Author: Sam Floy

Season Two Preview

Overview

So… after a few months away The East Africa Business Podcast is coming back, with more interviews from entrepreneurs and business leaders on the ground in this exciting part of the world.

On Thursday we’ll be going live with an interview with Sam Kamande, Head of Data at mSurvey. A company leveraging technology and big data to help businesses improve their customer experience.

It’s a great episode, and we even get onto the topic of wearing mascara.

After that we’ll have the usual assortment of in depth interviews from diverse industries, including a few from Ethiopia, which is a fascinating place when it comes to business.

We’ll learn how challenging it is to implement business models common in other parts of the world, namely ride hailing (i.e. Uber) and restaurant delivery (i.e. Deliveroo), and importantly the strategies entrepreneurs there are taking to overcome.

As one of them said, “if we can make it in Ethiopia, we can make it anywhere in Africa”

 

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Staying updated

In terms of some housekeeping there are a few things to update you on.

Firstly, we now have a Facebook page, and so if you’d like to get updates of episodes, and learn more about the guests and their companies, please do Like and Follow the page.

You can find it by searching for: The East Africa Business Podcast

On there we’ll also be resharing episodes from the archives, and so it’ll be a good way to keep an eye out on an interesting topic or business that you may wish to learn more from.

Also, if you are listening to this update after hearing previous episodes, then it would be fantastic if you could leave a review of the show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

It’ll help others like you find the show, and generally, I’d just appreciate it.

So, I’ll leave it at that for now.

Keep an eye out for a new episode hitting your podcast inbox on Thursday 25th January, and look forward to speaking to you then.

*SPECIAL* Silicon Savannah: Business Lessons from East Africa Talk

Overview

We’ve got a slightly different format for this episode – it’s a recording of a talk that I gave on a recent trip back to London.

It was held at a co-working space (@huckletree) to an audience of people interested in learning more about the business scene in East Africa.

We have a bit an intro and overview of the main industries in the region before delving into a few other topics which haven’t really been covered so far on the podcast

  • Some thoughts around how technology in the region is being adopted quicker, leapfrogging the developed world
  • How the education system means it can be difficult to hire in East Africa
  • And a discussion around the implications of Brexit and the Trump election on the region

About half way through we get to Q & As which, in my opinion is the best bit as we get to cover some more contextual questions of the business scene.

Some of the questions might be a bit tricky to pick up, but you should be able to work out what’s going on from the resulting discussion.

In any case, this is a slightly longer episode than you might be used to, but with the diversity of topics we cover, I hope you find it useful.

If you have any thoughts, questions or comments, just drop me a message on Twitter @Sam_Floy or by email [email protected]

Presentation slides

 

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Season One Conclusion

Overview

This is a little episode to update you on what’s going to be happening with The East Africa Business Podcast.

The short version is that the podcast is going on hold for a while as I focus on growing my own business in the East Africa region.

I’ll explain the context, which should hopefully make a bit more sense.

In any case, the podcast will likely be back in the not-too-distant future and in the meantime we can all have a bit of a breather.

 

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How the podcast started

As background I found myself starting this podcast as means to meet entrepreneurs in East Africa.

I was interested in learning about the business scene and found that requests to “meet for a coffee to learn about your business” were quite understandably rebuffed with “I’m just too busy running my company”

Therefore I thought about ways in which I could equal the exchange and still have that conversation.

Almost all of the companies I was looking to talk to were looking for exposure and to generally increase their brand awareness and it turned out to be relatively straightforward to create a set up where I could record a conversation about their business and soon have it appear on iTunes.

It turns out that an opportunity to showcase your company to an international audience is a much more attractive proposition than going a coffee with a random guy from Britain.

What now?

Now however my schedule has begun to fill up a bit.

When I started out on my “Try Before You Buy Tour” around the region I essentially gave myself 4 months to understand as much as I could about the business scene in East Africa with a view moving out permanently and starting my own thing.

I started by taking a flight to Rwanda and, using savings from my previous start up job in London, I could devote substantial amounts of time to absorb the business environment.

After undertaking a “Big Think” in Zanzibar I decided Kenya was where I wanted to move full-time and begun making plans to undertake the transition to Nairobi.

Now that I’m here, this, naturally, involves finding a way to live sustainably.

I undertook work at a start up in Nairobi and began consulting with other organisations as a means to pay the rent.

What spare time I do have goes towards validating the shortlist of business ideas I’m considering, and then putting effort into getting them off the ground.

As such, with the podcast not bringing in direct revenue, it’s something to be put on the shelf for the time being.

It’s something I’ve thoroughly enjoyed to date and so will be certain to pick it up again as soon as conditions permit.

Look in the archive

Anyway, I’m sure that’s more than enough about me

For you, the listener, there are many excellent episodes within the archive for you to go back and enjoy if you’re interested in learning more about business in East Africa.

If you’ve not subscribed already, just search for The East Africa Business Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or any of the other podcast apps and scroll through the forty plus episodes that are there.

All have their nuggets of brilliance and so I’d recommend finding a title which piques your interest and giving it a listen.

Nevertheless, I will now highlight some of my favourites for you to try out first:

For businesses that unlock the inner entrepreneur: head to Bottled Water Franchise and Lease Financing both have discussions around how giving someone an income-generating asset is an incredibly powerful way for them to grow.

For food production: Coconuts with Sakina. It really prises open the world of value addition in the economy, and the lengths necessary to get a product listed in a supermarket.

For purposeful uses of technology: Ambulances with Caitlin. A conversation around creating an Uber for emergency healthcare, which highlights the absence of base level infrastructure in a lot of these economies.

For all-round entertainment: Radio Adverts with Dr Suudi. A lively conversation about the world of Ugandan jingles which is, well, exactly what it sounds like.

You can also read summaries that I’ve written on particular industries, such as Food, Finance and Digital Platforms, all of which tease out lessons from the podcast interviews that have been done so far.

It’s on the blog I keep at samfloy.com. Click on the Latest Posts section, and it’ll take you there.

Get in touch

Now, many people have reached out over the past months wanting to learn more about the business environment in East Africa.

It’s an area of the world receiving more and more interest and, to the extent it can be, normalising the business environment here is something I’m keen to do whenever I can.

To date, I’ve also organised surveys for researchers, undertaken due diligence on start ups and written market analyses for people around the world looking for “on the ground” insight in this exciting part of the world.

If this is something that you, or someone you know, might be interested in then please feel free to drop me a line on [email protected]

Conclusion

That just leaves me to say thank you very very much for listening not just to this update, but also the episodes published so far.

To receive updates of when the next set of episodes will be coming out you can click Subscribe, as well as signing up to the weekly newsletter I send out.

At minimum there are links to interesting articles that I’ve read throughout the week, as well as updates on the progress in my own business.

For now though, thanks again for all of your time listening, and speak soon

Dream. Grow. Be Found. How Fuzu equips thousands of Kenyans for the workplace, with Jussi Hinkkanen

Overview

The demography in East Africa dictates that tens of millions of people will be entering the job market in the coming years

There is not only a challenge of creating jobs, but also guiding individuals on a path of what they want to do.

People typically lack the career counselling framework from, say, their families, especially for roles such as “digital marketing manager”.

Jussi is building Fuzu – a platform to guide people through their careers.

We discuss growing a company with a base in both Finland and Kenya,
how Fuzu categorises their type of job seeker and the challenges of bringing a disruptive business model to a traditional market.

Jussi also has probably the best rationale I’ve heard around the role of “for profit” and “not-for-profit” organisations in solving large scale social problems in developing markets, something I’ve always struggled to grapple with myself. It comes in at around 12 minutes.

For now though, I hope you enjoy the episode.

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“Youth unemployment is a massive challenge”

From my 13 years at Nokia in emerging markets this became very clear.

“The old tools don’t work”

We need to make something more exciting and more practical for the millions of people in Africa pouring into the job market.

“Finding your way”

Fuzu is for people to understand where they want to go with their careers. People don’t typically have career guidance.

“Fuzu is a fully online experience”

1) Platform for dreaming 2) Platform for growth 3) Platform to be found

“Career employability platform”

Is how we (try to) summarise what we do in a sentence

“Community is growing”

We have around 200,000 users and are growing at about 10% a week

“We’re agnostic”

Fuzu uses machine learning to segment the user base and then speak to them in a relevant manner. We have 7 segments.

“Fully automated experience”

By automatically directing people through their career using data and machines, we can do it at scale.

“None of the segments are large enough”

And so we decided to go after all seven from the start. We can then create a platform with which to flow content through.

“To tackle a significant social challenge – be a business…”

The challenge with non-profit approach is that there’s not a fundamental innovation loop which results in a mediocre platform. We could have got millions and millions in funding had we been “not-for-profit”.

“… however NGOs have benefits too”

Especially when it comes to playing to their strengths, especially with regard having deep networks and an understanding of the social problems.

“120 million people”

Will be entering the market in Africa between 2010-2020. By 2035 it will be the largest jobs market in the world and so something needs to be done.

“We’re two-sided”

Job seekers have a freemium model, and then for the employers have a fully paid service.

“To disrupt, you are competing with conventions”

Fuzu are going up against the classifieds businesses and traditional recruiters. It takes employers some time to warm up to the idea.

“We can find you the needle in the haystack”

Much faster. We can match it with the best talent once you launch a campaign, as well as doing active “head hunting”.

“We combine the strengths of Kenya and Finland”

The R&D team sit in Finland as they have a lot of experience. On the ground in Kenya we do content and marketing. We’ll look to move the R&D team to Kenya as people get more familiar with software like Ruby on Rails.

“Pretty easy on the jobseeker side”

People understand job platforms – our barrier to growth is that people need to invest time in writing their story, like with LinkedIn.

“Similar to LinkedIn”

The white-collar workforce are on LinkedIn in Kenya, but the platform has been slow on the education side of things.

“Inertia in the B2B market”

How to build trust and sell innovation to the businesses took longer than expected, getting back-end tools in place might have been a good idea.

“Plan your market entry”

Fuzu won the award for best entry with a tiny budget, in part through partnering with 16 tier one employers.

“I wouldn’t be happy with < 25 million users”

A platform like this works at scale and so in 5 years time I would hope we would be pan-African with many active users.

“Fuzu means…”

Self-made success in Swahili. I know right, a four letter word for quite a specific concept..!

Social Media Follows etc.

Website:  Fuzu
Facebook:  Fuzu 
Twitter: Fuzu

We Farm are building an SMS-based social network for farmers, with Kenny Ewan

Overview

When you consider different ways of getting information, you might think of going on Google or reading a book

But how to do this in an environment with no libraries, computers, let alone internet access?

Farmers in the field have limited means to get information and We Farm are looking to help by providing a Peer to Peer platform for farmers to send SMS questions and answers to each other.

Kenny, the CEO, and I discuss the process – of pairing these questions and answers, why he thinks people are altruistically contributing to the platform and the most common question that they get asked by farmers…

At times the audio is a little bit iffy, but we’ve done our best to edit things to what is hopefully an acceptable level, if you want some more information head to samfloy.com / podcast for the show notes.

For now though, hope I you enjoy this episode with Kenny from We Farm

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“We Farm is a crowdsourcing app…”

For people without the internet. Primarily people are connected via SMS.

“Farmers interact with We Farm”

They send in a question of something which they would like to know. Typically about how to deal crop pests or when the rains are coming.

“Machine learning”

The We Farm algorithms process the messages sent through and match the question to other farmers who can answer

“The 150,000th farmer”

Is soon to be onboarded onto We Farm. We’ve just had our second birthday

“There aren’t other tools for farmers”

If you’re using an old school feature phone there are limited services for you. What we do even more so is empower the community.

“A lot of farmers have never been asked their opinion”

This is how We Farm is looking to challenge the “top down” approach of assuming that poor people need to be told what to do.

“Offline marketing in a digital age”

One of the challenges we have is to sign up farmers. This is typically through radio and partnerships along the supply chain.

“We are for profit”

But have a social mission at our heart. Our model is similar to a social network, like Facebook and Twitter, which become profitable at scale.

“Data for multi-nationals”

One of the big amounts of value that We Farm generates is through tracking droughts and diseases as they develop, providing this hard-to-get information to commercial entities.

“Building algorithms”

We’re looking at taking plain text SMSes and categorising them into whether this could be, say, Foot and Mouth disease. Our tech is built out of London.

“60% of questions answered in 24 hours”

This is pretty similar to online services like Quora. In the data we can see things like when people are charging the phone.

“A core human need to contribute”

Which is often the primary reason why farmers answer questions. We’re tapping into the same motive as why people write on Wikipedia.

“Non-financial rewards”

Are overwhelmingly preferred by farmers, rather than cash incentives. People like to be recognised on the radio.

“Young to old”

Younger people seem to be asking more questions, and older people answering them. This is an interesting East Africa cultural dynamic.

“Detecting existing answers”

This is something we’re looking at doing to provide a quality service for our farmers – using our existing bank of answers to answer common questions

“There is some filtering of answers”

Though ultimately it’s based on how the community responds to the questions sent. It’s difficult to block derogatory words because, for example, the Swahili word for “coconut” is “nazi”

“Branding for both”

One of the challenges has been having We Farm make sense to both VCs in London and farmers in East Africa.

“Channel agnostic”

We want farmers to get their information from We Farm, whether it’s SMS or Twitter or whatever over the next few years.

Social Media Follows etc.

Twitter:  WeFarm
Website:  WeFarm
Facebook : WeFarm

Paying for textbooks by the page: how Kytabu is disrupting Kenyan education, with Tonee Ndungu

Overview

The main way that students learn how to pass an exam is by reading from a textbook.

Traditionally, this has been built on the premise of publishers printing physical copies,
distributing to schools and taking cash payments.

This all comes at a cost, which is prohibitively high for a lot of schoolchildren in East Africa.

Tonee and I spend this episode discussing Kytabu.

They’ve turned the model on its head by digitising the content of these publishers, and allowing students and teachers
to access what they want, when they want it,
renting chapters from a book at a few US cents per day, paid for with mobile money

We also discuss how a lot of Kytabu’s employees are still at university, other trends that Tonee sees in the East African EdTech space and how a different interpretation of doughnut can completely undermine attempts from abroad to distribute educational content

It’s a great example of using scalable technology to disrupt an industry, and so I hope you enjoy

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“Kytabu is an EdTech application”

We’ve taken the entire curriculum that a student needs to pass Kenyan examinations, put it on a mobile application, and rent it out using mobile money.

“It’s being used everywhere”

We’ve never done a national launch, but it’s grown organically and is being used beyond just Nairobi

“15,000 users”

Is the current number on the app. Our potential comes in being able to get it into schools more. There are 8 million schoolkids in Kenya, so the potential is there.

“Supplementary education”

This is the main demand we find for Kytabu: students who are studying in school, and want additional resource when they’re revising.

“On the app, it’s the same content that’s in textbooks”

All of the content which is on Kytabu comes directly from Kenyan textbook publishers. This means that it fits directly with the curriculum.

“Smartphones”

It’s a smartphone application which somewhat reduces the app’s reach, but we’ve still found that enough people have mobile devices to use it.

“You now don’t need to buy a whole textbook”

Because the book is stored in the Kytabu app, it means that people can just rent it for a day/ week/ term rather than have to find the cash to buy a book which could get lost.

“Around a shilling (1 USD cent) per day”

It’s super affordable and can be lower. We’re seeing schoolkids spending around 7-10 shillings a week to access the content that they need.

“It doesn’t sound like a lot…”

But for the publishers, it makes sense. This is a scalable way in which to distribute their content, and incurs almost zero costs compared to the printing, distribution and piracy costs that come with physical textbooks.

“Schoolchildren use it for revision”

We use students using content for 85% of their curriculum. Our assumption is that they have the other 15% in hardcopy”

“Teachers use it in class”

They download everything for a whole term in the subject. We can see each week when they are using the content, and so can work out what they’re teaching and when. They’re spending $2-4/ month for all of their content needs.

“We need all subjects”

It only really makes sense for us to get everything at once, rather than focusing on just specific subjects (such as Science rather than Maths). Teachers are looking for very specific books, rather than just “a science textbook.

“Only 16% of Kenyans have access to a book”

Not all of the books, not some of the books, but just one book. And so by being able to rent them through a digital platform it hugely improves the accessibility.

“The publishers have been great”

They understand how digital is the future and how they need to embrace it. Kenya’s largest publisher lost millions on piracy last year, and so it’s compelling for them to work with Kytabu.

“Kytabu works for them”

It doesn’t really make sense for them to build their own platform. Students are interested in content from different publishers. Textbook publishers are in the content production industry, not really making a digital platform.

“70:30”

That’s the sell we have with publishers. Publishers come to us now – it’s a compelling sell now that we have the relationships with the publishers.

“A lot of interest in video”

This is one of the main trends that I’m seeing in Kenyan EdTech, along with an increase in teacher generated content. Another is parents buying tablets for their kids to use in school.

“Kytabu is completely Kenyan”

The whole team is Kenyan. Without myself and the CEO, the average age is 22. The majority are still at university, who manage their time between studies and working at Kytabu.

“Education is big, but slow”

The main surprise is the scepticism around new educational tools.

“Traditional donor money goes to non-thoughtful programmes”

Programmes that look to spend money to send stuff out to rural communities often miss the local context. The stories need to be local otherwise they won’t be adopted or understood.

“We want video to be more than entertainment”

We want Kytabu to start using video into the learning experience, such as taking museum experiences and bring it to the classroom. We also want to define what Kenyan content can be.

“Kytabu means book”

In 69 languages. Crazy, right.

Social Media Follows etc.

Website : Kytabu
Facebook : Kytabu
Twitter : Kytabu

Kenya’s first local producer of coconut goods. Kentaste’s hustle to get in supermarkets and more

Overview

One of the growing international product categories is goods made from coconuts.

The health, and taste, benefits of coconut oil and coconut milk have caused a rise in demand for these types of product

In Kenya, hundreds of thousands of coconuts are grown each year, and yet were not processed into these high value goods.

In this episode I talk with Sakina from Kentaste, Kenya’s first coconut good producer.

We discuss the process of making coconut products from their coastal factory, knocking on doors at supermarkets to get listed and then paid and how to use coconut oil with your dog

As a consumer of Kentaste products, which is part of why I wanted to go and interview them, I can also say that it’s really good stuff.

In any case, I hope you enjoy this packed interview with Sakina about all things coconuts

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“Oil, milk and cream”

These are the main coconut products that we produce since 2012. I head up the Sales & Marketing.

“Our farmers supply exclusively to us”

We collect coconuts from up and down the coast, bring them to our factory and then process them into products.

“2,000 farmers”

Supply to both of our companies. One is Kentaste, the other is just oil for export.

“There’s a different processes”

Milk and cream in one way, oil in another. We have to decide how we’ll use a coconut as you can’t do both.

“We choose based on demand”

The oil is a higher margin product, but we decide what to make based on orders that come in.

“Kentaste is in all major supermarkets”

Some buy huge volumes directly from us, though almost all of our customers buy through a supermarket in Kenya.

“The challenge is in getting paid”

Working with supermarkets is difficult. They say they’ll pay in 60 days, but it ends up being 120+ days. This makes running the business really difficult.

“Cash flow is so difficult in this industry”

We’re at the mercy of when supermarkets will pay us, and so we’re always seeking out investment options that can help with us getting cash in the business.

“It’s difficult to get listed in any supermarket”

The process is long-winded, requiring sending samples and price lists. They often forget about you and so it requires you to follow up incessantly.

“Every week we go to the supermarkets”

We go to the Head Offices of each supermarket on rotation, knocking on doors to make sure that they don’t forget about us.

“If sales start moving, orders keep coming”

Though if they’re not, then work needs to be done on markeing to get people buying more. They won’t tell you if sales are down, it’ll just be that the orders stop.

“Middle to upper class, mostly women”

Are the major demographic. A lot are using coconut oil for cosmetic reasons. We know this from supermarket data but also talking to customers at trade shows.

“We’re the only local producers of coconut products”

Compared to imported alternatives. Everything about Kentaste is local, all the way down to where we “source” our employees…

“It’s not an easy business to run…”

Which might be why we’re the only guys doing it. Sometimes there are no coconuts which farmers can bring to us, and there are issues with running a manufacturing business professionally.

“Coconuts grow best at the coast”

The climate is better grown here, rather than in Nairobi. In the rainy season, the farmers can’t climb the trees to bring them down which affects supply. Most is from just having coconuts on their plot of land rather than commercial farms.

“We can roll out products within a day”

If we get coconuts in the morning, then by the afternoon we have tins of coconut milk ready to go.

“Kentaste is ‘The Kenyan Taste’”

It’s not wholly associated with coconuts but with all-natural products, such as flour and other products. For coconuts, we’re also thinking scented baby oils and cosmetics.

“Use coconut oil with your animals”

Add it to their shampoo to give them a glossy coat of fur and remove fleas.

Social Media Follows etc.

Supermarkets: “you will find us everywhere”
Website:  www.kentaste.com
Facebook: Kentaste Products Limited 
Instagram: Kentaste Products Limited

Preventing food waste through solar powered fridges, with Luke Davey from Inspira Farms

Overview

One of the recurring themes throughout conversations with agriculture companies is the problems with post harvest loss

If produce can’t be kept cold then it will perish quicker and as a result farmers lose out on income

Cold storage (essentially a big fridge) offers the solution, but in an environment with inconsistent power supply, and poor access to capital, this has proved difficult.

In this episode Luke and I talk about how Inspira Farms are using technology to solve this problem.

We discuss how the technology they’ve developed is innovating the market, the compelling financial arrangement they are able to offer farmers and how selling in Kenya is different to doing so in Rwanda

I found this a really interesting conversation to cover the landscape of agriculture in East Africa, and so I hope you enjoy it too.

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“Inspira Farms is an off-grid agricultural technology company”

We focus on post-harvest solutions, primarily through delivering cold storage units for horticulture produce, along with financing and other options.

“We focus on Kenya and Rwanda”

In East Africa. We have a global presence but this is where we have consolidated for right now.

“30% of food to waste”

This is from the “farm gate” to the “processing plants”. Primarily this is due to a lack of post-harvest solutions.

“The whole world struggles with post-harvest solutions”

The existing technologies are very expensive and require things such as consistent energy supply. This is rare in developing countries.

“There are four key components of what we do”

  1. The modular stand alone structure which becomes an asset
  2. A software component allows a greater amount insights on the produce
  3. Cooling components which can run off solar
  4. An interest free loan to aid financing

“$5,000 – $20,000”

Is the cost of a unit being delivered to you. Based on the creditworthiness of the applicant the down payment will be 20-50%

“We need a single business entity”

Sometimes this is an individual farmers, sometimes a collective, sometimes an entrepreneur who rents it out.

“People want cold storage”

It’s in huge demand but people are often shocked at the cost of cold storage. Thankfully it’s an easy process by which we can quantify the farmer.

“It’s a big box”

That meets international food safety standards. We can provide shelving, but it depends on each.

“Building along the supply chain”

One customer has cold storage on the farm, others at the processing plant. The vision for these customers is to take it the whole way, with refrigerated trucks as well.

“It’s not a 2 day sales process”

Our recognition is increasing with more inbound than outbound enquiries. That said, it takes time to understand the customer, and make the sale.

“Our team is global”

Who we draw upon, bringing a range of skills at the right time. Technical expertise from Italy, account managers to do due diligence.

“Kenya is vastly more developed than Rwanda”

In terms of the agricultural development. Rwandans, however, are more matter-of-fact about the costs of what the technology cost.

“It was built to grow with the farmer”

The modularity aspect of cold storage units meant that farmers wouldn’t have an under-utilised asset for 5 years, but instead could grow with Inspira Farms.

“Patent pending”

We’re getting patents on our technology which means it will be harder for other companies to imitate us. Essentially get the insulation without having to build brick and mortar structures.

“100 units in 3 years would be really good”

There are lots of strategic projects that we have happening internationally, but for now, my focus on getting units on the ground.

Social Media Follows etc.

Website: www.inspirafarms.com

LinkedIn: Inspira Farms

Twitter: @InspiraFarms

Facebook: InspiraFarms

Start Up Energy Transition Awards

No need for uni. Moringa School’s world class coding school in Kenya, with Audrey Cheng

Overview

Most business is about matching demand with supply.

From her work as a Venture Capitalist talking to businesses about what would help them grow, Audrey found that resoundingly the answer was “tech talent”.

Investigating the options available to students wanting to learn these skills, she found they were sub par.

Moringa School is addressing the need by providing world class education in how to build apps at an affordable cost.

We discuss the innovative teaching methodologies that they adopt, ways of breaching the skills gap in Kenya, and prospects for taking these vocational based higher education alternatives across the continent and into different skills.

Our interview was on the balcony outside of their office and so it gets a little windy at times, but either way, I hope you enjoy.

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“We have a 95% job placement rate”

Graduates from our school go into working on coding jobs across the continent.

“There’s huge demand”

Growing companies are all looking for talent, however it just wasn’t around. Audrey looked into how computer science education could be improved and started Moringa.

“We use a ‘flip classroom’ model”

Students are put in charge of what they need to know. We also use other group learning techniques based on neurological insights to give the best possible learning experience.

“Our students come from various sources”

Some from High School. Some from college. Some on a career break. A lot are seeing it as a good investment in order to then get a job.

“It’s extremely affordable”

The same price as a semester at a traditional college (around $350)

“We work backwards from the skills employers want”

This means that it becomes easy for people to slot into tech teams at the companies, as they have learnt all of the relevant skills to hit the ground running.

“The program is different to the US/ Europe”

Critical thinking isn’t taught in schools, which is much more based on regurgitation. Moringa teaches creative thinking through introducing mental frameworks for how to approach problems.

“Interview skills are also taught”

Such as communication, feedback and basically instilling confidence that people can prosper in the workplace.

“Self teaching is good, but not great”

Most developers who are working already taught themselves from the internet. This means they are susceptible to picking up bad practices.

“The Moringa course comes from the US”

We partner with a couple of courses which are highly rated internationally, and then adapt the content accordingly at Moringa.

“We make money through school fees”

This is our primary revenue stream. In time we might look to expand this out in other ways, such as getting people from the UK/ US to learn to code in Kenya and see the tech scene there.

“It’s beyond coding”

The trend that we’re seeing from the World Economic Forum and other industry experts is how to make higher education more linked to relevant employment skills and not just a piece of paper.

“West Africa is next”

In 3 years we want to have a presence in another location, and also be offering lessons in another type of skill.

“Moringa is a herb”

It’s like a superfood. We view what we do as medicine for the pain in society (education)

“There was some resistance”

Mainly from parents who were wondering whether this was a good investment for their kids. Now we’re beginning to prove the value of the education, it’s getting easier.

“We want to build a hacker house”

Right now people are coming from different countries/ cities, finding accommodation and then coming to school. We eventually want to build a dormitory/ community around working and living together.

“Some people see schools as a good business”

And so the government are wanting to keep checks that Moringa are acting properly. Having a Board member who was the ex-ICT Minister for the Kenyan government helps.

“We’re going to raise money!”

In early 2017 I’m off to the US and Europe to get our first bit of outside investment into the company. We’re wanting to meet the demand which raising investment can facilitate.

Social Media Follows etc.

Epicodus: programming programme

Hack Reactor: coding bootcamp

Moringa plant

First Round Capital: Audrey’s ideal investor

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Website: www.moringaschool.com

Twitter: Moringa School

Setting boundaries: how Agrinfo’s mapping technology overcomes pen and paper land disputes

Overview

Smallholder farmers are the majority of the East African population, but there are many issues that they face.

Rose, who founded Agrinfo, is using ICT to help. Identifying some key problems for Tanzanian farmers she and her team are looking to improve the agriculture sector by utilising modern technology.

We discuss the low number of farmers with legal right to their land, the process for mapping Tanzania and the benefits that come by knowing what is planted where.

There’s a bird tweeting outside the window at the beginning of the episode, and so apologies if you find that distracting.

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“We use ICT to solve challenges for small-holder farmers”

We consider ourselves a technology company and work backwards from the problems which farmers have told us.

“A big challenge is land”

Only 10% of farmers are working on land that they are legally entitled to. Often the documentation isn’t in order.

“Surveying costs can be 3x the cost of land”

Professionals need to be hired and require them to go across the vast country. This often becomes so expensive that people aren’t able to afford to make a legal rights.

“We’re helping to solve this”

Agrinfo are adopting mobile technologies and getting the help of schoolchildren to undertake this work remotely, rather than the expensive status quo. We also look to include the whole village.

“We have a process around giving ownership of land”

This involves with going to the village, holding talks with the local government who then hold a village meeting and plan out the different boundaries throughout the area (where will be the hospitals/ schools etc.). The whole things takes 3 weeks.

“There are many many villages to map”

A large amount of the country isn’t fully mapped and so we see lots of opportunity across Tanzania.

“We also want to track what’s being planted”

Through asking farmers, we are looking to understand all of the crops which are being planted in different areas of the country.

“People will tell you what they have”

The exchange that I’ve seen work is that farmers are willing to say what it is they are planting by believing that it will lead to an increased likelihood of selling their produce.

“There are other problems”

For example, the cotton farmers now need to spray a new pesticide on their crop. This makes it difficult in terms of practicability.

“We make money”

Through a number of a services such as up front costs of doing the mapping. Our vision is that Agrinfo will become the Tanzanian Agriculture Google.

“Drones”

We’re looking forward to using drones to give advice on how much fertiliser they should use on their crops.

Social Media Follows etc.

USSD: kind of like an SMS

Website: www.agrinfo.co.tz

Facebook: AgrinfoTZ

Twitter: @AgrinfoTZ