Yesterday was a day of many wins for local developers who have been keen on getting a foot into the mobile operator ecosystem, to monetize their innovations or services. So what is it that happened?
Safaricom has kinda pulled a fast one on the competition yet again by partnering with Strathmore University and Vodafone to setup the Safaricom Academy that will offer an Internationally recognized Master of Science in Telecommunication Innovation and Development (MSc. TID) Degree. This positions Safaricom very well to tap into the growing talent and idea pool from an increasingly innovative tech sector.
The academy will provide students with a link to the iLabAfrica from where they can get assistance with access to seed capital, mentorship programs, physical space and a variety of tools necessary for the development, testing and deployment of mobile services.
But for the thousands of other creatives and developers who may not take the program, it is exciting to know that the Safaricom Innovation Board has now been constituted. You will remember sometime last year when Safaricom made a call to the tech community to nominate representatives to the board after feedback was received that the mobile operator was not keen on developing local talent or simply sapped ideas without recourse to the “idea generator”. Continue Reading…
