Zero Emissions Research Initiative:Bauchi

The goal of ZERI "...is the efficient production of all the goods and services society needs without any form of waste - no liquid waste, no gaseous waste, and no solid waste. This goal is the basis of a new Zero Emissions production and consumption model, which imitates nature (the output from one becomes the input for another), and is more competitive, and more productive. By eliminating waste, we can respond to the pressing need of all humanity for water, food, health care, shelter, energy, and jobs, without destroying the ecosystem. This is not just theory, but is being implemented, and serves as a basis for inspiration and hope..." The ZERI Bauchi affliate's research includes the use of mushrooms as waste converters.
Discuss

OFT Online Trading, Lusaka

Ian Mvula is the founder of OFT Online Trading,"...the first Pan-Africa online currency trading platform..." WebproNews. The trading firm offers online trading services which include forex, CFDs and Metals.His recent article titled 'Africa can be built by Entrepreneurs' is a call to arms aimed at modifying a prevalent stultifying mindset.
Discuss

Virtual Market Project, Mali

Affiliated with Mali's Agricultural Market Watch the"...The Virtual Market Project will facilitate the exchange of market opportunity information between agricultural producers and traders in Mali. Field offices equipped with networked computers will serve as collection centers of buy and sell offers posted by the project's beneficiaries. VAPM's computer networking will help correct the information asymmetries in the agricultural market that are severely detrimental to Malian farmers..." Digital Dividend."...The VAPM is a virtual information center with field offices using computers in a network, which will give the opportunity to producers and traders to post offers to buy and sell agricultural products electronically. The center will serve as a virtual agricultural market that will connect farmers and traders for the purpose of exchanging information about market opportunities..."Digital Vision Program. The adoption of specific 'mini-commodity exchanges' has been covered earlier as well as the implementation of relevant market pricing mechanism's in 'Real-Time Market Timing and More' . The increased pervasiveness of these utilities and institutions will lead to improved agricultural efficiencies and livelihoods for the frontline producers.
Discuss

Fruits of the Nile: Uganda

Co-founded by Angello Ndyaguma the award winning Fruits of the Nile is one of the commercially successful solar drying initiatives"... Precisely sliced pineapple, banana, mango, papaya or carambola (star-fruit) stays three days in a solar drier specially-designed to deny even the smallest insect a feast on the fast-drying fruit. The drier is also covered in a specialized plastic to filter out harsh UV rays, which would otherwise blacken the fruit...As the European market for dried fruit steadily grows, Tropical Wholefoods is encouraging its existing suppliers to expand production and to add new products to its range. Chanterelle mushrooms from Zambia and dried mango from Burkina Faso..." New Agriculturist.
Discuss

Anywhere Books: Uganda

"...Anywhere Books has piloted a digital bookmobile -- a van outfitted with a laptop, laser printer, bookbinding machine and cutter -- in remote areas of Uganda to print free books for children since November 2003..."Wired.They are "... engaged in a joint project with the National Library of Uganda, with the aim of using a bookmobile outfitted with a PC, laser printer, paper cutter and the Parker hot-melt glue binding machine to put thousands of books into schools, homes and libraries in Uganda...An interesting aspect about the combination of specific technologies used by Anywhere Books in Uganda is that those same technologies offer potential for for-profit ventures. For example, a bookstore could use the Parker binding machine to create—on demand—one printed and bound copy of a digitized rare book that is out of print but in the public domain, and sell it profitably. It is profitable to do this because such books can be produced at low cost—perhaps, as mentioned in the interview, for as little as $1.00 each. The business opportunities would seem to be limited only by what can be imagined as marketable, and the potential for providing high quality books to schools in developing countries is limited only by the availability of funding needed to support such projects as the one in progress at Anywhere Books." D-Lib Magazine.
Discuss

Farmwise Project, Malawi

The Farmwise project "...developed a computer database system with a web interface and email facility to help women farmers to determine what they can expect to harvest from their land, which crops they can grow given the soil type and fertility, and what inputs they should use. The project collected information about the women and their land as inputs for the database...As a result of the project, their productivity has more than doubled..." via IctUpdate.
Discuss

Nova Technologies, Ibadan

Nova Technologies vision has been "...to transform Ibadan into the hub of quality equipment fabricators by harnessing the strength and capacity of existing micro and small artisan operators within its sphere...". Operating through a collaborative organization described as Agricultural Equipment Manufacturers Associates (The Associates), the company has nurtured an evolving partnership between the local artisanal base and the Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan. "...This loose arrangement ...is a cluster nurtured by market-driven interdependency... which has its hub in the growth and expansion needs of Nova Technologies Limited from a mono-product Company into a foremost agricultural equipment manufacturer in Nigeria..."BusinessDaily.The successful partnering of the IITA's 'Post Harvest Systems Development',Nova Technologies and others is proof once again that the research to commercial marketability model is just as viable in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their continuing successes within a cluster similar to those discussed earlier, underlines the importance of this 'cluster method' of industrial development.
Discuss

Students in free Enterprise, SIFE

Building on the theme of what we describe as 'embedding entrepreneurship' we take a look at the SIFE Africa program. "...SIFE students gain a practical understanding of how market economies work. They gain the opportunity to make a lasting difference in their communities and to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills. Mentored by faculty advisors and local business advisory boards, SIFE teams spend the academic year conducting educational outreach projects...SIFE organizes, motivates, and trains university students to form “management teams” that design, develop and implement thousands of community-based micro-business, training and educational projects to create and expand economic opportunity through hands-on and practical training projects..."SDNet
Discuss

Seeding Entrepreneurship,South Africa

In post colonial Sub-Saharan Africa as in Apartheid South Africa, the necessary prerequisites for a sustainable entrepreneurial culture were stifled. Independent thought and creativity were lost, this resulted in amongst other things the continent-wide phenomenon of 'educated' graduates that have not the slightest clue on how to create nor generate wealth. The South African Business Plan Initiative is a program that should be studied, adapted and adopted on a continent-wide basis in a bid to ameliorate this fundamental flaw.
"... All across South Africa - in every elementary and middle school - kids are crafting business plans, doing market research, balancing budgets, and hawking everything from hot dogs at 50 cents a pop to car washes for $7 each.In a dramatic bid to tackle this country's persistent unemployment rate of at least 35 percent, entrepreneurship has become a key part of the evolving post-apartheid curriculum. Students can't count on getting good jobs when they graduate, so they're being taught to create their own work - and help forge a kind of Apprentice Nation..." CSMonitor.
Discuss