I think solving and funding something like this would solve so many problems. It's not that there are no investors, just that they don't invest in such enterprises. We have folks like ICDC, Centum etc who can invest in such projects, but everyone at the moment is pumping money into real estate.  Why was Java bought by ECP and not Centum etc? It's not that there's not capital in Kenya, it's that most of it is oriented at real estate (btw, just so that I'm clear, I think foreign capital is great, I just think we need to at least try and come up with our own funds locally, eat our own dog food). 

Additionally, the Universities themselves should have all the skillets (mechanical engineers, marketing folks, manufacturing etc, they are all trained within the university) required to launch such a business and might need a slight leap of faith from the government and investors. 

I'm a firm believer in solving the root cause of problems - if the problem is capital - why don't we have capital. If the problem is education, what's wrong with the system. That way, the learnings can be passed to other industries.

Given that we would probably be importing the circuit boards and individual components, all we need to do is figure out assembly, packaging and supply. I think… 

On Friday, February 15, 2013 at 8:24 PM, Kivuva wrote:

Phares, I'm a great proponent of local industrialization. It does a
lot of good to a countries economy, number one being reducing capital
flight.

But the scenario is this, UoN have said they have prototypes that are
viable, but they don't have any means to produce them. Now, if we can
crack it and do it locally, that's the best move. But suppose those
strategic investors don't show up? Should the idea just die out and we
remain mass consumers, or should we outsource manufacturing/licence
the prototype to Asian and have a piece of the cake?

On 15/02/2013, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
Manufacturing locally would absorb quite a number of semi skilled
individuals into the workforce. Always a good thing.

Outsourcing is not always a good idea. Check what happened to Dell & ASUS.
Even the all mighty Apple Inc & Samsung.

Let's make them. Lets sell them. Lets figure out supply chain for the
greater East African region. Then we can tinker with other electronics.

We have the capacity. Why not do it?

Sent from my iPhone

On 15 Feb 2013, at 17:30, Kivuva <Kivuva@transworldafrica.com> wrote:

I dream when we will have outsourced manufacturing jobs overseas, and have
big companies like Apple, HP, here in Kenya, then earn foreign exchange on
the distribution and sells all over the world. But it sounds like a pipe
dream.

US is not suffering from outsourcing since the companies earn abnormal
profits from that. Only the poor jobless hands-man is the one who suffers.

But here in Kenya, we have non. No manufacturing companies outsourcing to
Asia, and no outsourced jobs coming back home.

Regards



On 15 February 2013 15:38, <peres_were@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

+1 Ali. I noted in Obama's State of the Union Address a new initiative
the
US govt is setting up called "Manufacturing Innovation Hubs" aimed at
spurring innovation in Manufacturing.

In addition, a number of US companies such as Apple and Ford are bringing
back manufacturing to the USA.

Peres
Sent from my BlackBerry®

-----Original Message-----
From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>
Sender: "kictanet"
<kictanet-bounces+peres_were=yahoo.co.uk@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:23:46
To: Peres Were<peres_were@yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] University of Nairobi Set Top Boxes

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sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
development.

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Mwendwa Kivuva
For
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twitter.com/lordmwesh
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kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know

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