, by the way)  have been frequently touted as examples of how Africa is innovating, and various articles on innovation have documented the  new trend of Africa - innovation hubs springing up across Africa (As of today  there are over ninety tech hubs in Africa.)

CC-Hub in Nigeria is one that I have had the opportunity to interact with on various levels and I can say that something new, fresh and innovative is definitely happening in the African space, particularly within the ICT sector.

It is at this point that I begin to get uncomfortable.



When I begin to search for innovation in Africa, I find that a lot of the examples and success stories are skewered towards ICT,  most  of the innovation hubs in Africa are focused on the same.

I’m not sure what it is that makes me so uncomfortable - the fact that ICT, historically, tends to be overhyped? (remember the Tech Bubble) or that so many of our innovators are the ones building apps and very few building things as in actual physical products?

I think we have much deeper issues than building the next cool app. Our definitions of African Innovation are not springing from that baseline understanding of Africa; the conversation is being driven mainly by the cool kid (and I mean that)  who has access to all this cool media apps and is trying to build the next big app and become the next Mark Zukerberg.

What am I trying to say here? Innovation does not need to be techie. Innovation, especially African innovation, certainly need not be high tech.

Note: this is not to say, I’m not excited when I think about all that is happening in the African tech-space but I find  I’m  more excited when I hear stories like, those three Nigerian teenage girls who figured out how to power a generator using urine, or the men in Kenya recharging phone batteries using their bicycle, or UPenergy in Uganda making available safer, greener, and more efficient cook stoves, water purification technologies, and solar lights for the rural poor, or the South African woman who built a washing machine from a Vuvuzela.

Concerning that last example, a CNN anchor asked Dayo Olopade the following question:

“What is somebody… sitting in London, going to take from a vuvuzela washing machine? They're not going to take the practicality of that...what's going to make them say 'wow, I didn't know that?'”

If I were sitting in Dayo’s chair,I would have answered thus: Africa  does not need the guy sitting in London to take the practicality of its innovation! At least not for now...

I began this article (first in a series) with the thought about necessity being the mother of invention. Let me end by saying by that if innovation is truly about doing more with less, then Africa is ripe for innovation. Innovation begins with understanding and trying to meet real and felt needs.

To be continued...

Ese Oraka

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Ese Oraka is a Lawyer and Business Designer. He has extensive knowledge and experience in IP and Business Law, Innovation Management and Business Model Design. He is a founding partner at Adelphi Consulting. You can find him on - Twitter: @eseoraka, Facebook: /ese.oraka.9, or email info@adelphionline.com