"They encouraged us to think about how to the Solve the problems"

Hind Ali talks about her experience at African Institute of Mathematical Sciences(AIMS):

Africa Media Online's Entrepreneur Program for photographers

About the Image reports:

“We don’t teach photographers how to take pictures,” said David Larsen director of Africa Media Online (parent company of African Pictures). “ They don’t get onto the programme unless they know how to do that. What we aim to do is to take them to the next level. So the first training block, the Digital Campus, teaches photographers how to deliver images that are technically at the standard that the global picture industry will accept and how to manage and grow their picture archive over time. The Global Competitiveness Masterclass, on the other hand, is all about getting images to market.”...[continue reading]

Farmer Innovation

One of Africa's major untapped resources is the creativity of its farmers. This book (by Chris Reij and Ann Waters-Bayer) presents a series of clear and detailed studies that demonstrate how small-scale farmers, both men and women, experiment and innovate in order to improve their livelihoods, despite the adverse conditions and lack of appropriate external support with which they have to contend-Earthscan

NEXT

Garcia Media heralds the launch of NEXT newspaper:

We show you here the prototype front pages for what Next will look like when it appears in print, Jan. 4, 2009. It will be a compact format daily, a broadsheet on Sunday, with a features supplement called X2 Next...

TED speaker Dele Olojede founder & publisher states:

Welcome to NEXT. We’re glad you found us. This means that now we are fellow travellers on a journey of discovery- which should surprise, amaze, infuriate, and inspire us. NEXT is launched now to provide news and informed opinion fairly and accurately to the Nigerian public in any land, based on the best judgment of the editors, and in a way that serves the public purpose and is compatible with the demands of an open and democratic society. We will deliver this to you wherever you are and by every means-via this web medium, on your mobile devices, to your desktop, on Tweeter and YouTube and Facebook-anywhere we can find you.

via Naija Blog

Recycling & Community Cookers

Afrigadget covers the informal recycling industry and community cookers:

Franco Mithika works in Gikomba, an industrial area in greater Nairobi. His job is to take scrap metal tin cans and a soldering iron to fabricate paraffin lamps. Paraffin lamps are used by millions of Kenyans, especially those who cannot afford or get electricity into their home for lighting...[continue reading]

while in Kibera:

Garbage is brought to the community cooker by volunteers shovel itinto one end of a giant concrete oven. At the other end are the hotplates where the community cook and boil water.
“It might smell a bit but it doesn’t make our food taste any different,” says Virginia Wamaitha, as she pours sugar into her steaming pan of chai – the gently spiced tea loved by Kenyans. “It will taste just like chai should.”...[continue reading]

Unheralded Fabricators - Ayodeji Buschell of the Serve All Group

Ayodeji Buschell founder of the Serve All Group an electricity distribution manufacturer contends:

We are able to build and fabricate transformer tanks, repair transformers for PHCN (then NEPA)... We implement installations for a lot of companies, my dream is to prove that Nigeria has all the necessary resources to implement the production of transformers.

Unsurprisingly he has come up against that familiar bane of startups-funding.

Two units of core winding machines are close to $US45,000;a low coring machine is about US$14,000, a hyper- tronic tester is about US$12,000, a digital oil tester is close to about US$7,000...I’m telling you that I am into manufacturing of transformers I just don’t have all the necessary standard equipment in place...[continue reading]

Willard Musarurwa-CraftsMaker

From One.org, Willard Musarurwa's story:

I decided to approach the Cape Crafts and Design Institute for assistance and luckily, I met Aid to Artisans and Stephen Burks, an American designer. We designed a wire table. It took us 2 years to develop until it was accepted for an exhibition. The first time it hit the market, the product was hand picked by a U.S. distributor, Artecnica. I was able to use the income to start my own business, Feeling African, which has created jobs for 9 people and myself...[continue reading]

Watch him at work here:
via Design in Africa

Growing Kenya's Ethanol Industry-Spectre International

In a further example of growing South-South cooperation CS Monitor reports on a Kenya-Brazil Ethanol partnership.Quoting Israel Agina of Spectre International:

"We have the potential of three times the production because we have fermenters that are idle and have not been activated because of a lack of market"

"For us, the beverage industry is not very large," says Mr. Agina, whose plant uses molasses – a waste product from sugar mills – to produce alcohol that is pure enough to drink by the time is has passed through six distillation columns. "So the answer is ethanol as fuel, which is used extensively in Brazil.

"Brazil has done wonderful work with up to 3 million vehicles running on ethanol alone – a much cleaner fuel," says Agina. "So we feel their expertise will speed our development."...[continue reading]

Quick Hits

Open Design Appropriate Technology at Appropedia via Agroblogger
User focused stove design - The Economist
AfricaBan an African Business Angels Network-company website
Zoomlion a Ghanaian waste management company and manufacturer.
The Human Flower Project reports on Londolozi Orchids
Jua Kali update :Kisenyi Metal Fabricators tiptoe into motor spare parts
Why are Start-ups Left Out of VC Funding?

Caranda's Gourmet Spices

In a specialty-food first for an African company
Caranda Fine Foods covered earlier, has just launched its gourmet spice line-The Sea Salt Collection- Read on for a description of the Baby Eggplants Sea Salt product:

Coarse & fine sea salt, kittaley (dried baby eggplant) baobab A uniquely blended salt with a sweet and bitter flavor that adds a different robust ingredient to any recipe. Our sun dried, hand harvested seasoning is full of vital minerals and of the highest quality. Enjoy this seasoning with seafood, poultry, meats, vegetables, pasta, salads, etc...[continue reading]

Full Disclosure: Emeka Okafor is a partner in Caranda :)

KilaKitu-Kenyan Cowboy Shirts

KilaKitu is a swahili saying meaning "everything" - we mine the depths of Nairobi's sprawling secondhand clothing markets to unearth the finest and most inspiring preloved fabrics from the four corners of the world, which we reuse, remix and renew to create one-of-a-kind garments.Each of our garments completes a lifecycle. A shirt/skirt or trouser fabricated in one corner of the word is bought and worn lovingly for years before it is discarded and ends up rediscovered in Kenya where it is combined with others and given new life.-Company Website
via BoingBoing

Alvaro

Global Voices reports:

In March 2008 the Kenyan corporate giant East African Breweries, who produces the famous Tusker beer label, launched a new non-alcoholic drink called Alvaro. The new malt-based drink was considered a runaway success but which may have come at the expense of local juice manufactures, but more so at Coca Cola who control the local soda market...[continue reading]

"I Am African"

BHF magazine announces the "I am African" campaign, in a bid to celebrate "our diversity through our own eyes".

Oyster Mushroom Farming

The New Agriculturist reports from Tanzania:

The benefits of growing and selling mushrooms have enabled farmers to buy livestock (chickens and goats), pay school fees and household goods, and a number of farmers have invested in expanding their mushroom production. However, the benefits to the household have included improved nutrition. Consumption of animal protein is low in most households, even those with livestock. Oyster mushrooms - rich in protein - provide an affordable alternative...[continue reading]

via African Agriculture

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The growth of Mobile Money Transfer

Image via WikipediaThe FT reports:

The rise of the mobile phone as a bank account substitute in Africa was reinforced on Monday as Vodafone announced the launch of a cross-border mobile money transfer service between the UK and Kenya.The service will allow remittances to be sent from selected Western Union branches in the UK to Safaricom subscribers in Kenya, who can then redeem the money or send it on to another mobile user. The maximum amount that can be transferred internationally is £200 ($296)...[continue reading]

Meatco

Meatco is the largest meat processor in Namibia with abattoirs and beef processing facilities forming the core of the Corporation's business activities. The Corporation has four abattoirs, two of which are approved for export to the European Union (EU) whilst the other two, situated in the northern part of the country are used for the slaughter of animals destined for the South African and other world markets-company website

Quick Hits

Ghana's Kintampo Health Centre wins an award.
The founder of Renaissance holdings Patterson Timba, which offers a range of financial services contends that brain power is the key to wealth creation.
Streamsowers & Köhn a law firm does not merely pay lip service to the concepts of professionalism...they hold these values dear.
AIDG profiles Afrigadget.

"Lost Crops of Africa"

BetumiBlog provides an overiew of the Lost Crops of Africa series:

The "lost crops" series is a planned set of several volumes on traditional, often underutilized and appreciated Sub-Saharan African crops. The first volume, Grains, was published in 1996 and covered a dozen grains from African rice (Oryza glabberima), finger and pearl millets, to fonio, teff, and wild grains. The second, Vegetables, in 2006, featured 18 vegetables, like amaranth, egusi, enset, moringa, okra, and shea. The third volume, Fruits, came out in 2008, and covers a couple dozen fruit resources from baobab and kei apple, tamarind, horned melon and watermelon, to custard apples, sugarplums, ebony, and chocolate berries...[continue reading]

Online, on Cellphones

Tom Wright at the WSJ reports:

Using cellphones to surf the Internet is booming in emerging markets, showing how countries with poor fixed-line telecommunications have become important drivers of growth for mobile-technology companies..."For a lot of people in emerging markets, the mobile phone will be the primary way of accessing the Internet," says Tony Cripps, a London-based wireless-software analyst at Ovum.
Indonesia is a nation of more than 17,000 islands, with many areas lacking high-speed cable broadband connections, DSL lines or even regular phone lines for dial-up service. Many people have turned instead to accessing the Internet with their mobile phone in the past year as falling costs, increased bandwidths and improvements in browser technology have made it quicker to surf from a cellphone. For many, browsing on a handheld device is a cheaper alternative to buying a PC or paying for home Internet service...[continue reading]

Update: Startups Nigeria asks, Is the Mobile Web replacing the traditional web? photo courtesy of podtech

POP winner - Superflux International

From the Pioneers of Prosperity Blog:

The winners of The Pioneers of Prosperity Africa Awards 2008 have been announced.This year’s US$100,000 Grand Prize was awarded to Superflux International, a Nigerian-based print specialist...The winner, Superflux International, provides secure print solutions, including print communication, document management and envelope manufacturingSuperflux International works across a breadth of sectors, including: government, manufacturing, entertainment and is the preferred supplier of cheques to major banks in Nigeria...[continue reading]

Watch related video here:

Read related coverage at Businessweek here