In many ways, Covid-19 has been Africa’s ‘light bulb’ moment. As an example, a roundup of the new wave of pandemic-inspired innovations being tried and tested in the marketplace in hilly Rwanda.



As countries relentlessly dip into their depleting arsenal to creatively respond to the raging pandemic as also deploy new ideas to tackle it, in many ways, Covid-19 has been Africa’s ‘light bulb’ moment.



The new wave of innovations on the continent has seen governments, universities, corporates and small business rally together to come up with rejigged solutions and find effective ways to combat the crisis. In Rwanda, the ‘land of a thousand hills’ known for its tech startups and encouragement of new enterprise, a raft of new ideas are emerging, from clever face masks to ventilator machines, and food delivery apps to contact tracing apps and robots. We examine a few:



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="400" height="400" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Clare-bio-pic-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42376" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Clare-bio-pic-1.jpg 400w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Clare-bio-pic-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Clare-bio-pic-1-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Clare-bio-pic-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Clare-bio-pic-1-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><figcaption>CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Clare Akamanzi</figcaption></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;We have seen many exciting innovative responses from Rwandan entrepreneurs that have clearly demonstrated their great capacity to adapt and innovate for emerging situations.&#8221; &#8212; Clare Akamanzi, CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB)</blockquote>



Drones as loudspeakers?



With 30 employees and operating in six different countries in Africa, Eric Rutayisire’s drone company, Charis UAS, has worked on a number of projects in Rwanda, including spraying pesticides using drones on sites to quell mosquito breeding and malaria.



However, some of these projects came to a screeching halt when Covid-19 struck.



“Certain projects that were meant to kick off had to be stopped and we lost some revenue,” Rutayisire tells FORBES AFRICA.



The CEO says that he and his team had to quickly come up with an innovative way of joining the fight against the pandemic. They saw an opportunity to improve communication systems during the country’s total lockdown period.



“We identified gaps in the way information regarding the disease and the restriction guidelines was being passed to the community. The police would drive around in vehicles with loudspeakers communicating to people. So we approached them with the idea of using drones,” Rutayisire says.



The police quickly bought into the idea seeing as it would help limit human contact whilst also reach more people.



For this, the drones had to be slightly modified.



“We fitted the drones with megaphones and built a communication system that linked them to the police walkie-talkies, enabling them to broadcast messages from wherever they were.”



Three to four drones would be dispatched daily to various far-flung districts in Rwanda, with each drone operated by a team of two people.



Did the company make any profit for this new venture? “Our goal was not to make profits but to support the Rwandan government in the fight against this pandemic. Our company got increased visibility, but that was not our main goal,” says Rutayisire.



The use of drone technology in the fight against the coronavirus is not unique to Rwanda. Countries such as China used drones for crowd control whilst Australia developed a ‘pandemic drone’ to remotely detect and monitor individuals with infectious respiratory conditions.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FABLAB-4-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47050" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FABLAB-4-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FABLAB-4-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FABLAB-4-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FABLAB-4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FABLAB-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FABLAB-4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Face shields as virus-busters



Never before has a commodity risen from ‘obscurity’ to becoming one of the world’s most coveted items of clothing. Face masks have instantly gone from exception to norm, and is the facial armor in the fight against Covid-19.



When the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Rwanda and it became apparent that masks would be essential in curtailing the spread, local garment manufacturing companies, and even neighborhood tailors, rose to the occasion to produce an array of masks to meet the rising demand.



Fabrication Laboratory, commonly known as FabLab Rwanda, which helps young innovators in the country turn their ideas into products, specifically in the hardware and electronics domain, saw an opportunity to produce a different kind of personal protective equipment – face shields.



According to FabLab’s General Manager, Danny Bizimana, his team decided to take a route that no one else in the country had taken before.



“There were too many textile companies in the country producing the face masks, so we decided to do the face shields because we knew that Rwanda ships them from China and they would soon be in short supply,” Bizimana explains.



Luckily for FabLab, the materials to manufacture the face shields are locally available.



“We chose simple, locally-available material to ensure that the production of the face shields can be sustained even through long periods of border closures.”&nbsp;



The company has been producing 500 face shields per day but with the re-opening of the economy, this number has risen.



“Our main clients were doctors, surgeons and dentists. However, now that the hospitality industry is operational, we are now supplying the face shields to hotels and have increased our production capacity to 700 units per day,” Bizimana says.



FabLab initially produced the face shield as its contribution to the national fight against the pandemic, but as demand for the product has been steadily growing, the company is now making profit. The mask economy is here to stay, with a study from Stanford University indicating that they are a crucial step in reopening the economy and can help ensure public safety in a post-Covid world.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VENTILATOR-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47051" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VENTILATOR-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VENTILATOR-1-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VENTILATOR-1-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VENTILATOR-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VENTILATOR-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VENTILATOR-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Locally-made ventilators



With the Covid-19 pandemic causing an unimaginable strain on health systems, one particular medical equipment has been in short supply – the ventilator machine.



The machine helps critically-ill patients who cannot breathe on their own, and is literally the difference between life and death for Covid-19 patients with acute respiratory complications.



So dire was the shortage that in Italy, which was Europe’s center of the Covid-19 outbreak, doctors were forced to make the difficult decision about who uses the ventilator machines and who doesn’t, even as Covid-19 patients flooded hospitals.



Rwanda, like most other African countries, only has a few of these life-saving machines, which are imported and cost anywhere from $25,000 and $50,000 apiece.



It is against this backdrop that biomedical engineers at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional College Kigali (IPRC) resolved to make them. According to IPRC Kigali Principal Engineer Diogène Mulindahabi, the biomedical engineers partnered with doctors at some of the local hospitals to develop a prototype.



“Within eight days, the team developed a prototype called Rwanda Emergency Ventilator (REV001) using locally-available materials. The machine they made met the minimum requirements for a patient ventilator,” says Mulindahabi.



The team of engineers also developed a second portable emergency ventilator prototype (REV002), which can be used in an ambulance.



“Since these are sensitive equipment to be used on the human body, we have to ensure they meet the required standards. We cannot afford to make mistakes. So the prototypes are going through a rigorous certification process,” says Mulindahabi.



The team at IPRC Kigali knocked on several doors in search of funds and managed to receive $20,000, which will be used to finalize the second version of the prototype. The institution is however still open to receiving more support that would go a long way in the mass production of the ventilators. But what will the final product cost once it hits the market?



Between $4,000 and $5,000.



“The country will save millions of dollars and have a locally manufactured product that works just as well as the imported ones. We also hope to take this product to other countries in the region,” says Mulindahabi.



Rwanda is not the only African country to have manufactured its own ventilators.



A team of students from Kenyatta University in Kenya also devised a ventilator machine that has met the standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).



Ghana and Uganda have also joined their African counterparts in taking the lead to produce home-grown ventilators.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/F98A4732-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47052" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/F98A4732-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/F98A4732-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/F98A4732-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/F98A4732-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/F98A4732-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/F98A4732-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Blue-eyed caregivers 



In an age of social distancing, robots are now increasingly being used as frontline health workers in hospitals across the globe.



A study published in Science Robotics states: “Robots have the potential to be deployed for disinfection, delivering medications and food, measuring vital signs, and assisting border controls. As epidemics escalate, the potential roles of robotics are becoming increasingly clear.”



In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, the Rwandan government acquired and deployed five smart anti-epidemic robots for use in two Covid-19 treatment centers and at the Kigali International Airport.



The blue-eyed robots, acquired through ZoraBots Africa Ltd, have Rwandan names such as Ikizere (hope), Ingabo (shield), Urumuri (light) and Akazuba (sun) that depict the country’s spirit and values.



The mobile robots also feature functions such as facial recognition, temperature screening, the ability to monitor patient status as well as save medical records.



According to Benjamin Karenzi, CEO of Zorabots Africa, the information collected by the robots can be used to inform policy-makers in case of future pandemics.



“The robots are able to capture and store all manner of data and this data can be used by decision-makers even in the future in case such a crisis reoccurs,” Karenzi said during an interview with CNBC Africa.



The pandemic has surely brought forth the crucial role of robotic technology and its power to safeguard and improve human lives. The fourth industrial revolution is surely here.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="885" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JEAN-HUBERT-2-885x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47053" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JEAN-HUBERT-2-885x1024.jpg 885w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JEAN-HUBERT-2-300x347.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JEAN-HUBERT-2-600x695.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JEAN-HUBERT-2-259x300.jpg 259w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JEAN-HUBERT-2-768x889.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JEAN-HUBERT-2.jpg 933w" sizes="(max-width: 885px) 100vw, 885px" /><figcaption>Jean Hubert&#8217;s company specializes in mobile applications</figcaption></figure>



Contact tracing app



After the partial lifting of the lockdown, restaurants, hotels and businesses such as salons in Rwanda were instructed by the government to record the basic details of their clients such as names and phone numbers. This information would then be used to trace those who might have come in contact with infected patients.



This sparked an idea in Nkurayija Ishimwe Jean Hubert, Founder and CEO of Favouriapps Ltd, a software development company specializing in mobile applications, for a digital solution.



“The idea to record the data was noble but the method used was archaic. I saw an opportunity to create a digital application that would store the data,” says Hubert.



It took him five working days to come up with the app, complete with safety features to ensure the data was safe from hackers.



The next step was to get the right people to look in his direction. He took to Twitter.



Much to his delight, Rwanda&#8217;s Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Musoni, replied to his tweet asking him to send his ideas on email.



Hubert says he is now in talks with the ICT ministry. If approved, the app can be used at banks, supermarkets, restaurants and commercial buildings to digitally record the data of every person that comes through the doors.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="759" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JAMES-NJUGI--759x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-47054" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JAMES-NJUGI--759x1024.jpeg 759w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JAMES-NJUGI--300x405.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JAMES-NJUGI--600x809.jpeg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JAMES-NJUGI--222x300.jpeg 222w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JAMES-NJUGI--768x1036.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/JAMES-NJUGI-.jpeg 780w" sizes="(max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px" /><figcaption>James Njugi&#8217;s Kikao was birthed out of the need to provide simple and affordable solutions.</figcaption></figure>



Ed-tech platform



Like many other industries, the education sector has not been spared by the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.



School compounds, which were abuzz with activity in January this year, stand deserted with an eerie silence. Others have been turned into Covid-19 quarantine centers even&nbsp; as learners, from primary school to universities, remain home.



Thankfully, there are now a number of free or low-cost, user-friendly digital communication tools that allow for a range of remote learning solutions.



Launched in Kenya in May this year, ed-tech platform Kikao, which is Swahili for ‘an important meeting’, is slowly gaining traction.



According to James Njugi, Co-founder, Manager, Partnerships and Strategy at Kikao, the platform was birthed out of the need to provide solutions that were simple and affordable.



“We did not want to reinvent the wheel, but just wanted to create a platform that was easy to use and would give the clients, whether six-year-olds or university students, a pleasant learning experience,&#8221; Njugi tells FORBES AFRICA.



So far, Kikao is being used by university students in Kenya, three civil service entities as well as Kenya’s National Defence College.



On the future of e-learning with schools slowly re-opening, Njugi says: “We cannot go back to how things used to be pre-Covid. The pace of learning has increased and knowledge is quickly increasing and learners, young and old alike, have been exposed to the numerous possibilities [of] ed-tech. E-learning should not be side-stepped in the post-Covid world, instead, it should complement the conventional learning methods.”



When all is said and done, how can this wave of innovation be sustained in the post-Covid world?



Robert Ochieng, CEO and Co-founder, Abojani Investment, Kenya, who is an expert on financial markets, innovation and technology, says that innovations need to leave the labs and hit the markets.



“An idea that has not been tested in the market remains just that: an idea. we need to focus on testing the innovations in the marketplace and making sales, that way, innovators will be encouraged to do more as they see their inventions put to good use,” says Ochieng.



He is also of the opinion that governments should increase their budget allocation for science, technology and innovation.



“African governments should increase funding for research and development to at least 1% of their national budgets and target to grow this to 3% over time. There is a direct correlation between investment in research and development at national level and the growth of GDP. This kind of vibrancy has seen the rise of tech innovation in countries like Israel,” Ochieng concludes.



– By Tesi Kaven

DRONE 2

What’s New And Exciting In The Land Of A Thousand Ideas

Picture this: remote rural Africa, where communities assiduously farm vast stretches of arable land not knowing anything about digital technology or drones that can transform their lives.
Now picture this: forward-thinking innovators and entrepreneurs who swap the city for the village and lend these communities the tech and savvy to change farming – and their fortunes – forever.
Agriculture, the mainstay of Africa’s informal economies, needs a facelift, and some new faces to talk tech to power. Agri-tech is the buzzword, and we profile three innovators spearheading change in their communities. They grew up on these farms, and knowing their earth best, have created the technology they need, in turn revolutionizing agriculture, from the little corners of Africa.
<h4>‘Clarity From Above’ 
James Paterson, South Africa</h4>
<div id="attachment_36233" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36233" class="size-medium wp-image-36233" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO.jpg 1181w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />James Paterson. Photo supplied.</div>
An unidentified flying object hovers over a 150-hectare orange farm in a small town called Clanwilliam in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
It’s the first time James Paterson is testing his homemade drone. The object flies over the mountainous terrain offering a bird’s eye view, then singles out a tree with stunted growth. The object detects that the tree is not receiving enough water.
The object looks like a prop out of the Transformers movie series. It has eyes too – a camera lens – to monitor what’s happening on the ground. Paterson, 29, controls this propeller-enhanced technology using a controller. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aerobotics, a company that interprets satellite and aerial drone analytics to enable farmers.
He calls it “clarity from above”.
The drone space in Africa has significantly developed over the years, and the view from below has certainly changed too. In Rwanda, drones are a common sight, famously used to deliver blood and medical supplies to remote areas, and here in this small South African farm, it’s being used to improve the way we grow food.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2018/05/02/drones-by-africa-for-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Drones By Africa, For Africa</a>
Aerobotics’ core mandate is to provide data on tree crops, enabling farmers with information on disease, pests and water usage. They are able to tell the farmers if a tree lacks nutrition and what it needs.
“Find one small thing that is going to improve the farmers’ life and then focus on that,” says Paterson.
“Instead of just giving the farmer a picture or a map, we give him exactly what’s going on with the tree and we can track that over time.”
He believes this would be useful in areas such as Cape Town with the ongoing water crisis.
He co-founded the company with Benji Meltzer in 2014 after they built drones in Paterson’s garage. Paterson, who grew up on a fruit farm, had always loved aeronautics. Meltzer is also the Chief Technology Officer of Aerobotics.
Now, he is able to merge farming and tech into something he enjoys doing on a daily basis; running an aeronautical company providing farm analytical services.
<blockquote>“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36240" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36240" class="size-medium wp-image-36240" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Aerobotics interprets satelitte and aerial drone analytics to help farmers.</div>
But running the company hasn’t always been easy. Apart from competing with drone companies providing similar services, their biggest challenge has been trying to convince farmers to use their product.
“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things,” says Paterson.
“But even then, after we have met with them and we show them what that can do, they can really understand this is something that can help them on the farm.”
Currently, they have over 200 clients in countries such as the United States, Russia and South Africa.
Paterson has been one of the few to benefit from drone innovation in agriculture. He says he and the team were the only South African startups amongst 24 companies around the world to be part of Google’s Launchpad Accelerator in San Francisco early this year.
They have also secured an R8 million ($663,000) fund from two venture capital firms who Paterson says saw the benefit of their software for farmers. They are currently undergoing a new round of funding.
Aerobotics’ Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Willis, believes that technology in farming can assist in better risk mitigation and enhancing efficiencies around yields.
“I think those two things together will add to making a more efficient agricultural sector in Africa,” he says.
Five years from now, Paterson predicts drones will become more autonomous.
“In the future, you won’t be concerned about the drone, it will just do all the work for you.”
<h4>Smart Farming 
Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Abia State, Nigeria</h4>
<div id="attachment_36235" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36235" class="size-medium wp-image-36235" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-682x1024.jpg 682w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841.jpg 1181w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Ndubuisi Ekekwe. Photo supplied.</div>
From a farm in the Abia State of Nigeria, Dr Ndubuisi Ekekwe talks to us about a table.
Not just any table, but a small square-shaped table resting on one leg, which actually is “an electronic farm diary” that records and collects crucial information for farmers.
Ekekwe calls it Zenvus, which he created in 2011. It collects data on the soil’s pH, moisture and temperature, and records the sun’s intensity and humidity in the air. An inbuilt solar panel charges it.
The device is his contribution to smart farming. It wirelessly transmits the recorded data to a cloud server from which farmers access it on a mobile app and get real-time data.
“2020 to 2030 will be the decade of agri-tech,” Ekekwe tells FORBES AFRICA.
Zenvus services corporates, and have supplied to 500,000 farming entities. He says it’s currently in a partnership with the government of Cross River State in Nigeria, as well as Abia State.
Ekekwe says he has been approached by a number of international companies wanting to cash in on Zenvus. However, he has been reluctant to sell it.
“Someone wanted to buy Zenvus for $5 million five years ago. I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million, just to tell you the kind of value it has,” he says.
For Ekekwe, it’s more important to service farmers. To date, he prides himself in having the largest farmers’ cooperative in Africa.
<blockquote>“I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36239" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36239" class="size-medium wp-image-36239" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Zenvus collects crucial data for farmers in Nigeria.</div>
Ekekwe grew up as a farm boy in a village called Ovim in Abia State. Growing up, he received distinctions throughout his high school year and went on to acquire an engineering degree, four master’s degrees, two doctorates in management and microelectronics, as also a medical robotics degree from the United States.
He chose to move back and stay on in his village.
Ovim is known for the Ajonkwu festival when the Igbo community gather to celebrate the harvesting season.
According to Ekekwe, farmers rely on the moon to obtain a greater yield. As a result, tech for farming isn’t something a lot of people in his community are open to.
“Farmers are not literate and that is why we are not selling tech to them, we are selling the service,” he says.
According to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), 65% of Africa’s labor force is engaged in agriculture. Despite this, agricultural productivity on the African continent still lags behind significantly compared to other continents. AGRA suggests that farming only accounts for 32% of the continent’s GDP. Africa therefore does not reap the benefits of agriculture.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/06/05/agriculture-behind-africas-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Agriculture Behind Africa’s Health</a>
Ekekwe says the future of Africa is farming. He believes the convergence of tech and agriculture will result in more people wanting a piece of the pie of agri-tech startups and open up more opportunities for Africans across the continent.
<h4>‘Uber For Farmers’ 
Brian Bosire, Kisii, Kenya</h4>
<div id="attachment_36237" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36237" class="wp-image-36237 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="181" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-600x361.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-768x462.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-1024x617.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Brian Bosire. Photo supplied.</div>
On a farm in southwestern Kenya, in the small town of Kisii, a field agent reads data off a yellow square-shaped monitor, which has wires running into a smaller device connecting to the soil. It takes him about five minutes to read data regarding the soil’s PH, water levels, and disease and pests found on it. In almost two minutes, the data is sent to the farmer.
The field worker’s job is done and he looks at his phone to find his next requested farm match.
The device that has helped him is named UjuziKilimo, which is Swahili for ‘knowledge farming’. Its founder, 24-year-old Brian Bosire, calls it “an Uber service for farmers”, and this on a farm that even Uber might find difficult to access.
The field worker travels to the nearest farmer who has requested his services. This kind of smart farming service costs the Kenyan farmer about $20.
Bosire had always wanted to become a key contributor to Kenya’s agricultural industry. He grew up in Kisii, a town known for its highlands and wet weather – favorable climate for farming. Frustrated by the lethargic technological growth in the agricultural space in his town, he sought to create something innovative that would improve the yields for the farmers of Kisii.
“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
Bosire says what he tries to do is become as close to the farmer as possible. As a result, he and his team target small-scale farmers and read data on vegetable crops, maize being one of them. The UjuziKilimo can read data from about five to 10 acres of land. Farmers can request data on their farms by simply sending an SMS so even farmers with the most basic cellular devices can benefit.
<blockquote>“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36238" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36238" class="size-medium wp-image-36238" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />UjuziKilimo helps improve yields.</div>
When Bosire moved to the big city of Nairobi to study, he took advantage of every opportunity to pursue his dreams as an entrepreneur. To date, he has founded three companies, all operating in the tech innovation space, UjuziKilimo one of them. 
It’s old hat that Kenya, the country which pioneered M-Pesa as one of Africa’s leading startups, is home to a lot more players in the tech space. But Bosire says his business is different.
Earlier this year, his other innovation company, HydroIQ, won the Startup of the Year Africa 2018 award. Slightly linked to agri-tech, it’s a virtual water network operator which connects water utility companies and water consumers through an online platform. It allows for mobile money payments, data analytics, leakage detections and water use and consumption through sensors that relay information.
All this leads one to believe that the future face of farming in Africa is young.
Bosire hopes UjuziKilimo can grow to reach from 10,000 farmers to over 50,000.
“We want to become the largest data center of agriculture analytics in Africa,” he says. Future plans include launching UjuziKilimo in the United Kingdom under the name ‘Soil Pal’.
&nbsp;

Green Combine harvesting small path of wheat

‘2020 to 2030 Will Be The Decade Of Agri-Tech’

As a boy, there was never any doubt what Adam Rosman would do when he was older.
“Aviation fascinated me. My friends and I used to build model rockets and fly them at the school fields. I then decided I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer,” he says.
Rosman studied aeronautical engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg. “When I finished, I always wanted to do rocketry, Elon Musk type of stuff.”
He worked at a South African rocket design firm but the company went under. “I think it was just the wrong time, they couldn’t get money,” says Rosman.
<div id="attachment_35983" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35983" class="wp-image-35983 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Drones-726-1-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Drones-726-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Drones-726-1-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Drones-726-1-600x899.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Drones-726-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Drones-726-1-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Drones-726-1.jpg 1241w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Adam Rosman. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
Back then may have been the wrong time to build rockets, but Rosman seemed to have perfect timing when he started Aerial Monitoring Solutions (AMS) in 2013. The company designs custom drones for the commercial market.
“These aren’t for hobbyists to play around with on the weekend,” he says.
AMS has two drone systems at the moment. One is a large, 2.5-meter, fixed-wing system called the Eagle Owl; the other is a small multicopter system, the Bumble Bee.
As they are customizable, Rosman’s drones have many uses. Farmers use them to inspect the health of their crops and to monitor their fences for security reasons. Game farms use them for fence monitoring, animal counting and anti-poaching. Land surveyors use them to get topographical maps while mining companies use them for ore vein exploration.
“My entire drive is to have something customizable because there’s no one-system-fits-all [solution]. We’ve made a platform that can carry payload, can carry a range of cameras, can do game counting, [and] guys are using it for agriculture.”
There are many drone technology companies emerging in South Africa but Rosman says AMS differs in that it is one of the few that develops hardware, plus it is affordable.
The basic fixed-wing system, with the launch rail, ground control station, antennas, basic day-time camera, and a laptop, will cost about R200,000 ($17,000).
“We found you could purchase systems from overseas that were high precision, but they were hundreds and thousands of US dollars. I felt like they were excluding Africa, or other poorer continents like South America, who can’t afford those systems except if you’re a government or a major company. Why shouldn’t a guy who has a farm and wants to be able to check his fences be able to buy a drone?” he says.
The feature, however, that Rosman takes the most pride in is the robustness of his drones.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2017/07/17/mind-blown-drone-160kmh/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Mind Blown By Drone At 160km/h</a>
“From the start, we wanted something that is by Africa, for Africa. It’s got to be able to go into harsh terrain and operate. It’s got to be able to handle the rough handling – like be thrown into the back of a [pick-up truck], driven around on dirt roads, taken out, put together and expected to fly. Unfortunately, I’ve seen some of the demos where the high-end guys come from Europe or America and go to the Kruger National Park, turn on the system but because of the heat it can’t operate,” he says.
“We wanted to give something that could handle anything. If it ends up in a little village covered in dust, and gets dust storms blowing through it every day, it will still be able to operate there or if it’s flying above Kilimanjaro covered in snow.”
Rosman has reason to be proud. He started AMS with nothing but his parents’ garage and a few angel investors.
“I took over my parents’ garage; I kicked them out and said ‘I’m going to work in here’. I brought in equipment and started designing the aircraft in there during the night.”
After a few years, those designs started attracting shareholders.
“They’ve been amazingly supportive. In 2016, they came and saw potential and I’m lucky to have them.”
His parents’ support was just as valuable, even when he was young.
“When I was younger I used to build model aircraft with my dad and then we went on and got remote-controlled gliders and remote-controlled cars. I would build them and play with them for about a week. The next week I would take the entire thing apart because I wanted to see how it worked and then try and put it back together again. To this day, at my folks’ house there are still lots of bits and pieces of aircraft and toys.”
Rosman says drones can kickstart South Africa’s dwindling aviation industry.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2015/10/01/something-to-drone-about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Something To Drone About</a>
“A lot of jobs can be created in the drone space, from operators to maintenance to regulators. It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry. It’s estimated that from the time the industry started, government regulations have hindered 25,000 jobs from being created.”
As the Deputy Chairperson of the Commercial Unmanned Aircraft Association of South Africa (CUAASA), Rosman understands the industry better than most.
“The main hindrance to the entire drone industry is government regulations. They implemented drone regulations in June 2015 and they brought in some very good regulations, they still are very good. The problem is the implementation procedure has taken too long,” he says.
“Operation certificates are supposed to have a 30- to 90-day turnaround time. Realistically, it’s about a two-year turnaround time.”
A CUAASA study revealed that 99% of the drone industry in South Africa is operating illegally because of the time and cost involved in government regulations.
“Before you start making money, to operate legally, you’ve got to have five full-time safety officers, you have to have purchased your drones, and drone technology at the moment becomes obsolete within nine months, but only in possibly two years’ time can you operate.”
AMS also plans to do payload delivery, but needs to wait for the Civil Aviation Authority to legalize it. Another avenue Rosman is looking at is vehicle tracking.
“Why have helicopters in the air? Our systems fly on autopilot, so if you give it the GPS co-ordinates, it’ll go there… If the drone crashes, you only lose some money.”
With the Eagle Owl and Bumble Bee, money is unlikely to be a problem for Rosman.
&#8211; By Gareth Cotterell

DSC_0432

Drones By Africa, For Africa

At this year’s <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/03/13/africa-left-cold/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Economic Forum in Davos</a>, Rwanda featured prominently for its drone technology, especially for its delivery of blood supplies to its rural areas.
The small East African nation was praised for being the first country in the world to adopt performance-based regulation for drones, which includes policies for safety, innovation and approvals.
Most would imagine that a small emerging land locked economy would have far more pressing priorities than drone technology, an element of the fourth industrial revolution which is still in concept phase in most developed countries, but they would be wrong.
The country is using it as an opportunity to address age old struggles, such as preventable deaths like postpartum bleeding.
Regulation, however, is not Rwanda’s first global milestone with drone technology. In October 2016, the country was the first in the world to commercially launch and use drones to deliver medical supplies.
To understand this development, one has to travel to Muhanga, a small town in Rwanda’s Southern Province, which hosts the country’s ‘drone port’.
On a cloudy Thursday afternoon in January, a remotely-piloted buzzing drone flies low above Ruhango District Hospital, in Muhanga, drops a red package on the lawn and takes to the skies again.
The hospital’s patients are not surprised by the low-flying drone; they are accustomed to such occurrences. A nurse rushes out of the nearby consultation waiting area, picks up the package and makes his way back to the patients.
Earlier in the day, another drone made a similar drop at Kabgayi Hospital, about 30 minutes away. This is how Rwanda’s remote healthcare facilities receive blood supplies in the southern and western parts of the hilly country.
Previously, the delivery of blood supplies from the central National Centre for Blood Transfusion to remote parts of the country took hours, holding up resources and medical staff, and at times forcing them to spend a night in Kigali.
Prior to drones, it took ambulances four hours to transport blood supplies from Kigali to Kabgayi Hospital by road. The ambulance would need to make this trip two to four times a week.
Apart from the difficulties of the road trip, laboratory technicians had to abandon their facilities and patients to process orders of blood supplies. With the adoption of drone technology by the Rwandan government, through a public-private partnership, the process now takes about 30 minutes.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2017/07/17/mind-blown-drone-160kmh/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Mind Blown By Drone At 160km/h</a>
The innovative initiative was launched in October 2016, following an agreement between the Rwandan government and Zipline, a robotics company in California.
The partnership was one-of-a-kind. Across the world, drones are associated with bombing and spying. In Rwanda, however, drones were a sight for sore eyes as they came with much-needed medical supplies.
To many people, the two partners were underdogs. Zipline was a start-up firm and was yet to commercially roll out the concept, while Rwanda was not renowned for being a global innovation hub.
Keller Rinaudo, the CEO and Co-Founder of Zipline, says they were driven to succeed because of the millions of lives lost across the world due to preventable causes, like excessive blood loss.
<div id="attachment_35690" style="width: 313px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35690" class=" wp-image-35690" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Zipline-300x278.jpg" alt="" width="303" height="281" />Zipline co-founders Keller Rinaudo (left) and Will Hetzler at the launch of the firm&#8217;s operations in Muhanga (Photo by Faustin Niyigena)</div>
While most countries adopted a wait and see attitude, Rwanda was willing to step up.
“Millions of women across the world die each year due to postpartum hemorrhaging (PPH). In fact, the United States has the highest rate of maternal death due to PPH in the industrialized world. It&#8217;s a major global problem. Rwanda was the first country in the world to step up and decide that they would tackle it with the most cutting-edge technology available,” says Rinaudo.
As the Rwandan government established regulatory framework to operate drones, Zipline gathered advice from everyone involved, including governmental departments, doctors, nurses, National Centre for Blood Transfusion officials, and laboratory technicians.
“The easy part was building the technology. The hard part was integrating with the national health system,” says Rinaudo.
As Zipline was building an ecosystem for drone technology, the state was looking at the safety and security concerns around the disruptive technology. This resulted in regulations such as seeking clearance from the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority before taking off, registration of drones, and acquiring flying permits.
These regulations reduce the likelihood of drones being used for illegal activities or interfering with a plane’s flight path.
The hype around the innovative project attracted the attention of international corporations.
UPS, a global logistics firm, and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), a public-private global health partnership, sought to be involved.
UPS, with an interest in using drones for their own deliveries, supported the initial launch with a grant of $800,000. GAVI was using the project to see if they could use the model elsewhere and improve healthcare across the world.
With a staff of about 50 and a fleet of 15 drones, Zipline has since made over 2,000 deliveries with over a quarter of them saving lives. The company is now looking to double the number of its drones as well as adding more advanced drones to its fleet.
“Our base in Rwanda has operated with 15 planes. We&#8217;re replacing those aircraft with the next generation and will soon begin flying 30 drones from each base we operate,” says Rinaudo.
This is welcome news for Rwandans, like Esperanza Ugirambabazi, who needed a transfusion when giving birth to her son at Kabgayi Hospital. In about 30 minutes, this was made possible because of one of the drones.
Another young mother from the same district tells of her months-old son who had malaria and urgently needed a blood transfusion. He is alive today because of the drone delivery.
The success of the project has led to a second phase starting in the eastern part of Rwanda, as well as demand for the service in other African countries.
“We&#8217;re in the process of setting up a second base in Rwanda to serve the rest of the country, bringing all 11 million citizens within a reach of this lifesaving technology. We&#8217;ll be expanding across Africa and the world this year. Zipline is building an instant delivery service for the planet,” Rinaudo says confidently.
Tanzania, with a neighbor of Rwanda, has expressed demand for the services. In 2017, the country announced that it would launch drone delivery services to provide medical supplies in the first quarter of 2018.
The Tanzanian Ministry of Health ambitiously intends to make up to 2,000 deliveries a day to over 1,000 facilities across the country, targeting about 10 million people. The country has already established regulatory framework for the technology.
<div id="attachment_35691" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35691" class=" wp-image-35691" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/A-drone-on-a-ramp-ready-to-take-off-from-Muhanga-Drone-Port-in-Southern-Province-of-Rwanda.-Faustin-Niyigena-300x208.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="346" />A drone ready to take off from Muhanga drone port in Rwanda&#8217;s Southern Province (Photo by Faustin Niyigena)</div>
For Rwanda, the success of the partnership with Zipline is just the start.
Rwanda’s Minister of Information Technology and Communication Jean de Dieu Rurangirwa says that the country is creating an enabling environment for further deployment of drone technology.
Beyond regulation, the government has been mulling plans to build capacity among emerging techies to increase the number of players in the sector.
“Building on the success of Zipline’s blood delivery technology, we are working to nurture a drone industry. As we look to the future, we will continue to put in place the infrastructure and policy frameworks that accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies to transform people’s lives,” says Rurangirwa.
“We are also establishing capacity-building programs to invest in local talent and leverage public-private partnerships to lay the groundwork for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2015/10/01/something-to-drone-about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Something To Drone About</a>
Already, other sectors have been working around incorporating the technology in their line of work.
In Musanze District, in the Northern Province, a pilot test phase is underway to introduce drone technology for potato crop monitoring, involving around 20 farming cooperatives. This will monitor for pests and diseases, which could boost crop harvests.
There are also conversations about introducing drones in the famous Akagera National Park to combat poaching.
With the new regulations in place, small businesses and entrepreneurs are finding ways to make the most of the technology. Local photographers, for example, are in the process of acquiring drones so their services can include aerial photography.
Renowned British architect Norman Foster is another who has been quick to take advantage. His firm, Foster + Partners, has expressed interest in building the world’s first drone port in the country.
Rwanda’s approach and progress in drone technology is seen as a model for other countries in the region.
“The government of Rwanda’s leadership in co-designing agile policy frameworks around the use of drones could be a model for other countries that want to accelerate adoption of this game-changing technology,” says Murat Sonmez, Head of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, based in San Francisco.
Rwanda may be a small country, but it’s taking giant strides.
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&#8211; By Collins Mwai

Tag: drones

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