Square Pegs in Round Holes: Putting Innovation in Context for Africa
(This post is part of a series leading up to our upcoming white paper on driving innovation on the Continent)
“In Kenya, and other parts of Africa, money was sent either by bus drivers or by self-delivery, which most times took days because the senders worked far from their relatives; there was little access to financial services, rural areas possessed, if any, little traditional banking infrastructure and banks were expensive to use.”
In his book “Tipping Point”, Malcolm Gladwell shared an insight: with the accumulation of little changes, a little push suffices for them to lead to a large phenomenon. In the case of M-PESA, there was a need to bridge the gap between the masses and money transfer: through agents the people would be able to transfer and withdraw money with transactions costs being low. In 2004, MCel introduced the first authorized airtime credit swapping. Later, in 2007 following a student software development project from Kenya M-PESA was introduced; as ripple effect came the establishment of many other innovations in sectors like agriculture and health. Presently the idea of smartphone payments is gaining ground outside the continent.
Innovation is often times like a domino set: first, all the pieces have to be arranged; then the first move tips the others into motion. This illustration avidly describes the context of innovation in Africa. It cannot always commence from the current most advanced iteration expecting support infrastructure and mindsets to catch up; there is something to be said for following the organic course, building much required institutional knowledge and expertise in the progress.
When an organization wants to innovate or introduce a new process, product or service, it must first consider certain factors or circumstances in the environment it desires to introduce them to. The factors in some cases help for market and in others, socio-cultural. Introducing automated cars into the United States was possible due to the availability of infrastructure, electricity, policies, the financial status of the consumers and their wants; introducing automated cars into Africa would be more difficult due to the lack of adequate infrastructure, the high poverty percentage, and current policies which largely do not support or have provision for them. To achieve this, other innovations need to be put in place which would provide better infrastructure, policies and a higher number of able consumers.
Innovation is subject to six factors. They are the political factors, the social factors, the economic factors, the industry factors, the consumers’ opinion and the consumers’ buying patterns. Each plays a critical condition in the selection of innovation and at what level it would start.
Transformative policies would create an enabling environment for innovation. Policies such as:
Mission-oriented policies aimed at providing practical new solutions to specific challenges on the political agenda. This requires policy-makers to take all phases of the innovation process into account policy design and implementation;
Invention-oriented policies focused on the R&D or invention phase. Policies are made which encourage advances in science and technology that would benefit the country as a whole;
System-oriented policies focused on system-level features, such as the degree of interaction between different parts of the system; the extent to which some vital component of the system is in need of improvement; or the capabilities of the actors that take part.
The social factors in the area can either support the growth of innovation or stop it. The cultures, religion, wealth of the location are factors to be considered. Human development is also crucial; without the availability of a qualified workforce, good healthcare services and housing conditions introducing robots can be idealistic.
Economically, the employment rate, levels of current account and budget surpluses or deficits, GDP growth rates and inflation rates are factors to consider. To a nation where the average income of the target consumer is low, an organization cannot introduce a set of processes, which will increase the product or service’s price no matter how innovative they are; the income level of the consumer has to rise first.
The position of the country industrially is also important. Organizations must consider the capabilities of the industry to support the innovation they want to introduce. For example, road sensors cannot be introduced into many countries in Africa because of their incapacity to house or maintain such innovation. It would be preferable to introduce innovations that can first encourage the building of infrastructure, the improvement of the present vehicles of transportation and the availability of electricity.
The consumers’ opinion is crucial since he/she is the user. It is important to note what the consumers think about an innovative product or service as this helps organizations make necessary adjustments to ensure the innovation’s success.
Although it is awesome to create innovations that anticipate consumers’ needs, there is also a need to monitor the consumers’ buying patterns. The frequency, duration, quantity and timing of the purchases are paramount.
The initiation of innovation into Africa demands paying attention to the context of the continent as well as it readiness for the transformation.
“Wisdom is intelligence in context.”
-Raheel Farooq
Fun Trivia: Gumi seeks to help organizations evolve into their best selves by discovering innovative processes, products and services tailored to the African context.
