the African Uptimist

Uganda and India set to build US$200 million technology park

Thirty-five years after former dictator Idi Amin booted them out of Uganda, Indians are again returning in large numbers. And they are coming with ideas and investments that are helping to rebuild an economy that was shattered following their exodus.  A good example: the recent joint venture between India's United Telecoms Limited (UTL) and Uganda's Jinja Institute of Technology to build a US$200 million ICT and biotechnology park in Uganda. The partners have applied for a license to set up the Lake Victoria Information/Communication Technology and Biotechnology Limited (LAVIT).  The application is almost certain to be approved when an ongoing feasibility study confirms the obvious: ventures like this are an essential tool for accelerated economic development.  Edris Kisambira provides some details:

According to documents filed at UIA, the park will provide a modern environment for the economic rejuvenation of Jinja town, where the park will be situated. The facilities will include a hardware and software innovation center, a biotechnology innovation center and what has been called a multinational engineering design center. The park will be given a special economic zone status and...will enjoy the benefits of being one of the first projects of its kind in East and Central Africa.

Studies of technology parks like that envisaged by the LAVIT partners can help nations meet their immediate goals of increased foreign direct investment, "technology transfer, increased exports, technology diffusion, increased employment, and human resource development."  But LAVIT is more than that: it is also a powerful message from the people of Uganda to the Indians who were expelled from the 'Pearl of Africa" under Idi's sadly misguided "Reign of Error" -- welcome back home!

eCARE commissions 50th PV-powered business center

True to its word, the eCARE project has commissioned the 50th solar-powered rural business center at Sakora Wonoo, a small community in the Kwabre District of Ghana's Ashanti region.  Funded in part by the United Nations Foundation and Telecom Management Partner, eCARE was launched in December 2005 with the active support of local NGO KITE, Ghana's Ministry of Communications and the Ghana Commercial Bank. We reported on this project back in June 2006 and have been closely tracking it as an interesting example of public-private partnership for universal access to energy and ICTs.  Though starting up as providers of renewably-powered voice telephony and Internet access in rural communities, many of the entrepreneurs now want to grow their businesses into multi-purpose energy enterprises, capable supplying renewable electric power for a variety of other income-generating activities.  KITE is helping them prepare bankable business plans and to secure financing to make this happen.  Recent innovations in energy and information technologies, combined with innovative financing models and government support appear to be creating opportunities for small or medium sized enterprises in Africa to go where the big utilities fear to tread--rural and peri-urban communities "at the bottom of the pyramid" and beyond the grid.

Motorola's cellphone-charging bike

World's number two cellphone manufacturer Motorola plans to roll out a bicycle that charges your cellphone as you ride, reports Darren Murph of Engadget, who watched Motorola's CEO Ed Zander ride one into a packed room at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007 earlier this week.  The new bike sports a cradle on the handlebars that holds a mobile phone securely in place, while the motion of the pedals generates electricity to recharge its battery pack.  Depending on the price, this might be a good solution for the millions of cellphone users in Africa who rely on bicycles as their primary modes of transportation.  Here's a sampling of the more constructive comments on the bicycle (see the comments section of the original article):

tekdroid writes:

I think it's a great idea. When power goes out, too...most people are left stranded and have no options. Makes perfect sense for a market like China with so many bikes, and I suspect limited success in some other parts of the world (Netherlands, etc), too.  Especially with rising fuel prices and obesity issues today.  I think the bike looks great and the phone holder should be standard on many bikes (along with the fenders/mudguards). Bikes aren't just for recreation, and more people in the western world are waking up to the practicalities of actually doing daily travel with a bike (and getting fit in the process!).

Mike makes the following very good point about the engineering:

Why would they make the pedal movement charge the bike and not the wheel movement. Then it won't charge if you are coasting and might charge slower when in a higher gear.  I know I had a bike light about 20+ years ago that had a mini generator on it that was in contact with the wheel and when I was moving, the light was on. Was kind of neat.

My favorite comment was by Trickyny, especially the last sentence:

This is a excellent idea with poor execution. In developing nations cell phones could be very useful where infrastructure has not kept up with the rapidly expanding market. However, why Motorola chose to create a branded bike rather than a just an attachment (like the way most bike lights and speedometers are designed) is beyond me. Logically, people would much more readily buy something to use with the bike they already owned, rather than buying a whole new bike.

So, Motorola's cellphone charging is great innovation.  There is a potentially huge demand for it given the rapid growth in cellphone usage in Africa.  All its needs is some fine-tuning of the engineering aspects and the deployment approach to realize its full potential.  And, as the folks at Afrigadget and eCARE will tell you, there's no shortage of local ingenuity and business acumen in Africa to lend a hand with the needed technical modifications and market deployment of this excellent idea.

"The Right Connection" is showing on YouTube

The eCARE (eCommerce and Renewable Energy) project has just posted an interesting 8-minute video on its activities at Youtube, titled "The Right Connection".

Energy Factor. Part 2

eCommerce and Renewable Energy (eCARE), which i briefly mentioned in an earlier post, is a recent 3-year initiative that addresses the energy factor in ICT for development.   UNEP DTIE started this effort last year with funding from the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and Telecom Management Partner, a subsidiary of Telenor.  Important local partners include Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment (KITE) a Ghanaian NGO, the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) the National Communications Authority (NCA) of the Government of Ghana, and Ghana Telecom, the main telecommunications service provider in Ghana. These partners share a common vision: to develop ecommerce as a viable sector of rural economies by extending internet and other IT services; and to eliminate the energy barrier to telecoms and internet access by using renewable energy technologies. UNEP DTIE's main rationale for involvement in eCARE is that it demonstrates a practical and scalable approach to deployment of environmentally friendly and sustainable energy technologies.

The eCARE homepage reports that there are currently:

...25 centers...in successful operation in Ghana. By the close of December 2006 a total of 50 eCARE Centers will be in operation, benefiting more than 300,000 people. People in the beneficiary rural/peri-urban communities will have access to affordable telecommunication services which was previously lacking. eCARE is bridging not only the “energy divide” but also the “digital divide”. eCARE is expanding into all regions of Ghana with at least 200 centers offering renewably powered telecom services to more than one million Ghanaians by the end of 2008!

Not surprisingly, the project enjoys considerable support from local people and their leaders.

The experience and lessons learned during the first 3 years are being fed into the design of a longer-term strategy to scale out the business model to other regions and countries in Africa.  The slideshots below provide a self-explanatory overview of the business model, technology, financing and institutional structure of eCARE.

Energy Factor. Part 1

"Without energy, nothing is possible." That was the dramatic opening slide of a talk on modern energy for sustainable development by a former Director of UNEP DTIE in June, 2002.

In other words, the 575 million people in Africa (60 percent of the population) without access to reliable, modern forms of energy cannot attain better conditions of life.

On that note, one can't help but agree wholeheartedly with the point emphasized by Johansson and Goldemberg in Energy for Sustainable Development--A Policy Agenda (2002):

"Given that they can so dramatically increase human capabilities and opportunities, adequate energy services are integral to poverty alleviation and environmentally sound social and economic development."

There are several ways in which energy helps  improve living standards.  Eric Usher of UNEP has  highlighted a few that i consider quite relevant to most African countries:

• Education: from reading by candlelight to internet access
• Health: from disease to well-being
• Agriculture: from crop losses to food preservation
• Communication: from isolation to networking

UN-Energy has done a comprehensive report covering the large number of ways in which energy may contribute to the attainment of the Millenium Development Goals in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.

But the use of modern energy technologies comes with adverse environmental, social and political issues that are well known.   So what we need is a transition from the most common energy systems in use today, to an alternative regime of technologies and institutions that can provide for everyone while decreasing harmful side-effects.  They include techniques and institutions for:

• promoting more efficient use of energy, particularly in electrical appliances, vehicles and production processes;
• expanding the use of renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and hydroelectric systems (preferably on small-scale); and
• Accelerating the deployment of "new energy technologies particularly next-generation fossil fuel technologies that release almost no harmful emissions into the atmosphere."

These have come to be known as "sustainable energy" in energy-development speak.

UNEP's Energy Branch is one of several international bodies that are working to expand access to sustainable energy in Africa.  Eric has provided a nice summary of our work in the slide below.