FIRE Programme support for the promotion of its grantee's projects

The FIRE programme and its 2013 Grantee, Dr Nasir Faruk, participated at the first edition of the Africa Youth Engagement Summit, held in Mauritius from Dec 4-5, 2013.

Nasir held a workshop on his project "Open Source Wireless Mesh Network for Campus Radio, e-Learning Communication and Knowledge Transfer Across Africa".

ICANN 47, Durban, 14-18 July 2013: "Africa Untethered: The Era of Digital Africa"
Dr Viv Padayatchy narrates its ICANN Experience.

“I attended the ICANN June 2013 Meeting in Durban as an ICANN Fellow to participate in the panel discussion on Internet Entrepreneurship in Africa. I got the opportunity to share my experience as an African Entrepreneur in general and my project as a grantee of the FIRE program. I talked about my project which was on developing a proof of concept for a low cost ground water monitoring system for Africa. The audience consisted of people from the media, government institutions, private entrepreneurs and network operators. As panel members we were able to engage the audience on the challenges facing the African entrepreneurs, the opportunities that are now available thanks to the internet, the impact of mobile networks and general business related matters such as project financing and marketing.

I shared my personal experience which, thanks to the micro financing scheme such as the FIRE program, I was able to launch my project and realise an idea into a useful application involving a vital natural resource which is ground water monitoring. Through my participation at this event, I was able to attract interests from various parties present as expressed through their questions and inquieries.

As an African entrepreneur and FIRE grantee, my most pressing need is to find the most appropriate way to market and scale up my prototype as a commercial product in Africa and the rest of the world. I will need to find additional finance, marketing and technical resources to be able to successfully get the product out the lab and into the field.”

Jane MUTIGA: Enabling access to basic Education through Technology
Kenya IGF, Friday, July 26, 2013