This is what business incubators can do for you

Over the last few years, business incubations, accelerators, technology labs and fellowships have become an integral component in the local business start-up ecosystem.

These initiatives mentor budding entrepreneurs by equipping them with the necessary set of skills to start and run businesses. Some even provide trainees with seed capital to get their business ideas off the ground.

Away from business, some organisations nurture their fellows to become leaders and agents of social change in their communities.

But how effective are these incubations and fellowships? To what extent have they achieved their objective?

A group of beneficiaries tell us how they are using the skills gathered to drive change in the society.

STEPHEN MAINA, 31

CO-FOUNDER, IMARA TV

FELLOW: NAILAB

“We contribute to the society by imparting sex education to the youth and giving them an avenue to showcase their acting talent.”

How were you selected for incubation at Nailab?

In 2015, the ministry of health, in partnership with UKAID and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), invited young local innovators to develop

an app that would help to improve access to information of sexual reproductive health among the youth in Kenya. My partners and I participated and

won the challenge. It is then that Nailab invited us for incubation.     

What did you have in mind when you started Imara TV?

We started it as a platform for young film enthusiasts who may otherwise never get the opportunity to showcase their talent on mainstream media, to create entertainment content. Our vision was to use technology to enhance the fight against HIV and other sexually transmitted illnesses.

Ours is also a safe online space where young people can freely express their concerns on such subjects as homosexuality without the fear of being ridiculed. We distribute our content through imara.tv and on our social media pages.

We monetise this content by carrying ads, with 90 per cent of the revenue going to the content creators.

Why do you think business incubations are important for young entrepreneurs based on your own experience?

They give young entrepreneurs a corporate profile and a professional look and feel, including an address, which most start-ups lack. It also exposes them to potential donors.

Graduates lack practical information on how to start and run a business after university. Incubations mentor them based on their preferred domains.

They are also taught how to design and create products that are scalable to achieve maximum socioeconomic impacts, products that meet market standards.

Through Nailab, Imara TV received a seed capital of USD10,000 (approximately Sh1,000,000) to facilitate the conceptualisation, design and piloting of our idea. We also had the opportunity to showcase our idea on a global stage during a workshop to promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) innovations in Denmark in 2016.

What are some of your achievements?

A year after starting out, we generated Sh2.4 million in advertisement revenue, which is a considerable return on investment for a start-up. The Kenya Film Commission (KFC), later contracted us to carry out a nationwide campaign, My Kenya My Story, the aim to promote Kenya as an ideal film destination, and to promote local talent.

This year, we collaborated with UN-Habitat, who funded five groups in Kenya through our TV station to create a series on sex education. We have also partnered with a local bank where the youth save their earnings.

They are also able to access loans through this bank and initiate development projects. It has been a win-win project for all the participants.

Has the reception of your initiative been satisfactory?

Use of PowerPoint presentations and books to pass educational messages doesn’t work for milllenials. They prefer audio-visual content - so far, our videos have generated nearly a million views on YouTube. The fact that our content is produced by an all-youth talent, from actors and actresses to producers and directors, means young audiences can relate to it, besides, creativity and talent is a sustainable way of creating wealth for the youth, unlike agriculture and manufacturing where labour is affected by automation and artificial intelligence.

What are your projections for the future?

We hope to diversify into other thematic areas of interest to young people such as sports, academics and agribusiness.

HANNAH MASILA, 23

FELLOW: ANDELA KENYA

“I wasn’t sure how I would use my programming skills after my graduation; this fellowship gave me the opportunity to put my skills to practice,” says Hannah, a software developer at Andela Kenya.

Andela is an American company that trains software developers and later integrates them into the world’s top tech firms. In Africa, Andela has chapters in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.

How did you join Andela?

I studied computer science at Egerton University. During my final year in 2015, I attended an all-female boot camp at Dedan Kimathi University.

It is while here that I learnt that Andela was accepting applications for fellowship from young Kenyans. I was interested in coding, so I applied. A few months after my graduation, I was invited for an interview, which I passed. I joined Andela this year.  

In what ways have you benefitted from this fellowship?

I had been in a computer science class for four years, but all I had acquired was theoretical understanding of programming with very minimal hands-on programming experience. Through this programme, I can now confidently call myself a tried and tested programmer, transitioning from a novice into a mid-level programming expert. I am good at Ruby on Rails, a web development framework. I can now build web applications for other organisations for extra income. I was raised in a very remote village in rural Kwale County with very little exposure to the outside world. This fellowship gave me the opportunity to mingle with people from diverse cultures in Kenya and Africa. I have also travelled to the Netherlands, courtesy of the fellowship. Had it not been for this fellowship, today I would probably be working at my father’s shop.

Of what use have your skills been?

I wasn’t sure how I was going to use my coding skills after university. After graduating, my university invited me to be a junior lecturer in computer science. It was a tempting offer, but I was determined to first practice what I had learnt. This year I was invited by Rails Girls (a platform that helps women to understand and build their ideas around technology) to give a talk during a women’s workshop, which was an exciting experience for me. I’m currently working at GitHub, one of the world’s leading software development platforms, to further hone my skills.

Do you think the gender composition in the Kenyan technological landscape is fair?

Creativity doesn’t have gender. The scope of imagination in programming stretches as far as the coder, male or female, is willing to experiment. Andela recruits developers irrespective of their professional background, gender and other social parameters, allowing any interested person to be a fellow. 30 per cent of the developers at Andela are young women. With such initiatives as this, more women are motivated to pursue a career in technology than ever before. 

What do you hope to do after leaving Andela? 

I am passionate about farming. Many times farmers are exploited because they lack adequate information about market trends. I intend to develop an easy-to-use mobile application through which farmers can access information such as market prices for their produce.

Most small-scale farmers can’t afford advanced smartphones, while some can’t operate them. I will, therefore, create an app that can be used on simple feature phones, which is what most farmers own. 

BROWNKEY ABDULLAHI, 24

FELLOWSHIP: AKILIDADA

“I strongly believe that empowered young women have the capacity to make substantial contributions to their community’s growth for global change.”

Brownkey advocates for the right of education for girls in the Somali community at the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Garissa County. She is also an anti-FGM crusader.

What specifically do you do?

My activities revolve around creating awareness on the importance of educating girls, which is not valued in my Somali community.

I help to take back to school those who have dropped out due to poverty and early marriage. Life in the refugee camp is very hostile, and most families live in grinding poverty. Consequently, girls have little or no chance at all to education.

I also organise forums to dissuade parents from having their girls circumcised. 

In what ways has your fellowship at Akilidada helped your campaign?

Akilidada is a leadership incubator that nurtures young women from under-resourced backgrounds who are passionate about social change through scholarships, mentorship and leadership training.

Fellows are provided with psychological support to help them cope with the pressures of their work. Fellows are also taught computer skills such as graphics and design, which are essential today.

We are also taught accounting skills for better management of money. Programmes such as mine run almost entirely on donor money, which must be accounted for to the last coin.

At Akilidada, I met other passionate young women from across Kenya who are running women empowerment programmes. This emboldened my resolve to keep doing what I do.

Akilidada has also funded my activities. When I joined, they donated Sh80, 000 to my foundation. I used this money to buy uniform and other school materials for a couple of girls I took back to school. My organisation has also received USD600 (Sh60, 000) from Global Media Campaign to End FGM (an organisation that uses various forms of media to amplify the voice of anti-FGM activists around the world).

I am currently raising money on gofundme (an online crowdfunding platform) with the hope of assisting more girls in the camp.

Tackling FGM and early marriage in a refugee camp must be a difficult task…

Families understand the negative effects of FGM, but they are reluctant to abandon the tradition for fear of rejection by the community. When I invite people to educate them about the negative effects of female circumcision, only a handful turn up. Sometimes no one attends at all. We rely on donor money to carry out our activities. Sometimes the money takes long to process, and sometimes it is not enough to cater for all the needs because some of the girls we target come from very poor backgrounds, while my efforts to reach out to the world are sometimes hampered by a lack of Internet connection in the camp.

Are you satisfied with what you have managed to accomplish so far?

Yes, I am pleased with my efforts. I have rescued 15 girls from undergoing the cut. I have also helped seven others to go back to school. I hope to assist 300 Somali girls to go back to school next year once I raise more money. My efforts have not gone unnoticed - I have been nominated for participation in the Tutu Fellowship in 2018. Later this year, I will be receiving the Extraordinary African Woman Achievers Award (EAWA) as recognition for my activities. I thank Akilidada for enabling me to empower other young women in my community. I am particularly proud of my family for supporting my cause this far.

DENNIS KARANU, 29

MARTIN MAINA, 28

Chandaria Business Innovation and Incubation Centre

Flexpay Technologies

How did your partnership come into being?

Dennis: We met at the incubation centre as students of Kenyatta University in 2010. Each one of us had a different business idea. I was keen on branding and advertising. Our two other partners, Richard Machomba and Johnson Mwangi, were focused on art and design and renewable energy solutions respectively. Maina came on board to help us draft our business plan and financial forecasts.

How was your business idea conceptualised?

Martin: We wanted to buy a laptop for our business, but we didn’t have enough money. The local store in our school did not accept payment through instalments. The shop owner was opposed to lay-by (mode of paying for an item by paying the deposit first) saying it was tedious to keep track of piecemeal payments by all his customers. He also complained that some buyers took longer to clear the balance than they had committed to do.  

Dennis: We saw this as a potential area to exploit. We invented an app that would help traders easily track all the bit-by-bit payments made by their clients. After evaluating the idea with our patrons at the incubation centre, we decided to invest in it. Surprisingly, our first client was the shop owner who had refused to sell us a laptop. Today, more than five major supermarket stores are using our platform to facilitate their payments.

How does Flexpay work?

Martin: It is an SMS-based platform for paying for commodities in piecemeal. We sign up traders on our platform and provide them with a dashboard that contains all their clients’ information and the products they have reserved and deadline for paying. When the customer makes payment, the system computes the balance and due time for completion. This way, the trader is able to track all the transactions carried out by their customers. 

Dennis: The customer gets confirmation of their payment from us through a text message, saying what item they have paid for, the balance and remaining time. The Flexpay system generates a unique e-receipt on completion of payment, upon which the client can collect their item from the store. The platform has turned window-shoppers into actual shoppers.

What services do you offer on the platform?

Martin: Our primary sphere of focus is the purchase of commodities in supermarkets, electronics and furniture stores. We are, however, constructing an online sales platform to facilitate piecemeal payment for merchandise bought from online stores. Soon, we will start piloting a model that will enable people to pay school fees, tithe and offering to their churches.

Why is Flexpay a better way to make payments?

Dennis: It is a more affordable way of making payments because it does not attract transactional charges as is the case in mobile money. The customer can make payments from wherever they are. It is also easier for the trader to track all the payments made to them. The system also allows for easy editing.  

Why do most Kenyans still use cash for their transactions despite the many cashless modes of payment available today?

Martin: Most Kenyan consumers handle small amounts of money on a daily basis to buy basic commodities such as food. With these minor transactions, it does not make sense to use other modes of payment, especially because payment through mobile money attracts charges. It is not easy to eliminate the use of cash in transactions, at least not now. Banks have particularly been very reluctant to loosen their grip on liquid money. Recently though, many financial institutions have adopted new ways of making payments other than using cash.

Dennis: The fact that banks do not allow transactions with cash beyond certain amounts encourages people to go for alternative methods, such as use of debit cards and mobile money.

Is yours a profitable venture?

Martin: This year alone, Sh69 million has been transacted on our platform. More and more traders are coming on board and signing up with our payment model. There is hope for better business and returns in the near future. So yes, this is a worthwhile investment.