Indispensable Legumes

Spore highlights the growing appetite for dry beans:

Cultivation of haricot beans, which originated in the Andes mountains, has taken a strong hold in the upland regions of Central and Eastern Africa. The Great Lakes region (Burundi, eastern DR Congo and Rwanda) holds the world record for consumption of these legumes: an annual 50 to 60 kg of dry beans per person. But haricot beans feature on the menu in many other ACP countries too, including Cape Verde and Nigeria. They are also popular in the Caribbean, where they are sometimes accompanied by maize or rice. Haricot beans are often called 'the poor man's meat' due to their high value protein content supplied by essential amino acids (22 to 24%)...[continue reading]

While 234next reports on a new cowpea varieties IT89KD-288 and IT89KD-391:

IT89KD-288 (now SAMPEA-11) is a dual-purpose cowpea variety with large white seeds and a rough seed coat.” Mr. Atser said. “It has combined resistance to major diseases including septoria leaf spot, scab, and bacterial blight, as well as to nematodes, and tolerance to Nigeria’s strain of striga gesnerioides - a parasitic weed that severely lowers yield.”...IT89KD-391 (now SAMPEA-12) is also a dual-purpose cowpea variety, but it has medium-to-large brown seeds with a rough seed coat.
“These are preferred seed characteristics for commercial production in northeast Nigeria,” Mr. Atser said...[continue reading]

Related older article on commercializing deep-fried cowpea paste also known as 'akara',and another on the yam bean derived moi moi

Enda Ecopole Artisans Senegal

Enda Ecopole Senegal "...runs a recycling program where artisans are taught how to make products from recycled cans, bottle caps, and iron recovered from the dump..."their work embodies "...transforming pieces of metal (such as used bottles caps) into art objects and furniture..."In addition to being a community based landowner that protects the interests of its constituency the organization is actively involved in building creative sustainable symbiotic bridges in areas that include indigenous medicine, open source hardware and telecentre activities. Over 40,000 people have been trained since 1994 a number of which have gone on to form businesses.

Tekura

Design Africa profiles Tekura:

Tekura offers stylish, contemporary interpretations of legendary Ashanti and Fanti cultural artistry. Each of their beautiful and functional designs in wood is created by master artisans under the direction of Josephine and Kweku Forson.

Can An African Tech Entrepreneur Change the World?

Bill Zimmerman of 27months writes:

A combination of pivotal factors including access to broadband, a youthful demographic and widespread mobile adoption, coupled with entrepreneurship and investment, will enable the African digerati to radically shape their future—not in a figurative sense, but in a real, measurable way.View his Africa Gathering presentation on the subject
Africa Gathering DC talk

View more presentations from Bill Zimmerman.

More here

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• Crowdfunding and Seed Funding in African Tech (whiteafrican.com)

Omatek expands

Computerworld Kenya reports

"Omatek PCs are at par with other global brands. We buy raw materials from Taiwan. Our chips are from Intel and AMD, which makes the cost of production almost the similar to other global brands," added Florence Seriki(founder and CEO).The company sells about 10,000 PCs a month, but with a population of 150 million in Nigeria alone, the company is forecasting increased growth as the countries get connected to the fiber optic cables and costs of connectivity fall. West Africa has Sat3 cable and this year Glo and Main One fiber optic cables have entered the markets.

More here

Introducing Fab@School

Educating 'makers', Reimagining Learning on a winning entry from the fab@home folks at Cornell:

Fab@School will foster three-dimensional visualization and engineering habits of mind. Curriculum materials aligned with school standards will pose challenges, presenting models that spur inquiry and inspire students original projects. Fab@School will provide authentic assessment based on the success of designs. Multiple levels of mentors“ student/student, teacher/student, and expert/teacher“ will provide feedback, and assist in problem-solving.

More here
via Fabaloo

Preserving Sweet Potatoes

Africa Studies Quarterly reported that researchers in Zimbabwe had determined that:

Lack of suitable storage facilities among smallholder farmers continues to expose farmers to intermittent food shocks. Farmers are thus making use of locally available preservation methods, derived from indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), to improve storability of sweet potatoes

At the conclusion of their research they contended:

Image by NatalieMaynor via Flickr

The socio-economic value of indigenous knowledge cannot be under estimated. The results of this study point to soil banks as the most effective in terms of maintaining the quality of the stored crop and reducing water loss. However, use of grass and ash are also valuable methods but could be associated with loss in quality judging by the incidence of discolored tubers. If the best results were to be obtained, it would be recommended to use a combination of these preservation methods. This is because ash has some repellent properties to vices such as pests. There is need for further investigation to identify the effectiveness of these techniques across other varieties of the sweet potatoes and also under varying conditions.

More here

Hotbeds of Innovation

At TED India, Anil Gupta founder of the Honey Bee Network covered earlier on seeking,finding and nurturing innovation where you least expect it. A road map of sorts on how better to do it in Africa:

Africa Health Fund

Next Billion reports on the Africa Health Fund:

The fund will invest in SMEs providing health services including health service delivery, risk pooling and financing vehicles, distribution and retail organizations, pharmaceutical and medical-related manufacturing companies, medical education, as well as ancillary businesses. Investments are expected to be between $250,000 and $5 million, in the form of either equity or quasi-equity, with an expected exit from individual investments after 5-7 years. Although all SMEs in sub-Saharan African countries are eligible for financing, there are a number of target countries, including: Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, South Africa, and Ethiopia...[continue reading]

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Momo

LadyBrille on Momo the fashion line founded by Fati Asibuela:

The MOMO collection displayed a unique point of view that is very Nigerian, the gele, in a very “proper, proper” way. While Western designers such as Christain Lacroix in his Spring/Summer 2008 Collection took a good swipe at the gele,none, so far, have delivered the gele with the precision and regalness that the MOMO London Fashion Week Fall 2009 collection did. Also, for the Ladybrille Western woman who tends to wear regal stylish hats to upscale functions, particularly African-American and British Ladybrille women, it can easily blend into your wardrobes if you are looking to spice things up a bit.

More here

Aiyda Accesories

"...Each Aiyda piece is produced in carefully selected artisan workshops around Ethiopia and hand-made using indigenous traditional methods to create exclusive, limited-edition items including high quality leather bags, cotton and silk scarves and custom made jewellery..."-website

Entrepreneurs "You Should Know"

Ory Okolloh at WEF on entrepreneurs you should know:

One thing that struck me this year (and last) were all the young entrepreneurial Africans who’d managed to circumvent the perennial challenges we complain about when it comes to doing business in Africa, who’d managed to build strong, profitable, businesses , and who the had ambition to scale even further heights. And this are not just businesses that make money but that touch on critical sectors for the future of Africa – media/information; technology; infrastructure; agriculture. The kind of stuff that makes you want to run back to your hotel room and start putting a business plan together instead of tweeting in my case

Anyway, I thought I’d share the profiles of some of these entrepreneurs with you…always important to keep telling the success stories, no?

First is Erik Charas (@erikcharas), he is the president of @Verdade (the truth), which is Mozambique’s biggest circulation newspaper. @Verdade reaches more than 400 000 people in Mozambique and is the country’s first high-quality, free newspaper. Charas is also the founder and CEO of Charas LDA, an investment company that invests in Mozambican entrepreneurs. Erik runs a profitable *free* newspaper. How so, one wonders? Well, to hear him tell it a few days ago (and I’m sure I’m butchering the story), after realizing that most of Mozambique’s population can’t afford to spend money on a daily newspaper, he decided to offer if free to people who could not afford to buy one (his paper is literally hand-distributed), everyone else is told to go online. Because of the exclusivity of the paper as it were, advertisers scramble to get their ads in, and he also has other revenue channels through the integration of mobile and social media. Perhaps he should be advising American newspapers on alternative media models?
Next is Michael Macharia founder of Seven Seas Technology a software solutions provider. The company’s revenue in 2008 stood at $15 million. What’s always struck me about SST is the deliberate strategy to go regional – something Kenyan companies only do tentatively or when they “are big.” Mike’s goal is to go public in 2011.
Demonstrating that finding your niche and capitalizing on local knowledge is key is, Kola Karim, CEO of Shoreline Group(covered earlier). Doing big thing in infrastructure in Nigeria and West Africa.

More here
Image of Erik Charas at WEF

Street Dance Africa

Street Dance Africa courtesy of Malta Drinks.

For further coverage see here and here

A Story of 2 Entrepreneurs

In a piece on a noticeably strengthening trend in entrepreneurship.Hash profiles two notable trailblazers:

Karanja Macharia who is the founder and CEO of Mobile Planet, a mobile company in Kenya that provides third party services to both the main mobile providers and other corporate clients. They’ve been around for a number of years, Google invested in them 2 years ago, and most importantly, they’re profitable.

and:

Fritz Ekwoge the founder of iYam.mobi, he too comes from a professional background, though as a programmer and developer, not pure business. He represents a different type of entrepreneur, a younger generation that knows and cares about the web world beyond his Cameroonian borders, and tries to figure out how the two can work together....

More here

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Quick Hits

Second generation master tailor Amodou
Training Kenyans for outsourcing-Digital Age Insitute.
Ecosan manufacturer of waterless toilets.
Organic farmer Seona Ban.

Chichia

Christine Mhando's Chichia fashion:

"...collections consist of an eclectic range of dresses and separates in modern, wearable shapes and styles made unique by clever use of eye-catching prints, embellishment, intricate detailing, a mix of natural fabrics and a succulent colour palette. The use of colour plays a major part in each line! Our trick is balancing between keeping things fresh and new without being too trend driven, therefore making each piece timeless..."

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Media 365

Mary Tembo founder of Media 365:

"...is an entrepreneur with a passion for media and how it is used to promote solutions to social challenges. Mary and her sisters founded Youth Media that published the TrendSetters a magazine that won numerous international awards for encouraging honest discussion on matters lifestyle and health among the youth. She was co-owner of the Spar at Cross Roads before she started Media 365 who recently produced the popular mini-series Club Risky Business on ZNBC and Muvi TV. Mary Tembo will be part of a panel discussion on online content in Zambia...

Via BarcampLusaka

Build Your Cellular Network-OpenBTS

The DIY wireless network space gathers steam from Fabfi covered earlier to OpenBTS:
Tech Review reports (subscr reqd):

The task of running a cellular network has usually been reserved for major carriers. But now an open-source project called OpenBTS is proving that almost anyone can cheaply run a network with parts from a home-­supply or auto-supply store. Cell-phone users within such a network can place calls to each other and--if the network is connected to the Internet--to people anywhere in the world.

On their website it is described as:

...an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface ("Um") to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk software PBX to connect calls. The combination of the ubiquitous GSM air interface with VoIP backhaul could form the basis of a new type of cellular network that could be deployed and operated at substantially lower cost than existing technologies in greenfields in the developing world.

photo courtesy of OpenBTS

Sadio Bee

Ghubar Magazine on designer Sadio Bee:

Sadio Bee is a half guinean and half senegalese fashion designer,who choses interbreeding as a definition of his creations."Travel" (was the name of the collection) : European shapes made with african fabrics and materials, a lot of living and warm colors...

Businesses designing and selling open source hardware, making millions

Another option for Africa's hardware hackers? Following the path of open source software,its sibling OS hardware comes into its own. Adafruit Industries reports:

Open source hardware $1m and beyond - foo camp east 2010 from adafruit industries on Vimeo.

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Africanbream - Duckweed & Tilapia farming

African Bream's 'Marracuene Project', a fish farm will produce:

"...Tilapia, a white meat substitute for hake and cod, and the on-site production of Duckweed as a fish feed... and use duckweed, grown on site, as a feed for the fish..."

The feed input:

Cultivated duckweed has protein content similar to soya oil cake, in excess of 40%, which, together with other qualities, makes it a highly sought after animal feed for chicken broilers, cattle and Tilapia.

While the fish:

Tilapia produces a white flesh, similar in taste & texture to hake and cod, and the demand has grown substantially, with international consumption of Tilapia product, in 2007, exceeding 3 million ton.

isYou Sneakers

From Co-Design sneaker company isYou:

After a local talent call in Burkina Faso, Butterfly Works selected Wilfried de Paul (artist), François Ouédraogo (photographer) and Ramata Soré (writer) as the very first !SYOU talents... Amongst other materials our very first range of fresh !SYOU sneakers uses biological cotton sourced in Eastern Africa and woven in Burkina Faso. Through Biotex Afrika we were able to produce some amazing items, such as the laces in the !SYOUs and the little cotton bags they come in...Another material we used in this range is braided recycled plastic. These are little plastic bags people pick up in the streets and turn into new objects such as little bags. We thought: why not put this in our sneakers!

Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster

Innovation from the Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster:

Apart from farming seaweed using the traditional off-bottom method,ZaSCI has adopted a new technique of farming seaweed-the deep water floating systems to farm the higher priced seaweed - cottonii. This is to combat the problem of seaweed die-off and to increase seaweed production.

via Sarnissa

Quick Hits

AIG African Fund Infrastructure investments in infrastructure and related industries.
Old but still relevant article on Kenya's green gold, otherwise known as Qat.
Churchgate group a leading Nigerian conglomerate.
Africa Nazarene University a private university located in Kenya.
Moulin Wikimedia knowledge for people in developing countries.
Osun Designs 'Art to wear'.

Abuja Clinics

Patrick Onyechi Founder of Abuja Clinics on heart disease and local screening abilities:

"This device (a Volume Computed Tomography machine) is useful in diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. In our environment about 30 per cent of disorders are due to cardiovascular events, with 30 million Nigerians having CVDs (cardiovascular disorders) but the number is probably higher. Those who can afford to go for accurate screening with devices such as this usually need to go abroad, but now these services are available here in Nigeria for everyone to access."

More here

Propagating Yam through Minisetts

From the IITA video channel:

"...Chris Okonkwo in a training video which shows step by step how to propagate yam through minisetts."

On Gum Arabic

"...Gum Arabic is used basically in production of high quality sweets, chocolates or high brand sweets, and this is how it was traditionally used in Europe. It is transported from Sudan through a Red Sea port called Soukin, and then to Europe; later on, its use in medicines begun because gum is a good instrument for making a capsule. Like for sweet production when mixing sugar and cornflower, using gum puts them together. It's a holding agent for sugar and other materials. Whenever you have something difficult to swallow then you put it inside and then you coat it, and after you swallow it is absorbed..."-Mussa Mohamed Karama
Image courtesy of Alibaba.com

Nigeria's Startup Scene

Loy Okezie provides an overview of Nigeria's startup scene:

Startups 2.0: The Nigerian Story

View more presentations from Startups Nigeria.

Thousand Hills Expeditions

In This is Africa:

When Jacqui Sebageni’s Thousand Hills started in 2005, it had two people and one desk. The company arranges tours within Rwanda, from the famous gorillas in the west, to the primeval forests in the southeast, and has grown in step with the country’s tourist industry, with 16 staff and an office on Avenue Kanyaru...“In the southwest we have this forest, it is virtually untouched,” she says. “The only accommodation up until now has been a guest house that sleeps 12 people. It’s forever full, but what’s 12 people in a forest?”

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Opening up Science

Bunmi Oloruntoba contends:

...with the whole idea of wikis, open source and fast broadband networks enabling video, dubbing or captioning, suddenly the idea of knowledge building by talking about science using local languages actually seems doable and, even more importantly, sustainable. Not to mention that it also gives a whole new meaning to sustainable science development. The video below looks at scientific knowledge building using wikis and other web 2.0 tools to pass along agriculture methods at the local level, but it also hints at how one could pass along science at the local level if there was the language to talk about it

More here

iLab Nairobi-Incubation tech space

"...iLAB Nairobi...home of the tech ideas turned global product and service platforms. At the iLAB its ll about making ideas become concepts and concept into ventures. And we crowd source help to build the struts that support the business too. Your idea remains your idea, we just help young tech entrepreneurs find everything else..."-website