Botswana Innovation Hub CEO Alan
Boshwaen
Like all
innovative thinkers, Mpho Motsamai sees a business opportunity behind each
inadequacy. He is part of a team of final year software engineering students at
Botho College behind the revolutionary cash dispenser that, if it reaches
product stage, stands to change how pensioners are served.
Named
Tandabala, after the old age pension, the dispenser uses both fingerprint and
face recognition for authentication, kinect technology and a touch screen that
represents cash in image form, thus making it easier for the elderly to use.
Also allowing easy navigation is the device’s audio capability, while the
kinect studies if the user has any problems using the dispenser.
The
concept’s developers – Motsamai (24), Kabelo Bolaane (23) and Givemore Mvumba
(22) – first entered it in local ICT competitions in 2011. This year the team
won the Botswana leg of the Imagine Cup 2013, co-hosted by Botswana Innovation
Hub (BIH) and Microsoft Innovation Center. As local champions, they represented
Botswana at the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals, the world’s premier student
technology competition, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Even as
it might be a while before the invention becomes a product, perhaps it best
illustrates what BIH’s chief executive officer Alan Boshwaen means when he says
Botswana has to inculcate a culture of innovation and build support systems
around it. He makes reference to last year’s World Economic Forum report that
observed that though Botswana has done well in building strong institutions, it
is scoring weaker in terms of technological readiness and sophistication. It is
a gaping gap that, hopefully, BIH will mobilise stakeholders to fill.
BIH is a
government-owned company that was borne out of the Botswana Excellence Strategy
which proposed a three pronged National Strategic Goal for the diversification
of the country’s economy, creation of jobs and driving the country towards a
knowledge-based economy. The company has a broad mandate to develop and operate
Botswana’s first Science and Technology Park – which is currently under
construction – to contribute to economic development and competitiveness by
creating new scientific, technological, and indigenous knowledge based business
opportunities, as well as add value to existing companies, and foster
entrepreneurship and technology transfer. It is expected that when operational,
the park will be home to innovative companies and research institutions, both
homebrewed and foreign, leading to creation of knowledge-based jobs.
The
company has prioritized four focus sectors: mining, ICT, bio-technology as well
as energy and environment given their importance to Botswana’s economy and
potential to drive economic diversification.
Boshwaen’s
view of innovation is as an enabler that will make Botswana more competitive in
terms of adopting different approaches and new technologies, but not
necessarily hi-tech.
“When
you talk science and technology, often people think hi-tech things that are
done in developed countries,” he says. “But if you instill a simple culture of
innovation and build support for it you get meaningful results.”
He gives
the example of what used to be a common feature in public buildings throughout
Botswana – rainwater tanks.
“This
was not hi-tech, but it was a good and effective water conservation
innovation,” he says.
The
starting point, therefore, is to identify a problem, and then find an
intervention that resolves the problem to move society forward. Take the cash
dispenser, for instance. If it is eventually deployed, its developers believe
it would eliminate the long queues at social grant payment points, and the need
to carry coupon books, which get lost and can be destroyed if not handled with
care.
“The
other main thing about the current system,” says Motsamai, “is that whenever a
beneficiary moves to a new place, they have to re-register in that district as
one of the pensioners. Of course, this might take some time and as a result,
the pensioner would not get their money on time.”
Boshwaen
believes two things must happen to set Botswana on the way to being an
innovative society. The first is development of better mechanisms to fund new
ideas that have been tested and are proven to work. The second is to create an
internal culture to take up these ideas and put them to effective use.
He sees
BIH assisting in putting the ideas into products either through funding or
entrepreneurial training. He emphasises the idea’s viability and relevance, as
well as marketability. He believes the country has to be innovative in funding
ideas by learning from the developed world.
“We can
create an opportunity for people [with new ideas] to pitch those ideas to
businesspeople,” he suggests. “That is what happens in advanced countries.
Money doesn’t come from government; it comes from the private sector. Perhaps
we need to create avenues for people to interact at that level.”
The
other model he suggests is for government to present some of the problems it
encounters in delivering services, and invite ideas that can be developed into
solutions.
“From a
pool of suggested ideas, a panel of experts would then determine which one is
the best. If we do that, Botswana’s young people will use their own minds to determine how to resolve various issues. It is not even too expensive. Just by
creating and supporting a new system for ideas to flow through, new business models will come up,”
he points out.
Boshwaen
broadens the discussion somewhat to encompass indigenous knowledge. He asks,
“How can we get commercial value out of our unique products like medicinal
plants and indigenous fruits?”
However,
he states that there has to be scientific validation to determine nutritional
value and safety of the various medicinal plants and fruits. BIH’s intervention
would be on taking such products to commercialisation.
From
where he sitting, Boshwaen is looking out for certain milestones that would
tell if BIH is delivering on its mandate. In ascertaining if the milestones are
being met, he will ask himself and his team a set of questions.
“Is
there meaningful technology transfer that resolves issues that Batswana face?
Is our economy creating new businesses that are aligned to innovation? Are we
having more young people involved from point of view of self-employment?,” he
rolls out the questions. “Our agenda is that in the next three years would like
to have built the science and technology park. We would like to see certain
critical facilities in the park that will support the whole agenda.”
When
asked the description of people he employed to help him drive BIH mandate, he
replies that he looked for people who
can get their hands dirty, and have a “can-do” attitude.
“They
are people who are interested in achieving the outcome, and in the concept
of moving Botswana forward,” he says.
He calls
it a small team of professionals from various fields, including different
branches of science, as well as business, property and law. His approach was to
build a core team that would then create linkages with other like-minded
organisations to expand BIH’s capacity. Some of the partnerships that have been
forged are with organisations such as Microsoft (leading to the establishment
of Microsoft Innovation Center within the BIH to enhance professional delivery
of ICT services and products, as well as create and improve skills of
Botswana’s ICT professionals), the Council on Health Research for Development
(COHRED), an independent international foundation headquartered in Geneva,
Switzerland (to promote research and development for health, equity and development
in Botswana and Africa in general), the Southern Africa Innovation Support
(SAIS) Programme (which promotes collaboration within the innovation ecosystems
of African countries in order to provide greater impact on economic and social development), as well
as Lund University and Krinova Science Park in Sweden (to establish a CleanTech
Centre of Expertise programme within the BIH).
Author: Mesh Moeti
Article adopted from The Sunday Standard
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