By Solomon Ogara, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) and Ernest Chitechi, Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC)

The showcase event was held online on 5^th September, 11:00 am – 1:30 pm EAT. More than 26  Innovation ecosystem (IE) stakeholders and matched project participants (entrepreneurs and industrial fellows) participated in the event. Participants included students and entrepreneurs from the matched projects, representatives from partner organizations, the British Council, IAU programme, government ministries and parastatals, other stakeholders and the project team. The main aim of the showcase event was to present the results of the matchmaking project.  The event included matched project posters presentations, reflections & lessons learnt, a showcase of pilot matchmaking website and discussions on the project legacy.

The showcase event began with opening remarks from Dr. Ann Kingiri from ACTS. Dr. Byrne gave an overview of the IAU program as well as the aims of the IAU programme as follows: i) to support the development of Africa-UK university partnerships that build institutional capacity for higher education engagement in entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems in selected African countries, and ii) to strengthen entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems and improve support for young people seeking to develop job creation entities and sustainable enterprises. The programme is implemented by City University (UK) and other partners and has been running for a period of one year, with phase 1 in  September-December 2021, while phase 2 (January-September 2022). In Phase 1, the project focused on defining a problem and designing an intervention to address the problem. Phase 2 involved implementation of that intervention. In phase 2 eight (8) masters students (5 male and 4 female) from Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kenya, were matched with 9 business enterprises (7 male owned and 2 female owned). The student backgrounds include: Information Technology (5), Human Resource (1), Analytical Chemistry (1), and Strategic Management (1). The enterprises include waste management; agribusiness, electronic waste recycling, textile and bioethanol fuel production. The paired matches are short projects to be implemented between July and August 2022. Students assigned to specific entrepreneurs based on skills required to address the entrepreneurs business needs such as business operations, business and marketing plans/activities, social media Logos and branding, e-commerce website and content creation, entrepreneur training and Ethanol production. 

The event adopted the use of Miro board to share the students’ success stories with their matched entrepreneurs. The two hour window of the event would not allow all the students to showcase their matched projects. Therefore, two students (male and female) were selected to showcase challenges and lessons learnt from the matched projects. Ms. Merrilyn Chizanga worked with Ms. Rose Shikuku of Fibertext Green Paper Enterprise that delas with production of packaging materials from banana fiber. The entrepreneur faced the following challenges: i) poor sales, ii) lack of social media presence, iii) lack of branding, and iv) lack of production equipment to automate the production process. The entrepreneur handled all the firm activities manually. The key accomplishment during this period included: i) development of business and marketing goals, ii) drawing up a business and marketing plan together with the entrepreneur, iii) digitization of the business innovation through creation of social media accounts (social media presence with a following of at least 300 potential clients -Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), iv) building the Industrial Partners capacity on resource mobilization to expand business, for example, how to search for and apply for small grants to fund and expand the innovation. In the process Merrylyn assisted the entrepreneur to apply for 4 Grants, v) designed a Logo for product branding. The observation here is that the matchmaking project clearly demonstrated that students have skills and expertise they can apply to make positive impact on the business climate ecosystems.

Mr. Richard Sijenyi worked with Mr. Zack Brian Ouma of Oxbow Technologies – dealers of e-waste to clean the environment while creating value chains to empower communities for livelihoods and economic sustainability. The key accomplishment during this period included: i) assisting the company to change from sole proprietorship to partnership, ii) registering the company, ii) establishment of board of directors, iii) development of marketing information, documents and branding, for example, website, email address, physical office space, business cards established and acquired, iv) creation of  office space complete with two interns to manage acquired office, v) establishment of collaborations with other partners including World Electrical and Electronics Equipment Centre, Circular innovation Hub, and Kenya Climate Innovation Center. Among the challenges faced were: i) financial challenges for enterprise startups not catered for and as a result, some activities could not be completed due to lack of a budget. This affected/inhibited some expected outcomes of the project, ii) project duration was too short. Engagements were rushed and even curtailed. This impacted expected outcomes,  iii) political activities in the country and the general elections, and iv) inadequate project fund allocation for administrative and facilitation for industrial fellows.

Despite the project ending in September 2022 some of the students have committed to continue working with the entrepreneurs on a volunteer basis beyond the project period in order to implement some of their proposals. This is something the project team never envisioned at the beginning of the project. Both the entrepreneurs and students will benefit through this partnership in that students will have the opportunity to implement their ideas while entrepreneurs will benefit from free technical expertise from the student. This aspect builds into one of the three core functions of the University – outreach. Community outreach is an important component in assuring improved economic outcomes for people in need. Universities can partner with non-governmental organizations from around neighboring communities to provide students with opportunities to volunteer their time and expertise to help local business enterprises. Academia can address the business needs in class and allow students to brainstorm ideas or projects they can do to create an impact in the innovation ecosystem.

The second major activity during this event was to demonstrate how the Website could be used to match students and entrepreneurs based on identified business needs. This was in fulfillment of the second project objective – to develop a Website to facilitate matchmaking between students and entrepreneurs. The Website is a Web based match making application that can be viewed in mobile devices as well. The functionality of the match making application clearly demonstrates the thinking, creativity and expertise of the Web designers and the team who worked very closely to translate what was done in the physical into a workable web application. The application was developed by Mr. Phanuel Mutuma, a former IT graduate from Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. The technical expertise then went into Website development clearly demonstrates the talent we have in our Universities and that could be used by entrepreneurs. The application allows both entrepreneurs and students to create accounts and upload their profiles. It has provisions for students to summarize their expertise which are made visible to the entrepreneurs. Likewise, entrepreneurs’ business needs are made visible to the students. Entrepreneurs can then search the database of students and select the best match based on the expertise/skills displayed. They have the option to select as many students as possible and later narrow down the list to the best possible match. Likewise, students have the choice to select entrepreneurs based on the business needs displayed. If satisfied with the match the application allows them to contact each other through email. If any party changes their mind regarding the match the application allows them to drop the match and select another one. We believe that this application has the potential to enhance academia and industry relationship.

Listening to the comments of the participants and reflecting on the presenters in this event the positive impact of this project is certainly evident. The lessons learnt from this showcase will be useful in improving any future similar activity.

1. Although TransCIIT was quite ambitious despite the limited resources and time available - the project was a success. The enthusiasm of the students and entrepreneurs for this service was obvious during the showcase event.
2. Both students and entrepreneurs pointed out the challenges with completing projects in the planned 30 days.
3. The commitment of all team players including students and entrepreneurs from the beginning to the end contributed partially to the success of the showcase event.
4. Broader IAU programme efforts to build a community helped us too, including forging some new connections.
5. The Showcase event clearly suggests there is a huge latent demand for this matchmaking application which can be scaled up or institutionalized. Both entrepreneurs and students can benefit from such a service, but so too can universities and innovation ecosystem intermediaries.
6. The Showcase event has demonstrated some of the possibilities and developed a matchmaking tool, but it will need others to escalate this further.
7. Policymakers can use the Showcase event to develop more effective innovation policy geared towards enhancing the academia and industry collaboration.
8. Universities can use this tool to enhance the employability of their graduates and develop closer connections to other parts of the national innovation ecosystem. Intermediaries can see how they could improve the services they offer to their innovation ecosystem clients.
9. The matchmaking application can be used by Startups firms focused on multidisciplinary approach to source and share ideas, providing consistent guidance, consultancy and mentorship.