It’s not easy to get investors to look to Africa for technological innovation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Kate Kallot, founder and CEO of Nairobi-based startup Amini; Fatima Tambajang, NVIDIA’s head of developer relations, startups, and venture capital ecosystem for Africa and the Middle East; and moderator Eugene Anangwe, founder of East African Media Group, delved into AI, funding, and more during an “Innovation for Impact” panel at the inaugural TIME100 Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, on Friday.
“The work is being done, but there is no visibility into it,” said Tambajang, though she noted that one of the main challenges in attracting attention and investment is that the field is very small at the moment. “There aren’t many others in this space,” she said.
When she asks developers why they aren’t building in AI, they often tell her it’s because they don’t have any examples of what it looks like. “They haven’t been shown the possibilities,” she said.
Kallot added that for Africa to become a central player in AI, the rest of the world will need to rethink how it perceives innovation. “You have to change your lens,” she said. For example, she continued, “as a developer who has built a smart camera that can be deployed into the bush to identify animals, that is innovation for us.”
Kallot’s startup was founded last year and focuses on using satellite imaging and AI to collect and crunch environmental data down to the square meter. Kallot says that this technology helps smallholder farmers looking to improve their agriculture yields, as well as big companies that are looking at investing in Africa but want to have a confident way to track such conditions. “We are already at the forefront of innovation,” she contends. “We just need to remove our biases.”
For the first time ever, TIME has brought its iconic TIME100 franchise to Africa, bringing together international and regional leaders, influencers, and visionaries alongside members of the African TIME100 community for a daytime summit to discuss the solutions needed to build a better future and a gala to celebrate their accomplishments.
The TIME100 Summit Africa is sponsored by Visit Rwanda, Kigali International Financial Centre, and RwandAir.
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