Kenya: the engine room of innovation?
June 29, 2010 Leave a Comment
Everyone’s talking about emerging markets these days, especially since growth rates in the developed world slipped into or near the red. The BRICS are still a hot topic, and Africa is mentioned frequently, but generally in the context of high-risk, high-reward. Yet, as an increasing number of studies (and news stories) are showing, many countries in Africa, with Kenya at the vanguard, are at the cutting edge of innovation in serving the huge, relatively untapped market at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’.
What practical examples of this growth are there in Kenya? The most frequently cited case study is the inexorable rise in mobile phone usage, and the novel ways in which this technology is being put to use to ‘leapfrog’ older technologies that never made it to most of Africa, such as fixed telephone lines (and, to some extent, fixed power lines). Kenya has seen blistering growth in mobile phone ownership: from just 200,000 users in 2000, there are now more than 17.5 million people with mobile phones out of a population of 38.5 million.
First came reports of fishermen using mobile phones to work out which villages along the shore were running low on stocks, and therefore would give them the best possible price for their catch. Similar stories of efficiencies – in fact, of markets finally working efficiently – came from the agribusiness and services sectors further inland. Then came M-PESA – the revolutionary system that allowed anyone with a mobile phone to transfer money by text message, without a bank account. This has recently been followed by M-KESHO, an alliance between Safaricom and Equity Bank, which allows Kenyans without conventional bank accounts to have a ‘branchless’ bank account, receive interest and even access loans.
In amongst all of this ingenuity, a multitude of micro-entrepreneurs are building up businesses that mix traditional models with newer ways of doing things – some completely untested. Many fail, but some succeed – and how. It’s an intoxicating place to do business. Why not see how your employees can learn from, and be inspired by, this hothouse of innovation and dynamism? Click here to find out more.
