Some of my friends have been asking me why I decided to
leave a comfortable life on the Chesapeake Bay to relocate to sub-Saharan
Africa leaving wife and family for more than a year, and living in the very poor
country of Ethiopia. Those who know me are
aware that this wasn’t my first time in Africa. I have been there a few times and
truly believe it’s a place with great promise. Unfortunately, much of that
promise remains to be fulfilled. I’m not
exceedingly experienced in Africa, and certainly not with Ethiopia. But, I am experienced in technology incubation
and Africa seemed to offer an exciting opportunity to apply the concept. If the
concept of technology incubation can be applied successfully in Ethiopia it
could be adapted to any environment.
Africa is the second largest continent after Asia. There are
over 1.5 billion people here in 54 countries. That’s a very large pool of
intellectual capital and an even larger pool of potential consumers – can we
afford to not pay attention?
When I think about Africa and the entrepreneurs I work with
presently, I see the same enthusiasm and excitement that I once saw in Russia –
that confidence in capitalism as a system, the belief that if one has a good
idea and the market embraces it, one can become wealthy, create employment, make
the world a better place, leave a legacy…it’s both contagious and exciting. It
gives one pause to consider how powerful entrepreneurship is, and how rapidly
incubation can become a contributing factor in raising GDP. But, market forces aren’t perfect, and in most
of these places, it often takes government intervention at the earliest stages
in order to get things moving. That means establishing and supporting
entrepreneur development programs until they become sustainable and support
themselves. International financial institutions like the
World Bank and EBRD, and many NGO’s have done that in countries where the
government needed assistance in funding incubation and promoting tech startups.
The concept works, and people do believe in it.
The opportunities for high and low tech entrepreneurs are
everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the
ten most impoverished countries in the world, this region is home to nine
of them. While Ethiopia ranks above those lowest of low income countries, it
isn’t all that much higher. There are
two MRI machines in the entire country to serve a population of about 90
million. Over 90% have no access to electricity, the cheapest form of energy
for cooking. Most cook on stoves fueled by animal dung, charcoal, or firewood,
but kerosene is also available. Generally, all the stoves fill their homes with
smoke and fumes, producing many cases of asthma and other breathing problems
for young and old alike. Try writing your e-mails by kerosene lamp and you’ll quickly
get the point. Many Ethiopians also haul their drinking water to their homes on
their backs, or perhaps on a burro. One
American entrepreneur who recently relocated here started a business
manufacturing a sling that will at least distribute the weight more evenly so
it’s easier to haul the water containers. Food and water security count for a
lot when you’re hungry or thirsty and have no Safeway around the corner.
The Internet penetration rate of Ethiopia is estimated to be
around 2.5%. The mobile phone penetration rate is around 25%. Internet service,
even here in Addis Ababa is intermittent at best, and we often go two or three
days with no service at all. Like a battle plan that’s obsolete after the first
shot is fired, my CIC work plan was in shambles after the first couple of weeks
because we’re so dependent on reliable telecommunications. In many respects, it’s a reflection of the
government’s priorities as they monopolize the telecommunications market
instead of allowing competition – something that almost every other African
country has already done to their collective benefit.
Deforestation is a huge problem, yet people need the wood
for cooking – one reason the introduction of new high tech cooking stoves is an
important innovation. Using animal waste to create bio-gas is another, and use
of micro-hydropower in Ethiopia’s many rivers (along with larger hydro
projects) is a third that can make this second largest country in Africa an
economic power. The way to do this is with technology and that most important
element of job creation, entrepreneurship. When we speak of making an impact, it’s
startling to know that with these new products someone doesn’t have to spend a
couple of hours each day collecting firewood, and polluting the atmosphere in
their home using a traditional stove, just to eat a hot meal.
When I ran PortTechLA we worked with one Southern California
small business that was trying to manufacture a high-tech cooking stove for
lesser developed countries. In my naivety
I thought it was unique. Having seen many stove innovations in the past year, I
now know that’s just not the case. Their hearts were in the right place, but
they had no idea how strong the competition is among African engineers and
scientists to solve their own problems. In our recent proof-of-concept competition for
seed funding, two of our eight finalists were developing stoves. Other competitors were making bio-fuel from
invasive plant species, organic fertilizer from municipal waste, reducing
deforestation by manufacturing plastic lumber, etc.
A final thought. There is a developing middle class in
Africa that wants to live better lives, have more conveniences in their homes,
wash their clothes with a washing machine, charge their mobile phones, and
access the Internet with their laptop computers. They can’t afford even the
least expensive washing machines, generators, photo-voltaic charging stations
or gas stoves, but they do have some level of disposable income, and they are
clustering in twenty or so 1,000,000+ population cities around Africa. American
ingenuity has solved many problems in the past – why not develop some new
consumer goods that serve their economic level – after all, there are more than
a billion of these prospective customers. It seems to me to be a nicely sized
market to go after. I’m betting that some entrepreneur in an incubator
somewhere (perhaps in the US, perhaps in Ethiopia) has a product that will meet
their needs. I’m here like the boy pawing through the straw in the stable,
thinking with all that manure around there has to be pony in there somewhere! I have to go – gotta find that pony…
