Ikirezi Essential Oils

In Rwanda:

Ikirezi Natural Products is an emerging agribusiness that is pioneering the production of high quality essential oils in Rwanda, The Land of a Thousand Hills. Ikirezi, meaning “precious pearl” in the local dialect, partners with small farmers in Rwanda to harvest plant leaves for essential oil production. Our main product is geranium oil which is 100% organic, wholly derived from Perlargonium graveolens.

Agnes Mukanshijo geranium plant grower

Read related USAID piece for further context

Waste Enterprisers

In Idea Scout:

Waste Enterprises, is a registered for-profit Ghanaian enterprise, providing an innovative method to help finance the operation of sanitation facilities in Ghana.The company has created a commercial aquaculture environment at Ahinsan Estates Waste Stabilization Pond system, in Kumasi. Waste Enterprisers has an arrangement with the local Kumasi government that allows them to operate a fish farm in the last pond of the government owned and operated waste water treatment system. This is not a run of the mill private enterprise/government partnership; most of WE’s revenue comes from using these ponds, which are full of waste water, to safely harvest and then sell catfish. The company’s objective is to make money for community owned treatment plants!

Agro-Hub

In Cameroon:

AGRO-HUB is a business venture set up to mine, manage and disseminate agricultural information. To make this possible, AGRO-HUB exploits three fundamental information and communication technology components (Joint Community Effort, Short Message Service, and the Web) with a focus to achieve its main vision; make Cameroon’s agricultural markets work.

Mushroom, mushrooms and more mushrooms

ASNAPP reports on Bauleni Street Academy's mushroom growing program:

courtesy of ASNAPP

...In June 2010, the vegetable program had already yielded some 11 million kwachas of sales to the Academy and partly paying the salaries of some of its staff. The mushroom project which followed soon after the greenhouse project is now bringing in additional income!
Within months of their construction, the initial production units are already generating income. “We were very excited to see mushrooms grow in bags from wheat straw in just 14 days after inoculation”, said Ms. Mikala Mukongolwa who manages these initiatives. The Academy started harvesting its first crop of mushrooms in September and has so far sold 510 kg of produce worth $1,658 from one production unit. Presently, specialty and gourmet mushroom production has become a promising component of the Bauleni’s income generation initiatives.

More here

Related articles

• Spaces of Food #3: The Mushroom Tunnel of Mittagong (bldgblog.blogspot.com)

Red Rooster Harlem

Marcus Samuelsson covered earlier discusses his latest restaurant Red Rooster:

via Atlanta Post

Snail Farming How To's

Courtesy of Ismail AbdulAzeez of Thy Consulting a Snail Farming introduction:

Crafted Shoes from "Heel the World"

A marvelous marrying of exquisite craftsmanship and enterprise. Heel the World (HTW) a Ghanaian shoe company presents:

...a high-end men’s shoe line that aims at rewarding talented but under-privileged Ghanaian shoemakers. The shoes are designed and crafted in Ghana with the most top-notch Italian leathers. Every shoe is bespoke and hand-made.We chose shoes over clothes, artifacts etc. to prove that Ghanaian shoemakers could compete and even surpass European standards if better equipped and funded.

Farming Sea Cucumbers

New Agriculturist on a successful 2009 effort to breed domestic sea cucumbers in Madagascar:

courtesy of Garth Gripps

Villagers in the remote Madagascan village of Ambolimoke have just sold their first batch of commercially-reared sea cucumbers. These coastal people or "Vezo" have harvested wild sea cucumbers for export to Southeast Asia since the 1920s, but after a collapse of wild stocks in recent years, this is the first time they have been farmed...[continue reading]

Quick Hits

Real Focus Capital founded by Hinsley Njila provides integrated financial advisory and research services
Reuters reports on business opportunities in South Sudan
Hash on Tackling Africa’s Classified Listings Space.
Tinkerer Mark Ajah fabricates a wind turbine.
New technology extends shelf life of milk in Kenya
Equipping youth with fish farming skills in Kenya
Researchers work in Ghana to create biofuels from native tree seeds-Physorg
Malawi reaps the reward of returning to age-old, chemical-free farming-Ecologist
Snail farming To Wealth-The News

Quintas Energy

Renewable energy company Quintas founded by Omotayo Dairo

...manufactures inverters and un-interrupted power supply UPS with capacity ranging from 850VA to 15KVA. As at the moment we have 14 products that we manufacture and we have introduced electronic features that have surmounted the problems poised by power fluctuation in our environment into our products.

Cutix Electrical

Part of the Nnewi industrial cluster, Cutix is a manufacturer of electrical wires and cables their product range includes:

• House wiring cables
• Aluminium conductors
• Aluminium services cables
• Appliance cables for electrical appliances
• Telephone cables 
• PVC components

Creating Beauty Product Businesses: Malee & Africology

CNN profiles female entrepreneurs and their beauty product companies,Africology and Malee:

Kabondo Sweet Potato Farms

Amazee profiles:"...Kabondo Farms a commodity firm based in Kabondo, Kenya. The firm was formed by a group of potato growers in Kabondo who decided to use this firm as a collective bargaining tool for greater access to markets and credit and also as an avenue to take to get area potato growers to work together. The potato growers' intention was to form an organization that would provide funds for the improvement of their potato industry by means of research and promotion of their potato crop..."-website

Related articles

• Patrick Mburu Kimani : Kenya (kiva.org)

Changing the Dynamics of Africa's Solar Strategy

Mark Hankins writing in Renewable Energy:

 Courtesy Kaito Projekt GmbH

There is a need for a shift in focus on solar markets in Africa away from donor and rural electrification projects to commercial and productive investments. There is also a need for the international PV industry to aggressively invest in the development of solar markets and not to leave it up to aid and relief organisations. This must be based on the need to move – today – towards grid-connected and urban markets. As part of this process there is a need to engage and educate African governments about the current global status of the solar sector and help them build frameworks for industry growth.

More here

Related articles

• EU Boost for Africa's New Renewable Development (renewableenergyworld.com)
• Solar Cinema Takes Rural Kenya by Storm (Video) (treehugger.com)
• Does Africa get more power from wind or from solar power? (greenanswers.com)

The Emerging Economy of Home Manufacturing

Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman write in their paper "The Emerging Economy of Personal Fabrication" that:

For a few thousand dollars, anyone can buy their own personal-scale manufacturing machine, download electronic blueprints to their home computer, and manufacture unique and complicated objects at home. Personal manufacturing machines, or “fabbers,” are the pint-sized, low-cost descendants of mass manufacturing machines used in factories. Different types of small-scale manufacturing machines such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and programmable sewing machines, combined with an electronic design blueprint, enable people to create a wide range of objects. People that have no special skills or training can “rip, mix and burn” physical objects such as custom machine parts, unique household goods, jewelry, toys, and maybe someday electronic devices.

Image via Wikipedia

Personal manufacturing is where personal computing was in the 1970s, before the advent of home-scale computers and consumer software. Recent rapid technological advances in personal manufacturing technology, combined with shrinking costs of machines, increasingly available design software and raw manufacturing materials,plus most peoples’ tendency to conduct more daily activities online, are tipping personal fabrication from the realm of hobbyists and pioneers to the mainstream. As consumers, businesses, and schools gain access to the same powerful design software and manufacturing tools traditionally available only to large companies and factories,we will witness a cascade of innovation in product design, educational tools, the arts,medical devices, and business models.

Concluding:

Personal manufacturing technologies will profoundly impact how we design, make, transport, and consume physical products. As manufacturing technologies follow the path from factory to home use, like personal computers, “personalized” manufacturing tools will enable consumers, schools and businesses to work and play in new ways. Emerging manufacturing technologies will usher in an industrial “evolution” that combines the best of mass and artisan production models, and has
the potential to partially reverse the trend to outsourcing. Personal manufacturing technologies will unleash “long tail” global markets for custom goods, whose sales volumes of will be profitable enough to enable specialists, niche manufacturing, and design companies to make a good living. Underserved communities will be able to design and manufacture their own medical devices, toys, machine parts and other tools locally, using local materials. At school, personal-scale manufacturing tools will empower a new generation of innovators, and spark student interest in science,technology,engineering and math (STEM) education.Watch related video below
Adrian Bowyer "The RepRap" (Lift France10 EN)
Uploaded by liftconference. - Discover more science and tech videos.

via Reprap

Related articles

• 3D fabbers: don't let the DMCA stifle an innovative future (arstechnica.com)

Afrique Power

From Practical Small Projects:

Courtesy of Practical Small Projects

Afriq-Power is now run by Malians who have found innovative ways to fabricate solar panels and solar ovens with mostly local materials at a cost less than imported panels. Practical Small Projects purchases solar technology from Afriq-Power, who also does the installations. Having a local company with solar expertise reduces the risk of the solar panels being rendered unusable when something goes wrong, as is the case with many solar panels scattered over Africa...[continue reading]

Afrique Power's Daniele Dembele on the importance of their business

via Huffington Post

African Food Television

Looking for a visual How-To on recipes? Try Africa Food Television. Take a stab at Egusi Soup for starters:

Related articles

• Soul Cuisine (nytimes.com)
• How Africa 'can feed itself' (bbc.co.uk)

Wennovation Hub

Another addition to the continent-wide family of hubs. Nigeria's:

...Wennovation Hub, is a startup accelerator and entrepreneur training program based in Nigeria that identifies high-potential entrepreneurs using a series of routes, and then guides them through an intensive 6-month daily sessions featuring a network of mentors, facilitators, and CEOs.

Arduino The Documentary

Take a peek at Arduino The Documentary

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.
via Adafruit

Participate in the Google Science Fair

"...Google is looking for the brightest, best young scientists from around the world to submit interesting, creative projects that are relevant to the world today..."

Reframing Suya

The inimitable Kitchen Butterfly describes a Nigerian Favorite, Suya:

Photo credit: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

The early hours of the day are spent prepping the meat – beef from cows that have trekked from one end of Nigeria to the other, eating lush green grass along roadsides, drinking cool, refreshing waters from streams running north, south, east and west – talk about free-range cattle. These cows serve up the tastiest beef you ever ate (save for Argentina perhaps) , not to mention being organic . The beef is sorted into groups – soft, tender cuts, chewy, hardier portions with fat, bony bits and more...[continue reading]

Related articles

• Kilishi-Nigerian Jerky (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)
• $25 and Under: Buka (nytimes.com)

The Arrival of the EcoPreneur

In the Congo:

The BDA Foundation trains African entrepreneurs in the methods of cultivating medicinal plants from a sustainable development perspective. BDA is conducting a pilot-project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and envisions replicating the experience in other African countries.

Canadian Geographic reports:

Under the three-year program, “ecopreneurs” learn how to cultivate and process specialized plants as well as how to run a sustainable, community-based business. In the final year, the BDA Foundation, which has already built a plant-processing centre in Luki, DRC, acts as an incubator for nascent startups, a few of which are on the cusp of launching.

Solar Energy with Phaesun Asmara

Eritrea's Phaesun Asmara's "...objective is to promote the use of pv applications and to assist in making them commercially viable. Despite the need to be profitable, Phaesun’s motives are ethical in that Phaesun aims to promote sustainable development particularly in developing countries through the use of environmentally friendly and tailored photovoltaic solutions. The main focus here is on small-scale projects providing sufficient electricity for individual families or rural communities..."

Related articles

• Off the Grid Grows Up (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)

Software Factory

Software Factory provides software development services within Uganda and beyond. Founder Raymond Rugunda paired in the following video with Jon Gosier outlines the opportunities for developers in East Africa:

Opportunities for talent in Ugandan ICT firms - Episode 9 from Africa Interactive on Vimeo.

Farm Builders - farmbuilders.org

Initiated in Liberia:

Farm Builders provides long-term financing and agricultural management services to support tree crop farmers in West Africa. Unlike traditional out-grower or contracting arrangements, Farm Builders forms joint ventures directly with smallholder farmers creating a powerful set of performance incentives that together provide a comprehensive solution for farmers to access management, financing, marketing and technology.

Speedmeals Mobile Kitchen

Bella Naija interviews Titus Igwe and Tobias Igwe the founders of Speedmeals Mobile Kitchen:

Courtesy of Bella Naija, Titus Igwe and Tobias Igwe

Could you tell us more about Speedmeals Mobile Kitchen?

Speedmeals Mobile Kitchen is a proudly Nigerian, world class food and services company of choice located in a serene environment at the heart of Apapa GRA in Lagos. At Speedmeals, working with the most sufficient technology in food processing so as to improve the lives of our customers is our primary motive. It is a registered food and services company that cooks and supplies food to schools and corporate organisations. With an annual turnover of three million naira in 2010, our company is driven by the knowledge that customers know and trust our services. Our food is produced from the finest ingredients with passion and pride. In 2010, we were declared the overall winner of Samsung Real Dreams initiative by Samsung West Africa. The future is bright for Speedmeals!

More here

Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research

Over in Ghana the Noguchi Institute for Medical Research has:

...broad mandates, which are to (1) conduct research into the major communicable and non-communicable diseases of the tropics, (2) provide medical research training opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate students in tertiary institutions, and (3) provide high-end laboratory diagnostic and monitoring services in support of public health programmes.

Their work includes the recently cited:

...low-cost dipstick technology for quick, easy, village diagnosis of schistosoma, a parasitic disease.

Related articles

• Lets Kickstart the Laboratories with Innovation Centres (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)

Surehatch Micro-Incubators

Over at HowWeMadeitinAfrica:

...Surehatch has pioneered the concept behind small-scale poultry production. Raising chickens has enabled many small-scale farmers to compete with larger, more established producers at a micro level.By introducing a chicken egg incubator into a community a micro economy is created. Eggs are put inside the egg incubator, the egg hatches, the chick becomes a chicken, and the chicken lays an egg. Eggs are put back inside the incubator. So the process repeats itself. After an initial three weeks, chicks can be produced on a weekly basis in our egg incubators.

More here

Microscale Embedded

Founded by Ahmad A. Sadiq (board member of FASmicro), Microscale Embedded offers "...custom design and fabrication services of electronics and controller boards (PCBs), featuring microcontrollers and FPGAs. Microscale’s design services offer an integrated suite of product design and development services focused on helping our clients solve their design and product development problems in record time..."

"Nibima" A wonder Plant for malaria treatment

Eyes on Malaria profiles the anti malarial remedy "Nibima":

When traditional herbalists in Ghana started using herbs to treat malaria, long before the introduction of orthodox medicine, little did they know the scientific properties of such herbs. One medicinal plant that has been used in Ghana for a long time to treat malaria is “Nibima”. Its botanical name is cryptolepis sanguinolenta.
A number of communities in Ghana use the plant to treat malaria. In some local dialects in Ghana, it is known as “Nibima” in Twi, “Kadze in Eve and Gangnamau in “Hausa”.
Cryptolepis sanguinolenta is a creeping plant, which has yellow flowers and yellow roots. Extracts from the roots of this plant is what is used to produce herbal medicine for the treatment of malaria. The roots of the luxuriant woody climber, with simple leaves, taste very bitter...[continue reading]

Related articles

• Lets Kickstart the Laboratories with Innovation Centres (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)
• Major clinical trial prompts call for change to treatment guidelines for severe malaria worldwide (eurekalert.org)

Quick Hits

The dawn of Incremental Infrastructure? Mobile Active covers the harnessing off-grid power for mobile networks
From Detroit to Africa putting Urban Gardens on the Map-Irin
Banks reach out to farmers-Africa Report
A review of "Futures of Technology in Africa" in Afrinnovator
The importance of "DIY Projects, Communities and Cultures"-Instructables
High-Low Tech at MIT
Soil-Waste Into Fertilizer via Our Soil watch related video
Learning from Hackerspaces.

African Innovators & Inventors meet Fifty Frogs

Founded by TED fellow and AIDG founder Peter Haas Fifty Frogs:

"...is a unique firm aimed at bridging the gap between good product design for developing countries and the companies with the know how and experience to take those innovations to scale. frustrated in trying to develop new solutions? Let us help your company connect to the solutions that are already out there"