The Suno Collection

W on Suno founded by Max Osterweis:

Using traditional Kenyan textiles and local seamstresses, Osterweis has created an ethnic and entirely modern collection. The basis of the line is the fabric—the bolts of printed cloth called kangas—which African women buy in pairs to wear, for instance, as a dress and baby-sling, or a skirt and headscarf, even as pajamas that they share with their partners...[continue reading]

via Diasporique

Cafe des Arts Nairobi

Africa Report profiles Café des Arts founded by Susan Deiters:

Susan offers customers the chance to not only indulge in fine food (always fresh from the backyard vegetable garden) but fine art as well. She fuses culinary creations with artistic masterpieces that decorate the walls and garden of the restaurant. She exhibits the works of local Kenyans in the eatery to not only add pizazz to the place but to help community artists at the same time. This way, she innovatively includes corporate social responsibility into her burgeoning business and assists economic development as well. To make sure every artist gets a chance to display their work she operates the gallery on a rotational system, exposing African art to her international clientele...For the future, Susan hopes to bring even more Café des Arts to Africa. She plans to possibly open another restaurant in Uganda or Tanzania and spread her joy for what she does.

More here

Open Source Automobiles

Lessons for Africa in another story about the Homebrew Industrial Revolution.At Poptech Jay Rogers founder of Local Motors discusses the promise of Open Source Cars:

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World Bank backs the Informal-Nollywood to receive $30million

In recognition of an industry that is unsubsidized and truly indigenous, the World Bank puts its money where its mouth is.Backing and validating Nollywood financially.Allvoices reports:

courtesy of RadarBoy

... the World Bank has declared its intention to spend $US30 million on the film and music industry of Nigeria. This is a 100 per cent equity support to Nollywood and musicians in the country...The World Bank has some money available for movie and music industry. We want to support four areas, access to finance, distribution and marketing channels, capacity building and helping to solve piracy.”Chioma Nwagboso (of the WB) disclosed that when the World Bank visited some local banks last year to know why they were not supporting the Nollywood projects, the banks claimed they did not understand how to get their money back adding that it was a risky venture. And if they do not see payback period, it becomes difficult for them to lend.”

More here

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• Nollywood Shuffle: The Business of Nollywood, Pt. 2 (ybpguide.com)

A Culture of Generative Hacking

Jan Chipcase writing in Icon:

Courtesy of Martin O'Neil 

...there’s a lot of hacking (in the broadest sense of the word) that is driven by entrepreneurship, ingenuity and an understanding of how scarce resources can be put to good use. For Africans that don’t have access to reliable mains electricity there are street services where you take your phone and leave it with a guy, come back in two hours and your battery will be charged. To function as a phone kiosk – one only needs a mobile phone, phone credit and some way of calculating how much credit was consumed – so you tend to see a lot of mobile phone driven kiosks. Over time the guys that typically offer phone kiosk and recharging services are increasingly offering media content as well – anything from wallpapers and ringtones to installing applications. In many ways the phone kiosk operators are the telegraph operators of today: if you want to know what’s happening in the village, you speak to them because as communication hubs they also function as social hubs – people hang around, chat, and they get to overhear everything.

More here

Growing Sesame

Farm Africa on the income potential of Sesame farming:

Sesame is well suited to dry conditions, and it even adds nutrients to the soil so it helps the performance of other crops. Thanks to the high national and international demand it can be sold for a good price at market...Farm Africa is helping them to grow a bigger, higher quality sesame crop, as well as connecting them to suitable markets for their crop and help them to set up bulk storage facilities...[continue reading]

Funding Invention-ASTIEF

In SciDev:

The African Science, Technology and Innovation Endowment Fund (ASTIEF), along with the African Science to Business Challenge (ABSC)...aim to motivate inventors and innovators and spur on the development of sustainable industries and enterprises for the continent..."The work of the fund will be to help translate scientific research and ideas into micro entrepreneurship to spur socioeconomic growth on the continent,"-Aida Opoku-Mensah (of UNECA)

Sanoussi Diakite covered earlier expresses doubts:

"UNECA must avoid being steeped in the bureaucracy and inefficiency which he said characterise such initiatives in Africa."

While:

Oye Ibidapo-Obe, president of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences, hailed the move as the first fund in Africa in which even the private sector will be called upon directly to support to science innovation

More here

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The Real Open Source Hardware Revolution

Foresight Institute excerpt on the promise of Desktop Manufacturing by Glyn Moody reporting in Computerworld:

Father of RepRap Adrian Bowyer, speaking at Poptech

An industrial infrastructure to provide the products and employment that elevates illiterate and semi-literate people in emerging economies to an intermediate level of human development can take decades to build. With the success of China in assimilating so much of the global economy’s low-cost manufacturing output, many of the world’s poorest nations have no opportunity to construct and secure their own manufacturing sector. Hence, this stage of human upliftment has become a chasm that many nations are finding difficult to cross...(continues below)

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.
...But if manufacturing itself can be brought to the scale that cottage industries operate in, then the scale of Chinese mass-manufacturing is no longer a requirement to be cost competitive. A technology that removes the fixed costs and volume necessities associated with heavy manufacturing can reduce the barriers to entry for the manufacturing of many commodity goods, and drive costs to unprecedented lows.

More here
via Adafruit

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Jacana Venture Partnership

CSR Africa reports:

Access to finance is one of the major obstacles to the growth of African businesses. International investors are increasingly interested in Africa, however existing SME fund managers often lack track records. Jacana mitigates this risk for investors by selecting high quality teams and providing intensive support to local fund managers through a network of expert mentors – highly-experienced private equity and venture capital professionals who can provide hands-on support to local teams...[continue reading]

Pepper Transformers

The Farmers Voice profiles pepper processors and their products,interviewing Taka Gladys Ngwe, an entrepreneur:

How many kinds of products do you produce?
I process four brands of pepper, and the products are; first the liquid pepper already in the market, the pepper cube, pepper paste which I call it spice-up because I do it with a combination of spices and olive oil. This is very delicious. We are still studying the shelf live but I think in a very short while one will come out. Then, the shredded pepper made mostly for those in the Diaspora who want to taste the pepper fresh. We conserve it, it stays fresh and its aroma is intact. So we package it, label it and send it to those in the Diaspora. We have constraints of packaging.
How much pepper can you transform?
If I had the resources, there wouldn’t be any limit to what I cab produce It will be a great relief to farmers who farm but end up discouraged because of waste. If I had the resources, I ‘d recruit a lot of workers, buy machinery. I need the pepper cube machine, the pepper processing-extraction machine and a homogenizer cost about 25mFcfa. Processing locally will still cost me a lot. The machines will make it a whole pepper company that will create employment for many in the rural areas.

More here

Imiso Ceramics

In Design Africa:

In a dynamic atelier nestled between two oceans at the foot of Table Mountain, award-winning designer Andile Dyalvane, Zizipho Poswa and their team create Imiso Ceramics. Imiso embraces the dual currents of cultural heritage and cosmopolitan energy to invent work of sensual beauty for the contemporary lifestyle. The studio features unique, handmade collectors’ pieces and a new range of functional artware for entertaining...[continue reading]

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FreshPikt Foods

Fruit and vegetable cannery Freshpikt products include:

Baked beans, Mixed beans, Tomatoes paste, Tomatoes sauces, Tomatoes sauce and Tomatoes puree, Whole peeled tomatoes, Tomatoes and Onion Mix, Whole Kernel sweet corn, Mixed fruit jam, Pineapple pieces and Rings, Guava Halves, Sundried Tomatoes, cherry peppers, Gooseberries, Packed beans and groundnuts , Peanuts Butters

Watch related video here:

Optimizing Fish Catches

Worldwatch reports:

The 58 women who make up Ghana’s Central and Western Fishmongers Improvement Association (CEWEFIA) had a problem of supply and demand. When the hare and red fish came into season during the summer months, there was too much of the seafood available on the market to make a profit. Then, later in the year, when the fish weren’t as abundant, the women didn’t have anything to sell in the community. To solve this dilemma, the group came together to learn how to smoke and process fish, as well as process palm oil. The women are “self-taught,” making their own drying racks and much of the other equipment, according to Paulina Eshun, one of CEWEFIA’s leaders. The members share the cost of the materials—including special firewood used for smoking and the packaging for their products—as well as the profit they get from selling dried fish, fish powder, and palm oil..[continue reading]

.Watch related video here:

Breeding Quails

Spore reports on mini-livestock:

Breeding quails, also known as coturniculture (from the Latin Coturnix) has taken off in Cameroon following publication in The Farmer’s Voice of an article on the therapeutic and dietary benefits of quail eggs...Quails can be kept in cages that are easy to make from local materials, with 70 birds/m2 (one male for four or five females). The cages can be stacked on top of each other. Quails need just 20 g of food a day and the breeder can make up its feed from whatever is available

More here

CashEnvoy - A Nigerian Paypal

Cash Envoy performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. It also charges a transaction fee for receiving money (a percentage of the amount sent plus an additional fixed amount)...it can be used to make payments, send money and receive money online. It can be used on all merchant websites that accept Cash Envoy. Get cash to friends and family - practically anyone with an email address-website
via TechMasai

Anza Technologies

Anza Technologies turns the conventional notions of raw materials on their head by reinventing trash to make low-cost, high-utility products...they use engineering processes that allow them to turn environmental waste problems in developing countries into income-generating products at a groundbreaking price that opens the doors for these solutions to reach millions of new consumers-website

Quick Hits

SciDev on the promise of aquaculture in Africa
A new automobile manufacturer? Zhope automobiles
Bankelele on medical investments in East Africa
Open Source DNA laboratory tools for the desktop
€100m food processing fund for Africa

Toyola Stoves

An E & Co investment:

Toyola manufactures and sells energy efficient cook stoves in urban and rural Ghana. The stoves use standard charcoal but are 40% more efficient than the traditional stoves used in the region. This greatly reduces the amount of charcoal necessary to cook, which also reduces carbon dioxide emissions and saves family’s money. To date, Toyola has provided this cleaner energy product to 35,000 households...

See related slideshow and carbon offset article

Open Source Incubator

Open Source Ecology on Hexahatch v2.0 an open source incubator:

...the still-air design, with a flat disk as the rotor for turning the eggs. We finally have a working prototype, after replacing a faulty thermostat and after upgrading the motor to a stronger one. See the incubator in action.Watch related video here:

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Homeboyz Animation

In Africa Report, Clar Ni Chonghail reports on the breakthrough animation success of Homeboyz Entertainment:

Myke Rabar’s phone rings. “Excuse me,” he says, “that’s going to happen a lot.” And it does. Rabar’s Homeboyz Entertainment has just broken into the animation big time with Tinga Tinga Tales, a co-production with the UK’s Tiger Aspect Productions. The 52-episode series was launched on the BBC’s pre-school channel CBeebies in February and has also been sold to Playhouse Disney.
For an animation company, it does not come much bigger than this. The news is even more surprising because the outfit is based in Kenya, a newcomer to the animation scene compared with heavyweights like South Africa and Egypt. People in the business hope the country can build on its success to exploit opportunities in a digital world where movies like Avatar are redefining entertainment

.

More here

Co Designing-IsYou

IsYou sneakers covered earlier presents their Co-Design promo video:

Akhaya Cookery School

"...Akhaya Cookery school is dedicated to African and African-inspired cookery and was inspired by a passion for food from across the world, but especially African food. As a continent, Africa is made up of a vast range of flavours, ingredients and influences. Our courses are a celebration of the diversity and richness of the beautiful dishes to be found, from Tagines to Tatale and Bobotie to Benachin..."-website
via Hosafa

Locally Produced Crops for Locally Consumed Products

In WorldWatch:

In Zambia, sorghum—a drought resistant cereal that thrives in the country— was considered a “poor man’s crop” in the past, often shunned by small-scale farmers for the more commercially viable maize. But an article in the June issue of Farming Matters explains how a Zambian brewery with a new brand of beer is changing the way small-scale farmers think about sorghum...[continue reading]

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Hive Colab

The emergence of collaborative spaces continues across the continent. The latest addition is Hive Colab of Uganda. Appfrica reports:

Hive Colab is a collaborative, community owned, open work environment for young tech entrepreneurs looking to focus on projects, to access the computing resources and bandwidth, have a quiet professional environment to develop their ideas in, and to generally collaborate with each other. Something very similar to what our friends are doing with the outstanding iHub in Nairobi.

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AACE Foods

Co-founded by Ndidi Nwuneli of Leap Africa, AACE Foods manufactures jams:

...made from mangos, papayas, guavas, cashews, and pineapples; our spreads from honey and peanuts.Their line of baby foods will consist of soya, carrots, sweet potatoes, guava and mangos. Our main spice will be hot peppers

via Blogs America

"Emerging Ghana" A Single Family Abode

Open Source House covered earlier has announced their winning entry, designed by Lisbon-based Blaanc in collaboration with Architect João Caeiro. Treehugger reports:

Emerging Ghana is a plan for an eco-affordable single family house for the emerging middle class of Ghana. The design recently won first place in the international design competition Open Source House, a non-profit organization that aims to provide better, more sustainable housing in low-income countries. Emerging Ghana is modular single-family home design to be built with local materials, local labor, and with all the best sustainable design strategies you can imagine, all for a low cost of about $12,500 USD.

More here

Onna Ehrlich Bags

In the WSJ, Onna Ehrlich on what spurred her interest in handbags

 As I was growing up in Nigeria, art wasn’t encouraged. They encouraged you to go to medicine, to study engineering. And then you have this kid, and all she wants to do is draw! I would draw women in the traditional outfits and in stylish and fashionable clothing. My interest in fashion—it was always there.
When I was about 12, my mom asked me what I wanted to do and I said I wanted to learn how to make shoes and handbags. Mom found a handbag factory and I would spend all my summer days going and just watching and learning.

More here

Mocality Listings

Hash reports on another trade listing service:

Mocality’s job: create a digital platform that makes it easy for business owners to promote and expand their businesses in Africa.

“As a business owner, you get free SMS, a contact list, a free mobile website and a free mobile business card.”

More here

Pagatech

Founded by Tayo Oviosu, Pagatech :

...is a fast and convenient way to send cash to your friends and family. All you need is the mobile phone number of the person you want to send cash to, the amount to send.That’s it! The recipient will get the cash within seconds. You can send cash to anybody - even if they don't have a Paga account

The Robustness of Traditional Crops

In Worldchanging:

A recent study [pdf] by researchers from Cornell and Rhodes universities and the Sebakwe Black Rhino Conservation Trust found that traditional food crops, such as mubovora (pumpkin) and ipwa (sweet reed), are an important source of community resilience in Zimbabwe-including resilience to climate change and economic turbulence.
Unlike traditional crops, the majority of commercial crops that have been introduced to the region "are not adapted to local conditions and require high inputs of agrochemical inputs such as fertilizers, mechanization, and water supply," according to the study. These crops tend to be more vulnerable to climatic changes, such as the drought and subsequent flooding that occurred in Zimbabwe's Sebakwe area in 2007-08.

More here
Photo courtesy of Bernard Pollack

Asky Airlines

In Airline Business:

Asky Airlines...is part-owned by Ethiopian Airlines (which we recently did a cover profile on) and the two airlines are working together to create a West African hub at Lome. The start-up is led by former Ethiopian commercial vice-president Busera Awel...This is a regional carrier, which is good for the continent. Africa needs more point-to-point services, helped along by the support of a strong and well-respected partner...[continue reading]

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Growing Sustainably-Barefoot Power

Jon Gosier on solar company Barefoot Power and its sustainability factors:

Barefoot Power tackles the problem of offering low-cost power solution to the poor. Low-cost is key, because there’s nothing sustainable about running around the bush handing out free anything like Johnny Appleseed...the business model of Barefoot is to sell product locally or to use micro-finance options for people who still can’t afford their solutions.

The company:

“...is now growing at 25-50% per month and this is exhausting our current capital base. In April 2010 we secured US$1 million of investment from the European Commission, ring fenced to build our back end, which essentially is our administration, IT and key staffing requirements. This means that new investment can be wholly channelled to inventory, which is good for us and for investors,” says company founder Harry Andrews.

More here