Aletta Shikololo

WINDHOEK – The Inclusive and Collaborative Local Tech Innovation Hub and the Faculty of Computing and Informatics at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust), host the first ever national Innovation Bazaar.
The planned bazaar is a new national event, which brings forth original local ideas on how digital technologies can be used in products and services.
The bazaar which will give selected investors an opportunity to showcase their ideas to potential clients, financier and partners will be held at Namibia Business Innovation Institute (NBII) in May 22-23.
“Namibia has a lot of creative ideas on how technologies could be used to create economic or social value, therefore the bazaar is a platform that will help investors to get in touch with business, investors, government and academia,” explained the Technology Innovation Coordinator at the Nust tech hub Mark Mushiva.
Mushiva informed New Era that one thing they have noticed is that the innovation landscape in Namibia is quite fragmented, meaning different entities operate in their specific fields, for instance industry that have their own innovation work happening, academia such as Nust and Unam and civil society but these people are all entities with comparative advantages, so bringing all these players together starts to harmonise the innovation landscape whereby the industry of innovation is supported by different players that work in it.
 “More practically, we want the event to be a platform where young people who have ideas can gain access to people who can help them realise their ideas.”
He said all exhibitors are welcome at the bazaar, especially those from marginalised backgrounds, women and students to present their ideas that have economic attention or potential to create economic value and social impact.
The community coordinator, Helena Afrikaner added: “There are people that have genuine innovative ideas but they are not sure if their ideas are correct, so this will be a good platform to interact with people who can assist them.”
She called upon innovators who have ideas and needs to be networked to be part of the bazaar in order to find the right people to take their ideas to the next level or enhance their ideas, these are people who either looking for technology talent, investments or a group to test innovations.
Mushiva explained the initiative is important to Nust, as it has a mandate of supplying the innovation in the industry, so they would want to give the visibility to students and they also want to be key players in the innovation industry as in contributing to Namibian innovations.
“A large part of the population is youth and a lot of those people in that segment don’t have the kind of excess to technological innovation that they should have, so at the event, we would like to expose people who think of themselves as technology people,” said Mushiva.