The ‘new dispensation ‘ is upon us, and as usual Zimbabweans are caught in the loop of ‘great expectations’ of government working to redeem us from our economic woes by creating jobs. History has taught us however the painful but useful fact that as Zimbabweans we have to take it upon ourselves to change our individual fortunes or else we will have to wait for a long time.
That we are coming from a background of economic ruin is unquestionable, and those intending to make a big breakthrough technology business are faced with the grim reality of either no financial start-up support to set off their business or a negative financial forecast.
Back to our economic headache as a country.
Without wasting time trying to diagnose the source or causes of the same, it is pleasant to note that other nations have seen our plight and assisted with aid which has been channeled towards various sectors of the economy. Most of the aid that has been coming into the country has been humanitarian, for example, food aid relief. A shift in focus has however occurred and donors have begun funding more development focused interventions such as sustainable agriculture. Still that has not been adequate to meet our transformative needs. However, most recently, donors have started funding business ventures and for profit enterprises such as market based agriculture production, agro processing, IT and renewable energy.
In the global village, there are many funders who are willing to finance innovative projects that alleviate poverty, address food insecurity, malnutrition, climate change among other things. As technopreneurs therefore we are presented with a golden opportunity to pitch our ideas out to potential funders who are passionate about ideas that create better communities and alleviate human suffering.
The thrust however is not about just necessarily getting grant funding as has been the case with development agencies in the country resulting in neither nor meaningful nor sustainable development taking place. The most important aspect is to have a possible solution (idea) that is based on an identified problem, take for example how Strive Masiiwa identified limited connectivity among individuals as a problem to which he developed the Econet idea.
As technopreneurs I reiterate once again, this is not an impulse based process which anyone and everyone can imagine themselves making a quick buck from. The idea is to have a passion, drive and energy coupled with conviction. When these are in place, one can then seriously take time to think about one problem within their sphere of passion which technology can address.
Now that we have gotten a head-start in our exciting discussion, we’ll pick it up and finish it in the upcoming series of articles. Upcoming articles outline the problem identification process, potential funding organisations and the grant application process and most importantly potential ideas which can be funded (with case studies from elsewhere).
In summary, the important take home point is that, regardless of the economic situation we are in, the global village we are in presents us with opportunities to fly, as long as we are able to prove that our ideas will make the world a better place.
About Author: Nhamo Dapi is an actuarial analyst, researcher and writer with interests in I.T based software solutions, he can be contacted at nhamo.dapi@gmail.com.
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2 comments
Great Article . . . Just a few of my thoughts.
1.”government working to redeem us from our economic woes by creating jobs” – I strongly believe the responsibility of creating jobs should not be with government but rather individuals and companies.Govt should rather be an enabler(Through policies) and a consumer(by supporting local SMEs and Startups).This is why i find it hard to believe any politician who will say we are going to create so many jobs.As technopreneurs i feel we need to adopt that view.
2.As highlighted in your article i strongly agree with you on shifting our focus to the Agro processing and renewable energy.I strongly feel that the two have enough potential to generate a lot of revenue for technopreneurs.There is need for technopreneurs to collaborate and share ideas.Sadly most technopreneurs want to start IT startups.I feel (N.B this is a personal view),that we have enough IT solutions(especially software solutions) out there to address majority of problems in business,majority of these just need a few customisations to be customer specific.
Here in the States people also have the expectation that government will create jobs. What we find is that the government is unable to create jobs. It is only capable of taking money from one pocket and moving it into another pocket. Nothing sustainable or useful results. This process may work well as a vote-buying mechanizm to keep miscreants in power but it can only be continued by putting the nation deeper and deeper into debt. Ultimately, as Greece and other nations have demonstrated, the process collapses. As others have said, do not look to government to solve unemployment problems. Do not look to socialists and do not look to corporatists. The real solution lies in industry that employs people to create what people need.