All is set for the Pwani Innovation Week (PIW), scheduled to begin on March 28 at the Swahilipot Hub in Mombasa.
The event, which will end on March 31, strives to provide coastal locals and investors with opportunities to learn and experience innovation in action while also providing a forum for discussion.
This year’s theme – leveraging Covid-19 opportunities to create a better future – seeks to utilise new ways of working that have evolved during the pandemic despite its impacts.
Currently supported by the Swahilipot Hub Foundation, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce, Mombasa County’s Department of ICT and several other partners, the weeklong event will also discuss the creation of a widespread culture of innovation in the coastal region.
Speaking during the event’s sensitisation breakfast meeting in Nairobi yesterday, ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs Chief Administrative Secretary Nadia Abdalla said the ministry was hopeful that this year’s PIW would provide solutions and create more employment.
“There is a big gap in the employment of young people. We are looking for substitutes to fill that gap, and this innovation week is one of the most essential pillars of doing just that,” she said.
Mahmoud Noor, the founder of Swahilipot Hub and coordinator of the PIW, said the event’s intention was to cast Mombasa in good light especially with most reports from the coastal city focusing on insecurity caused by armed young people operating in criminal gangs.
“During this week, and probably the rest of the year, we want to bring investors in the tech space and innovation, including the national and county governments, to Mombasa to support young people and also the young innovators and start-ups in Mombasa to showcase what they have,” he said.
KNCCI Mombasa chapter vice-chair Jackline Waihenya described the innovation week as an opportunity to make something out of the Covid-19 impacts and push forward with commitment to improve the situation.
“I thank the sponsors of this encouraging endeavour and I ask them to continue doing so, so that we, the people of Kenya and especially people on the Coast, can benefit from such interactions,” she said.
Peter Maddens, Belgium’s ambassador to Kenya, pledged to support innovation week.
“Yes, absolutely, we will get involved and I have a friend, someone who manages the (Belgium) federal government’s IT infrastructure and I will get him to come and participate,” he said.
Ministry of East Africa Community Principal Secretary Kevit Desai said funding was crucial in achieving the goals of innovation and called on all players to create an enabling environment for its adoption.
“An ecosystem that supports innovation requires a very delicate balance between all aspects of legal and facilitative aspects, as well as infrastructure that has the ability to build specific tunnels and promote innovations into outcomes and implementation,” he said.
Mombasa County ICT Chief Officer Anwar Mohamed said they would utilise the innovation week to launch the county’s first ICT and innovation policy.
“We are looking at bringing more innovations from the public sector, especially from our schools, from the kind of systems we are using in managing traffic and other activities,” he said.
Communications Authority Director-General Ezra Chiloba said his agency was committed to supporting the event and that it would be offering a boot camp on cybersecurity. He hailed the event as a boost in the search for solutions to problems in the lives of Kenyans.
Mukhtar Ogle, secretary for strategic innovations at the Office of the President, urged young people to choose leaders who would support their ventures in technology.
“We must acknowledge that digital is the future and data is the new oil. We must disrupt the thinking of wheelbarrow-bottom-up ideologies and secure the future,” he said. BY DAILY NATION