Some of them include Dar es Salaam Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBI) and Mara Group. According to the CEO of the Dar Teknohama, Eng George Mulamula, says more training is shifting focus to the concept, a few years back was seen as a preserve of the West.
He said it is no longer business as usual as more young people are choosing to actively indulge in developing entrepreneurial skills. DTBI, also referred to as the "Incubator" was set up by Government under the Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology together with the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) in partnership with the private sector. He said the Incubator supports the growth of young ICT innovators and ICT SMEs.
The Incubator has its own Board and members come from the private sector including the banking sector, Government, civil societies and the academia.
The Incubator assists early stage ICT entities by lowering the cost of starting up a business and increasing the chances of business survival through access to shared resources and building infrastructure, access to finance and markets through credible support, guidance and business management.
Additional support comes in form of targeted mentoring, coaching; and "DTBI's concept of incubation for young ICT entrepreneurs and job creator, covers the nurturing of young ICT innovators into mature, independent, healthy and wealthcreating business persons, who will make a positive impact in Tanzania," he said.
The Incubator aims at encouraging young graduates to be self-employed, reducing pressure on the ever thinning employment space.
In an interview, Soma Tanzania CEO Peter Rutalemwa said that cultivating business ideas among youth holds the key to lifting the country's economy and could provide the solution to unemployment currently standing at 70 per cent among the youth.
"Centres for nurturing entrepreneurial ideas can help the country break the unemployment stalemate," he said. In an interview, the CEO for Zoop Ltd, Manzi Rwegasira, said the demand for mobile applications presents a huge potential for developers, brands and end-users but players need to invest time and resources if they are to fully gain from the fast-growing mobile marketing global industry.
"Mobile application marketing is a rapidly growing engagement and advertising channel for local and international brands today. Increase in the use of applications by the young population and emerging middle-class is spurning an unprecedented growth which may help companies focus on their target markets in a totally new dimension," he said.
At COSTECH in Dar es Salaam, the main hallway leads to a corridor and an open plan office surrounded by conference halls.
The hub, he said, is the dynamo for innovative ideas from students. In light of the ever rising unemployment levels in the country, the need for innovation has grown manifold.
He said a key feature is that all these innovations are grounded in modern technology, with most tapping into the growing telecommunications sector.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Orton Kiishweko
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 01.09.2013
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