Lessons that SubSaharan Africa can learn from Japan to reduce road accidents

Snapshot picture Source: worldlifeexpectancy.com (Click image to go to the interactive map)

The Problem:
One in Ten deaths of men (15-59 years) is due to road traffic accidents (AFDB) in Africa. As from the above map, the red marked countries' have an over 30 per 100,000 death rate.Comparing to countries like Japan that have 3.8 road accident death rate, too many accidents are happening in sub Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world.

Statistics simply displayed like this do not easily convey the grief feeling that we Africans carry due to road accidents.
In the last 2 years, I lost a housemate (in a Motorcycle Accident in Burundi),lost an Uncle (in a 2 Coaster buses' head-on collision in Rwanda) and one of my friends got injured in a car accident in Uganda and another of my friends in Tanzania barely survived a terrible car accident. It is terrible.

The above colors on the map represent our friends and families. Accidents are killing and injuring Sub Saharan Africans more than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, there are no serious measures being taken to reverse these rising traffic accidents.

To fully understand the impact that road accidents have had on Sub Saharan. Kindly stop/pose reading this blog and try to remember the names of your relatives,friends or neighbors who have had an accident in the last 5 years. It is likely that you will mention 5 to 10 names, if you are from Sub Sahara and 1 or no name if you are not from Sub Saharan Africa?

And a closer look at the statistics might reveal that these road accidents are affecting Africa's elites and middle income earners. Over 80% of Sub Saharan Africans still live below $4 a day, it unlikely that they travel a lot nor own an automobile. Thus, if you factor out the income inequalities, the Sub Saharan's percentage of road accident rates more than doubles for the 20%Africans that live above $4 a day.

The trend is different elsewhere in the world.Since Sub Saharan Africans own fewer automobiles, the only tolerable accident rate should be below 3.

You and I need to begin an action aimed at reducing road accidents in sub Saharan Africa today and forever. The task is simple, it is sharing or discussing the below 5 solutions to your friend or neighbor or facebook wall.

Sub Saharan Africans import automobiles from Japan but forget to import Japan's road safety measures. Japan is the origin of major car brands,has an evenly distributed income thus almost every citizen can afford to own a car and guess what? Japan is has the lowest traffic road accidents on earth.

I have experienced road transport in Uganda,Rwanda,Kenya,DRC,Tz,Ghana and more of Sub Saharan for over 20 years. And for the past 8 months, I have been riding a bicycle in Japan for a total of over 2,000km. I would love to share some of my experiences as regards road safety with hope that together,you and I can reduce the rate of Traffic accidents wherever there is a red color on the above map;

Sub Saharan Africa is wrong on:
(i) Poor communication: Africa's local media houses report the road accidents as events. Africa's statistics institutes report the road accidents simply as statistics and graphs. Neither the media houses nor the institutes of statistics do explain to their readers what is causing the trend of above red colors. To understand this,You can google, kampla+accident, or Nairobi+accident,and you will get titles like Four Killed in Kampala-Masaka road accident? instead of articles with causes and preventive measures.

(iii) In-exhaustiveness list of causes;
Here is a list that African media houses offer as the causes of the traffic accidents;
1.Roads are narrow

2.Over speeding

3.Did not respect traffic rules

4.Roads are over crowded

5.It was God's plan

6.It was Shitani (Devil's plan)

7.Drivers are ruthless

8.The car lost brakes

9.Accidentally it happened

10.The driver fell asleep

11. There is a devil in this corner that wants blood to drink

12. The car was too old and had a mechanical problem

13. The driver was rushing for a passenger

14. Unavailability of first aid
These causes are the same all over the world.  {Of course minus 5 and 6.}
For example,in Japan there are narrower roads in neighborhoods,old cars,many cars and bicycles,speedy drivers,very few traffic policemen on the roads and fewer churches. But Japan has the lowest traffic accident rates on earth.
If these traffic accident causes are universal across the globe, why do we have 10 fold discrepancy between Sub Saharan African and Japan?
                          Sub Saharan Africa's traffic accidents rise are mostly due to Africa's last decade GDP increase that raised people's automobile purchasing power in a short period of time. A good achievement of course. However,these GDP increases did not match the society's speed of coping up with new trends. As explained below, African societies need to collectively join hands and fight traffic accidents like they did fight colonization (after a while) and many other continental challenges.

(iii) Generalization: Due to poor communication, Sub Saharan Africans have ended up taking traffic accidents as natural calamities that are beyond control of a human being. To further understand this, if you read comments on blogs or social media about traffic accident news, people only write comments like RIP,God Save us,God have mercy,We are getting to the end times, Devil go away etc.
                         Of course,sub Saharan Africans are more religious and mention God a lot. But whenever the problem at hand has a known human solution,comments differ. For example, on recent stories of killing foreigners in South Africa, people commented with words like  "AU should take action", "The SA Government should act", "What is wrong with the killers in Durban?"etc. These same questions/comments need to be posed by Sub Saharan Africans on traffic accidents too.

Solutions to Sub Saharan Africa's traffic accidents;

1. Society's involvement: Japanese are known for Omotenashi that some call "hospitality" but is more than just smiles and welcoming words. Every Japanese is concerned about every road user's road safety.  For example,
-Some bar attendants escort their clients a few meters out of the bar, if you zigzag as you open your car door or jump on a bicycle, they will advise you to get a tax or...
-When a sober person is driving a car with a person who has taken a sip, the person with a sip has to seat in the behind seat, to avoid the sudden jerking off past the wind glass under emergence breaks.
-My old Japanese friends keep reminding of road safety rules like you should buy the Bicycling helmet etc.
-Japanese do not serve alcohol to a visitor who is expected to leave driving.
-Children are repeatedly taught traffic rules from age of 4 to 18.
African churches,mosques,schools,homes,bars,media houses need to collectively begin discussions on how to prevent traffic accidents. Currently, only the traffic police is responsible. If you look at the above map, Rwanda is the only country with green (lower traffic accidents) engulfed by red countries. Rwanda's lower road accidents are due to her traffic police's tremendous efforts.In Rwanda,you will  traffic policemen/women standing at least on every 20 km of highways and at all major spots.If the society joins in curbing down traffic accidents', the above map color would change from green to grey.

2. Traffic rules violation penalties: In Japan if you drink and drive,the fine is 1,000,000 Yen = $84,00. In sub Saharan African, I know of stories where people say that a person x, is usually lifted from a chair in a bar and dropped in a car and he/she drives home safely. This is insane. Drunkard driving is among the major causes of traffic accidents.

3.Love maths: Japanese take statistics seriously and thus, traffic accidents' statistics are carefully collected, analysed and measures taken to keep the curve declining.
African societies need to significantly support researchers and academicians carryout exhaustive research on traffic accident and other pertinent continental problems: There is no society or economy that has developed without the effort of researchers and academicians. African governments need to support people, who have passion in solving real world problems. People who will;
-Carry out comparative statistical studies with other countries?
-Discover the major causes of the traffic accidents by who,when or which car/Tyre type?
-Who are the Outlier drivers? Drivers who have driven for over 40 years and never had an accident? What do they do well, what lesson to they have to teach?
-What are the views of the drivers regarding the traffic accidents' trend?
-Which type of cars are more susceptible to accidents, where? at what time?, why?
-What was the day to day life of a Driver who is a victim of a given accident? Was he depressed,alcoholic,religious,focused? to which extent?
A list of such questions and answers need be thoroughly researched and publications circulated among the communities.

4. Meditation: Japanese culture is a Confucian, Buddhist one which is practiced through meditation. Meditation is focusing one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation. A focused mind is less likely to have an accident.
Brain imaging revealed that meditation increases a brain's focus/concentration capabilities.(Source: Harvard Gazette)
African Road Transport companies need to begin meditation classes for their drivers: Meditation is very simple, but requires patience and discipline. 15 minutes of sitting still twice a day, show significant mind stability results within 2 weeks.

5.Caring media houses and institutes of statistics: Japanese traffic statistics are exhaustive, they describe all details like victims' age groups,regions,etc e.g most of the Japanese traffic accidents' victims are the elderly.
African Media Houses need to go back to the foundations of journalism. Every article needs to have the 5 Ws (what,when,where,why and how).Most of our media houses feed us simply with headlines like Twitter. They feed us with (what,when,where). It is increasingly becoming difficult to find the (why and how) and hence the society is not taught about prevention mechanisms. We need African Journalists who are exhaustive like Malcom Gladwell.

Further readings on Africa's road accidents;
1. TheGuardian                  2.WHO                       3.World Bank             4.Igihe              5.Afdb
6.Road-Accidents-International-Stats

Dutahe!

Jio

How thinking of "Job Hunting" as a "football game" got me 3 jobs at once

In 2012, I found myself doing 3 jobs at the same time. This was in Rwanda,on the Africa content where there are rampant unemployment rates. Everyday,as I switched from one job to the other and then to the third job, I would feel bad.I felt as if I was cheating, or selfish.
How can I do 3 jobs, when my friends (over 50% of Africans) are unemployed/underemployed. I would look up at the sky then into my mind, and judge myself. Did I acquire any of the job unfairly?, No. Do I work hard and sweat for each? YES. Then, I rather help and teach my friends on how to look for theirs than, think of not doing what I can.

I am therefore writing this blog, hoping that if by any chance you are reading it and unemployed, then in the next 1 to 6 months, you should get that job, that you pass by every day. This is not self help, I dislike, those mysteries where "Morale Boosters"who have never faced the rough streets of Job seeking in Africa will tell you.

Most probably from my humble working experience below, we could walk together towards understanding my "job acquisition trick" and have them on to you as well.
In 2007 in Uganda, I got a high school teacher job and later got a job at  Nestle Ltd.(No big story here, but it was an interesting experience working at such a young age).
My climax was in 2012 in Rwanda,where I was simultaneously working as a;
1.Telecom Radio Frequency Engineer Subcontractor  with Ericsson,
2.Tech Journalist at Kigali Today Ltd
3. TVET Officer at Private Sector Federation.

Here is how my day looked like:
08:00   - 12:00 *PSF Offices working with TVET project & ICT Chamber work.
12:00  - 14:00 *Kigali Today writing a news article
14:00  - 17:00 *At PSF Offices
17:30  - 20:00 *Kigali Today offices, reading and writing articles.
22:00  - 02:00 am *Doing Ericsson RBS Tower upgrades for either MTN or AirTel.{Luckily enough  we can only upgrade the Mobile Towers at mid night, when most of you are sleeping and not using your mobile phones and modems.}
Notes:
Do not try doing the same, doing 3jobs in row is very stressful, I quit some after a while.
With this stress, you can die. I remember one day,at Gicushu, I drove past a friend called Aline Kabatende at around 7:00am. This was after my sleepless night at MTN tower on Ndera Hill, 10 km from city center. After I parked at Telecom House, Aline walked to me and said "You could get your self killed while driving at such a scary speed". Too tired as I was, I smiled at her with no reply. Why? I was over-speeding to avoid falling asleep on the way.

These 3 contracts were a little bit not binding, thus it was fine, so long as I achieved the set targets at each work place. As far as I remember each of my employers were satisfied of my work.

Hoping to share lessons, not to show off;

Looking back,as I have now taken a break to further my studies, I am hoping that if you do not have a job, we can share a tip or 2, so that could get you a job.{I honestly feel joyful when I see people working and busy, irrespective of whether I know them or not. This is why I really love Japan).

In the Japanese culture, they say that "Working hard leads to development of a good heart and a healthy mind. For example, some Japanese do not take their annual leave so that their colleagues do not suffer working on their behalf. Japanese really work hard and its is true,they comparatively have a good heart than most other continents I have been to." Yes, on this other side of the world, attitude towards work is beyond imagination.

Forget about luck or being a genius or strong or from a rich background, I am neither. Instead, I have realized that getting a job (in Africa) is simply trying to be like a good football player.

1. Be Proactive:Just like a coach will select a player who doesn't need to be told to attack and collect the ball, so does the employer. A good footballer will attack his opponent to collect the ball and ensure that his/her team is winning. The coach is always looking for "proactive players" who do not wait to see miraculously a ball land in their face.
If you are looking for a job, be proactive and begin attacking those companies or institutions ahead of time. Do not wait for them to make a call in need of employees. Here is what you do, or what I used to do, open several folders on your laptop and create folders for each company that you want to attack.
Within that fold, I google search for that particular company x:
-Annual reports
-Look for whatever problem they could be facing
-Discover who their competitor could be, what are they could good at better than the company x.
-Attend their public events like "exhibitions and ask questions about who they hire".
For example, if you are a telecom Engineer and want to work for Ericsson. Do you know?
a) Which hardware MTN, Tigo,Airtel uses on their towers?
b) Have you tried to get the software that they use to manage their equipment/towers?
c)Have you bothered to research which network problems they are currently influencing and more?

For example, the 4th Job that I was about to get and the goal keeper caught my shot was in Tigo. I applied to become Tigo Roaming Analyst Engineer. Before attending the interview, I had googled enough and asked questions to the MTN Roaming Analyst.
Over the interview, you can not believe what happened. I highly passed the interview, however they did not give me the job. (As I later discovered from asking them questions as to why I was not hired, they said, I was OVERQUALIFIED. They felt that their salary would never have been enough for me .I walked out happily telling everyone that I was happy to hear that "I am overqualified").

-Another real life example,was when I was a Student Guild Finance minister, I proactively launched a student platform that would do the work that is usually contracted to private companies. Together with my team, we began cleaning the campus environment without any order or call.
When,the university wanted to construct a road, I immediately jumped to the Admin offices. I said, to the Finance Department "you have seen what my team has done cleaning the environment for free, give us a chance and we show you how we can construct a road for you." Of course, they agreed and we constructed it at a 40% lower price than the usual private companies. Each of my then over 100 students team pocketed about 30$ to 50$ every 3 days. From the road, we went to painting and many more. Here are details of the project on KIST's website. {I still still feel bad, given the fact that when I graduated, students buried this beautiful project.}

2. Be a Ball-Boy:Football players and coaches love "Ball-Boys", so do employers. Ball boys are young boys who stand near the stadium and proactively pick a ball each time it falls outside the football pitch.
{By they way, I am not a fun of football,but my former housemate is a big fun of Lionel Messi, thus he is the only player I know.}

If you are looking for a job, become a Ball Boy at the pitch where the company you wish to work for is playing at. If there is a chance, be proactive and pick the ball that falls off the pitch and return it to the pitch.

For example, my academic background is Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. Throughout my university I was never taught anything related to journalism.To become a Tech Journalist, I requested to be a ball boy at Kigali Today media house.
When I got into Kigali Today, I was obviously terrified, wondering how I was to channel my "electromagnetic calculations" into "writing news stories".
a) Same trick, pro-activeness -I jumped to google and got a 40 page pamphlet titled "Summary of Journalism topics". Within in, I found the 5 Ws.(What,Where,When,Why and How) and with these 5 letters, I tripled my confidence in Journalism.
b) As a Ball Ball, -I could read every article that our editor could post and by luck I would discover a spelling mistake and alert him. (Remember this is voluntary, because every person would love to have a second eye).
Success: 4 Months past as I did write a news articles and then do the self given task of proof reading every article published. I learnt different writing styles of other journalists and acted as a Ball Boy to our editor.
One day, our Chief Editor calls me and says "Jovani, I have been reading your articles and I am extremely impressed of your writing style.  We are going to raise your salary, not because you are my friend but because you write like our professional journalists."
{Yes,some companies/institutions play delicate/complex games and can not allow a Ball-Boy to get anywhere close to their playing field, but if they do, move close immediately}.

3. Practice at the side of the pitch/virtually: Every player and every coach is always looking around to find the best footballer to add on to their team, so do Employers. It is a fact, there is no institution/company that ever reaches circulation of achievements. There is always something to accomplish or to change. However, if you are a coach of Barcelona, you do not want to simply throw in any player, you want the best. That best player has to be playing somewhere in another team or in Barcelona's junior team.
Therefore, if you want to play in a given company/institution, begin practicing ahead of time. Look at their game and practice playing it either on their field or somewhere else virtually.

-For example, if you are looking for a job at Bank de Kigali. Give yourself 1 week reading their website, page to page. Then give your self a second week reading other Bank's websites, just trying to understand the different services they offer, how they differ and which ones are more likely to attract customers. Then, if you can get access to "softwares" that they use, install it on your computer and practice it. Then walk into BK Managers and tell them "You are wrong on service x, this bank z is doing well than you, hire me and I fix it." If you are shy, send them an email.

4. Play a "Fair Play":Best players are determined by the number of goals scored and how "fair-play their game is", so do "Best Employees". Fair-Play means rules of the game and equal treatment of all the people concerned. This is the most important part especially in Africa, where most employees seem not to know how to play a fair-play.
Whether you are a job seeker or employed you are supposed to give "Lionel Messy like"passes to your fellow job seekers/employees. This could be in terms of sharing news about "available job opportunities" to "owning your fellow employee's trouble as your own" respectively.

-For example, if you hear about a job opportunity alert every job seeker you know. In alerting everyone, you develop a network of "informers", in return who will feed you with more information.

-If you are a Ball-Boy, or you got a job, then offer on-to the target passes like Lionel Messy. Come on!, everyone loves being given a shot-on-target pass. Give all your workmates such shot on target passes. This could be when you have less work, to jump and assist them on theirs. Or it could be in terms of getting them coffee or inviting them for a drink. Yes, through this you reciprocally learn from each other. And above all, you learn more skills and build strong relationships. (I do not remember having beef/grudge with anyone I worked with,thus now I have over 200 friends, mostly from work encounters).

NB:If you have done the above 4 items well, and failed to get a job in any institution/company (at least in Rwanda). Please email to me and I will be happy to play alongside you. We can twin up and attack that institution and make sure that you are able to touch that ball.{Remember it is like football and I got addicted and thus enjoy seeing good players play it.}

WHY MOST PEOPLE DO NOT GET JOBS
(i) Governments&Private Sector do not have enough job creation activities:Most African Economies have began critical thinking of recent and thus do not generate jobs that match their growing populations.Most governments were either in wars or election frenzy, 5 to 20 years ago. However the number of University Graduates is still low that every graduate who diligently exercises the above 3 tricks can get a job in less than 6 months.{I can not guarantee that it would be in their domain, but at least an initial job to get them paying their dues).

(ii)Most Job seekers believe in the 1000 BC myths. Part of my previous job was to "link job seekers to employers" and I met "21st Century age mates who still think in the 1000 Before Christ's myths".Here are some of the myths, -praying so hard without working hard, -asking relatives for favors (how many coaches do you see having their children play in their teams?), -seeking sympathy from employers with no value proposition, -sleeping at their homes all day and waiting for a sudden call.
{NB:Favored employees might exist, but your Boss who is either their uncle/dad will pay you more than their relative if you work with passion}.

(iii)Complaining Experts: Wait, I am sure, if you have read up to this point, you must have began complaining about "me or how I write". What is wrong with Young People complaining like "patients at Mulago Hospital" in this 21st century.
I have heard people complain about lack of someone in higher offices, money to travel to town, money to eat, rent, unfairness in job offering,language barrier, too much work, complicated work.
What? If you are a "Complaining Expert",then it is very difficult that you can get a job. Footballers who score never complain, (how often do you see Lionel Messi complaining in the pitch?Not even once)
-Some complain that they do not have the Brain power. You are lying, science has shown that Neuroplasticity (Click on that wonderful discovery, if you hadn't)
-Never complain.Take it as an "opportune challenge to solve".If someone denies you a job without genuine reason, walk to them and ask "Which points did I fail so that next time, I re-ponder them?".
Steve Jobs once said that the difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that unsuccessful people never pick ask despite that almost every person in high positions want to help?

(iv) Less focus: Either due to distraction by social networks (Whatsapp&Facebook), most graduates in Africa do not seem to have a particular domain that they have focused on. I have experience talking to Graduates from all East African countries, and some from West and Northern African countries, but very few, will tell you 1 or 2 books that they have read.Please, read at least one book per month.(If you do not have one, you can email me for a free copy/recommendation). If you do not have the ability to focus or sit for 1 hour reading a book, try "meditation". It is scientifically recommendable now days.

A REAL EXAMPLE OF A HANGING JOB NOW;
For example, today when I read Newtimes, I came across this section! 
Did you notice the difference with other sections?
That is a job for you, if you can do Tech Writing.
NB: I have not talked to anyone at Newtimes about the availability of that post. But just assume,from today, you become a "Ball Boy"and email them "Opinion articles on Technology" for every 2 to 3 days. Trust me, after one month they would give you a nice contract.
If, you use the same eyes and articles like you will see that opportunities are available, but there is less attack.

Dutahe!
J

Did I fail both as a Startup Owner and a Tech Hub Manager ?

(Snapshot of a slide that I pitched to kLab community.It portrayed the vision I had, for kLab as a GM)

Failure as a startup owner                      

I pioneered into joining the now overwhelmingly many Tech Hubs on the African Continent. In May 2012, I pitched Tech Start-up idea to a panel of kLab founders. My business idea was to digitize booking,purchasing of bus tickets and offering of Geo locations of public buses to passengers.

The problem that I was solving is; passenger have to travel 10 to 20 km to Kigali's main Bus Park to book a bus ticket and return to their premises. Other passengers are forced to wait for 30 minutes to 2 hours between the time of purchasing a ticket and the departure time.Thus Nyabugogo Park is ever crowded,with passengers waiting for maturity of their travel schedules.

Perfect, with mobile money API, sms application and a server, I was ready to solve the problem. Passengers would buy tickets after crosschecking the different available schedules through our sms platform and buy a ticket of their choice. A passenger would then move to the bus park a few minutes to the boarding time. Paper use would be reduced as well, since passengers with sms tickets would only be required to show their sms recipients to board the bus. The system was environmentally free as well.

With a thorough market research that gave me projections of over 50,000 daily passengers and  close to 1000$ daily profit margin. I spent some sleepless nights and energy on the streets, pushing every door at Telecom companies,banks and Transport companies to get the startup off the ground.

With a team of 3, one strong tech guy, one strong Marketer and a strong business and market maven, there is no way, our business was not going to hit the ground running.

Prior to kLab's opening, our startup was operating from my apartment/Ghetto in Nyamirambo. An internet modem and Cash powered electricity are the worst resources to run anything with. (When 10 smartphone users suddenly get into your neighborhood on to your cell tower, your internet speed drops by half.)

When kLab granted our startup space, a few resources were catered for,thus we no longer cared about Internet and Electricity. 12 Months down the road things were not moving past certain points. Issues ranged from the market not being ready to hesitance of partnering companies.

Plus the usual balancing-act of supporting living costs and the start-up costs, I put a pose on the Start-up and began searching for a salaried job. In other-words, I failed to kick start the start-up.

Beginning as an amateur Tech Journalist,then a Sub-Sub Contractor with Ericsson and later PSF-ICT Chamber. I found myself doing 3 temporary jobs simultaneously. (It is a long story on its own, since I got fired at one of the jobs, and got cheated 4 months' worth of payments from another.)

Failure as a Tech Hub manager 

Luck shows up, and I was assigned to manage kLab. An institution where I failed from and carried lots of complaints. I felt I knew a lot that kLab would have done better to help me succeed when I had earlier joined with a business.

There is nothing good in life like being on both sides, one as a receiver and the other as a Giver. In 2012, I was a kLab Tenant, receiving mentor-ship and support, now September 2013, I am the kLab's General Manager.

When I was assigned the job, I smuggled my tooth brush and blanket into kLab office. I loved kLab and still do, thus I was prepared to read,work inside-out and solve all the challenges that I had noticed as a former tenant. For a couple of nights, I would sleep in my office to win time of to&fro my apartment. Yes, some of my sleepless nights were fruitful, for example in a bid to raise kLab's VC community network, I remember having a video call at 2:00 am with Brad Feld -the multi million dollar VC with over 20years of Tech Business experience.

I read a couple of books on Innovation (Malcom Gladwell's 4Books, Startup Nation, The Learn Startup, Innovation and the State and more), made Techcrunch.com my Bible and quickly integrated into the Government's several ICT task forces.(If you love reading, feel free to inbox/comment and I will share some digital versions with you.)

With a background of Startup hustling culture.When I got assigned the task of managing kLab, I made an elevator pitch to kLab community regarding which ideas I was bringing on board.
My pitch was dubbed "kLab as a startup" where I put across ideas on how to build the community, increase from just 110 members, to how we would attract funding and establish a world class entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Like all ambitious Entrepreneurs, my dream/vision was that one day a Startup that originated from kLab would grow,flourish and list on NASDAQ. I will never forget the round of applause and glittering faces of hope that the kLab community gave me when, I projected that "slide"(above) illustrating kLab and an arrow pointing to NASDAQ. It is that same energy, that still haunts me and make me feel that I owe something to the kLab community.

With an experienced Think Tank at my back, the kLab board and a dynamic community of Entrepreneurs. I had/still have all reasons to dream of NASDAQ. kLab board is made of former Senior Managers at IBM, former Developers at Amazon and Traders on London Stock Exchange, to mention but a few.

Part of my then pitch: -A proposed weekly schedule that would develop world class entrepreneurs

With one year managing kLab, I did not meet my set targets and my heart itched and I looked for an exit. One year is indeed short to jump out, but today's world moves fast, since I could not easily achieve my short targets. Transferring management to another person with new thinking, was the best idea. And it is, kLab members continue to tell me,of several new initiatives happening and its awesome to hear.

Like, I had promised most of the kLab members, my Targets included seeing more and more kLab members flood cars at our parking lots. I badly wanted to see money enter into their pockets.
With inspirations from the works of people like Paul Graham of Y-Combinator, I was determined to not copy-paste but learn a lot from them and do an ounce of what they have done. 

As, I prepared my exit speech, I could only get the below items.

1.kLab members have received 1/4 Million USD investments.(Those on our records).

2.kLab community has grown,(over 600 members are part of the community)

2. kLab's media visibility is excellent (Google kLab -You will see.

3. kLab has a strong,committed and high profiled board of trustees plus a strong backing of Government of Rwanda, PSF and JICA. 

Why did I share this story:

1.If you are involved into a Tech Hub business either as new Hub Manager or New Startup owner,learn from my story. Call it whatever, failure or success, but don't repeat any of my mistakes nor should you not utilize any hints that I portrayed.
At the time, I did both the startup and management of the hub, there was little to learn from, since the two concepts were new in Africa

2. Two main advises for any Person initiating a startup or managing a Tech Hub in Africa

(i) Reading Culture: Tech Entrepreneurship is a knowledge based business, thus a reading culture is paramount.  Only about 2 out of 10 Tech Entrepreneurs that I met, be it in Rwanda or other African Tech Hubs had read a few books, the rest had not read any book outside the university curriculum.
Shockingly even when I checked stats of my previous article's on Fundamentals of a TechHub that got a total of over 1000 readers. Less than 180 Readers were from Africa, whereas over 250 were from USA, and over 600 from Europe and Asia.

In talks that I heard with investors be it from Tel Aviv, USA, India, Japan,UK, they were all interested in co-founders who have a broad knowledge of the business world. All investors echoed the same words."We invest in people not their ideas"."We think kLab members need to read what other Startups' experiences have been." were the popular remarks I got from Investors.

Senior Programmers also read books, I remember getting interesting books like "Starup Chile" from Eric Newcomer.(A Guy I would rank among the best Programmers I have ever seen -Click to see his CV to see why!).

(ii) Malcom Gladwell's 10,000 Hour rule: There are no short cuts. Just like the sequential iterations of a computer program, Entrepreneurship is about consistence and extreme hard-work.

When, we introduced Friday trans-night live coding at kLab, only 5 to 10 Entrepreneurs attended. Guess what? all those who attended the trans-night coding are the most successful now, of the 600 member community.

I only wish that the above 2 ingredients get into African Tech Hub communities. 

I still believe in kLab attaining its destination(in future seeing kLab founded startups grow to list on NASDAQ).
These dreams are neither biblical nor just random, it will take time but will. I am an aspiring Data Scientist, basing on Data like Hans Rosling, Co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation, or Report to Obama on BigData and the Government of Rwanda's visions, I smell enough evidence that the African continent can/will turn a new economic chapter.

Dutahe!!!
Jovani Ntabgoba

Similarities between Japan and Rwanda

         Gosh! Where do I even start from? Japan is now the world's 4th largest economy according to World Bank report. Japan holds 4.8% of the world's wealth and $36,315 GDP per Capita (PPP).  If I use the Social Progress Index, Japan ranks number one in the world.

NB:Social Progress Index is a new phenomenon that suggests a new model of measuring countries' development basing on Social indicators rather than GDP.(Michael Green explains it more on Tedx)

To put the 2 countries' figures in context; Rwanda's GDP per capita (PPP) is $1,452. Rwanda's entire  GDP is worth ($7.452 Billion) -an amount that is  more than 2 times lesser than Japan richest person's $16.6Billion. (Do not get shocked/envy, Japanese people work extremely hard&smart, I think they actually deserve more!).

Writing about the differences between the 2 countries is no news, like I anticipate everyone can list them down. However, surprising over my few months in Japan, I noticed similarities between the two countries;

1.Tidy Public Places: Cleanliness is synonymous to Japan. From the no shoes in-house rules to tractor brushed public roads, everything is tidy in Japan. Rwanda's streets are equally tidy to the extent that some western commentators have ended up calling Kigali "too clean to be African!"

Izumi Park in Northern Japan (left) and a Roundabout in Rwanda (right)

If you keep focused on the 2 countries' similarities in terms of being clean, you will also notice that habitually Rwandans do not eat while walking along the street, just like the Japanese. Or you will  notice how Shinkasen Train is cleaned at each stop, just like how Rwandan buses are kept clean (despite being second hand ones!!)

2. Public Image is of utmost importance: Japanese people are very cautious about how you portray them.(There is no, the "I do not give a damn about what people say"attitude, everyone cares). Thus, most Japanese men wear suits when attending an office job or meetings.Rwandans on the other hand are famously known of Gutebeza (Tucking in) with shoe polished and crystal clear ironed shirts. (Majority of Rwandans including those struggling to make ends meet, will put on nice washed clothes just to make sure the public does not think of them wrongly).

3.Elder peoples' views/guidance is like law: Whereas Japan is a first world country, elderly people are extremely respected and their word taken not just as wisdom but as law. Likewise, Rwandans do not question their elders or superiors. For example, up to now you might not believe it, but some of my Uncles and Aunties, still transmit their instructions to me!! (Despite my clocking close/past 3 decades on this planet).

4.Law is Law: You might urge that law is law everywhere but to some countries law depends.For example, in some countries having a strong law firm gives you higher chances of winning a law suit or in some developing countries it is advisable not to stop at Traffic Lights at night (even when it the lights are red and say stop).
In Japan,a pedestrian will not cross a 2 meter wide road in a residential area at 11pm, even when it is visibly clear that there is no vehicle nearby.(By the way, in Japan there are traffic lights everywhere including in front of gates of big buildings). In Rwanda,violation of traffic lights is unheard of, (of course violation of other traffic rules still happens).
On a more higher level, in Japanese language there is no word called (corruption) since even "tipping is forbidden",  equally Rwanda has zero tolerance to corruption.

5.Hospitality: On this aspect, I must confess, Japanese people are number one when it comes to hospitality (Omotenashi as they call it). I have been to over 10 countries, but when I touched down in Tokyo, I was engulfed by a warm breathe of Omotenashi.Omotenashi is smelt everywhere, on streets,convenient stores,bars, restaurants or even in a classroom.
Japanese hospitality is a topic that, I intend to write about on its own. For now, all you only need to know is that, Omotenashi is one hot item being talked about as regards the 2020 Olympic games due in Japan.
Well, Rwandans also have a strikingly good culture of hospitality as evidenced by the higher numbers of tourists. For example,I remember missing lunch or dinner at home, simply because unexpected visitors (or even strangers) had surfaced at our home during meals time. Due to the Rwandan culture that priorities visitors highly, visitors are rather served than your kids.(Sounds like Omotenashi as well, but Omotenashi is much more, I will elaborate it in another article.).

Dutahe!!! ルワンダ

3 Fundamentals of a Tech Hub in Africa

Recently, I took a study leave and paused my job of managing a Tech hub, however the entrepreneurship and the Tech community zeal still runs into my nerves, albeit I am thousands of miles away from my once dual workplace and home{kLab}.

I joined kLab as an Entrepreneur with a Business idea in June 2012 and later on got a chance to become kLab General Manager from September 2013 to September 2014. The 2 experiences got me soaked into the "Innovation,Entrepreneurship and Tech Hub business" enough that I tend to be wet of it forever.

Of recent,two articles have caught my attention;

1:Nicolas Friederici -an OII University of Oxford PHD Research Student wrote: A Tech Innovation Hub in the Making: kLab and Its Many Roles and Stakeholders.

2:Tayo Akiyemo, the Director of AfriLabs wrote: All Hands on Deck: Why Hub Sustainability is a Complex Challenge that Requires a Systemic Solution

They point out concerns on issues ranging from Definition of a Tech Hub, Its roles, metrics of measuring a Tech Hub's success and of course they both mention the famous "sustainability".

I completely agree with the challenges and unanswered questions posed by both articles, and like Tayo calls for "All hands on Deck", I have quickly jumped to a pen and a paper to give out my few below inputs;

                                            3 Fundamental Aspects of a Tech Hub

(i) Entrepreneurship  Equation:

To have a vibrant entrepreneurship environment, you need 3 overlapping ingredients. That is, you need Talent, Idea and Capital.

Talent: There is need for world class talent, not sub standard. The world has become a global village and consumers' demand quality products than never before. For example,website development clients in Rwanda need same robust and fancy features as those in Silicon Valley.

What Tech Hubs are doing: Tech Hubs are doing alot to develop talent from organizing and offering short trainings on business and technical hands-on skills to downloading MOOCs (case of kLab) and freely distributing them to their community members who can not afford internet in their homes.

Ideas: Developing countries have a lot of problems and like the popular saying that goes "more problems a society has represents more opportunities for Entrepreneurs". There are opportunities in every sector, Transport, Agriculture, Education, Health, etc.

However, existence of ideas alone does not directly translate into businesses, since Talent and Capital are still scarce.

What Tech Hubs are doing: By creating a single physical place and organizing discussions, idea presentations, hackathons,demo nights,bookclubs and market places, Tech hubs are catalysts of idea generation.

Capital:Once an eco-system has Talented personnel who have invest-able business ideas, then capital comes to make the spark. The spark that we often read on Techcrunch of millions of dollars in series A,B,C rounds or exits. 

(ii) Time:Technology is synonymous to the fastest speed, but development of an Industry is not. Yes, Gigabytes of data can be transmitted throughout the globe at the speed of light, and unfortunately media and observers of Tech Hubs, tend to think that the same speed should apply, in developing the Tech Ecosystem.
It took Silicon Valley 50 years to be what it is today. In Michael E. Goldberg's interesting lectures on Coursera, Beyond Silicon Valley:Building Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies (where I am a visiting Panelist), there are discussions of North East Ohio's 20 to 30 years plans of nurturing entrepreneurship.
While, I agree that it is important that Tech Hubs need to evaluate their activities periodically and iterate their business models often. I disagree with the notion (at this juncture of only 1 to 4 years of existence of most Tech Hubs in Africa) that questions establishment of the tech hubs in the first place or the notion that Tech Hubs are built on Hype or that they are doomed to fail.

(iii) Existing Economy:
Once assigned the job of managing a Tech Hub, a contract stipulates dealing with items like growing a community of entrepreneurs, linking them to market, attracting mentors and organizing events. When into the "Tech Hub box" you realize that its much more than that.

A Tech hub has lots of interconnection intricacies with multiple stakeholders, that must be initiated,nurtured and cemented.
Below, I managed to come up with a diagram that lists some of the stakeholders that most African Tech Hubs are currently engaged with or should engage with. For each, you will notice that it is on quid pro quo basis apart from Donors and Philanthropic ventures.
A Tech Hub has to initiate a link with either a Higher Learning Institution, Government or Public to be able to secure basic resources (like rent,internet,water) for its establishment and move on to build relationships with all the other players in the economy.

For example to receive money from the government, a Tech Hub needs to properly document how its activities will generate Jobs and later on its graduated Startups pay taxes. Likewise a University wants to know, to which extent a Tech Hub can infuse Entrepreneurship spirit into its students, if the university is it to offer its resources freely to a Hub.

However, most African Tech Hubs are currently operating on Donor or Philanthropic funds, which is not based on quid pro quo basis, and the reason the term/question "sustainability" has become famous in each Tech Hub. There was a hot debate in Nairobi and Kigali  a few months ago, where some people argued that "Donor Fund" is the cause for the "Tech Hubs' un sustainability", it is not.

This is basic logic, to kick start anything, you always need "abnormalities". Let me use the Car Engine Ignition as an analogy to describe what a Tech Hub is. For a car to ignite, the car injects fuel, along with air to the engine, compresses both, hence the fuel burns, and the burning mixture expands pushing the piston,rotor and the wheel tyres can begin to move "normally".                                           It does not matter, whether the fuel is flowing from Middle East,USA,Africa or which petrol station, what matters is that, once the car has gained momentum, there will be a guaranteed constant flow of fuel. Likewise, Tech hubs need to utilize any resources available to kick start,but drive to momentum and with continuity in mind.

Tech hubs are the engines of Tech Industry in developing economies: they are currently drawing a small amount of fuel (money) from Donor community (and some from Governments) and attracting air (Talent) from local universities but still lacking compression (Capital) to cause the spark (Series A,B) that will move the car (Tech Industry).
In doing so, Tech Hubs are facing challenges like less fuel trickling into the engine (Donor Money that has long and complex sources and accountability). Air blowing to different directions (Most of the Talented Africans do not go to Tech hubs, they prefer working for corporate companies or going over seas). And of course there is less or no compression at all (Angel, Venture Capital, Private Equity is still unheard of in African Tech Industry)

Conclusion;

Moving forward as we look at the above 3 fundamental aspects of a Tech Hub, we recognize that;

# Most Tech Hubs are still struggling to balance the Entrepreneurship equation. They are trying to raise their members skills' and simultaneously organizing events,hackathons to generate ideas and having hard time to attract capital.

# Persistent and acknowledging that the Entrepreneurship journey will take time (may be a decades) and they are ready to endure the consequences. Big thanks to the Rwandan Government that recognizes this, since quite often in the corridors with Rwandan decision makers I had them mention that "Tech Hubs like kLab" have places in the country's bigger ambitions like "Rwanda's Techno-pole".

# African Hubs are building the complex interconnected relationships with other stakeholders in the economy. They are building a portfolio with;

• Government (that they can create jobs and companies that pay tax), 
• Financial institutions ( that they can save some money on their accounts and have credit worthiness in future, or they can develop businesses)
• Higher Learning Institutions (that they are in it together, to fill the gap that is usually out of scope of the universities {which is dealing with the unstructured hands on mentor-ship of how to develop and grow a business.})
• Overseas companies that offer outsourced work to grouped Tech Hub members.( that African Tech Hubs have talented community that can offer quality services equally competitive as Indians, Chinese or Mongolians do)
• Public (that Tech Hubs are there for the public, through initiatives geared towards public good, like road mapping and offering price friendly IT solutions)
• Other Innovation hubs across the continent (that they share the same challenges and need concerted Pan African efforts like Tayo and Nicolas  mentioned). People like Ben White (VC4Africa) are doing tremendous job tackling the lack of Investment Capital challenge. {By the way, I am co-organizing a 2nd VC4Africa meet-up in Kigali this November 2014}
• Building relationships with Investors (both Local and International). And this is where existence of a "Board of Trustees" or another layer of a Tech Hub management becomes important.                     

         Attracting investors, is the most difficult challenge for Tech Hubs, especially given the small number of Investors on the African continent but also the "class difference". Most African Hubs' community is made of youth, mostly from humble family backgrounds (like mine). Consequently speaking the language of multimillion dollar investors, becomes a great problem.

I would urge basing on my experience at kLab, that existence of an upper layer of Tech Hub management (Board of Trustees as of kLab) is of paramount importance. This was evident to me in several occasions like over this November 2014 Glocal Convention. This convention  has brought Investors from UK, Israel,India,Nairobi,USA,Australia to attend the showcasing of African Innovators' businesses in Kigali,Rwanda. This would never have been organized by kLab community, if it was not the Rwanda ICT Chamber and Rwanda Development Board (Part of kLab Board of Trustees) that pulled strings and tapped into their investor rich contacts list to make it happen.

Finally, I would urge that "Tech Hub debates" should tackle on how to balance the "Entrepreneurship Equation", than try to make conclusions of a 1000 steps journey that has only made 1 to 10 steps. For example, over my 1 year General Manger-ship at kLab, kLab Startups registered a total of Quarter a Million US Dollar investments (mostly private equity and seed fund). Let us keep supporting these Tech Hubs, so that this figure rises to say 5 Million US Dollars investments per year, and many of the posed questions will automatically become obsolete.

Ref: Beyond Silicon Valley:Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies https://www.coursera.org/course/entpecon

Dutahe!!!

Jovani Ntabgoba

Former Tenant&General Manager at kLab

BigData Predictive Analytics Research Student

Dad Sensei

Stories from an African Student in Japan can easily be drawn from any angle, but as a scientist let me stick to what could be an input to Universities of emerging markets.

Japan's university academic structure is different from the African and western models of education. Albeit, they offer lectures where a Professor stands in front of a class and explains, course-works and exams  like any university in the World,there is one unique difference "The Sensei" .

Sensie: is a Japanese word that literary translates to " a person born before/experienced than another".

At a University, every student has a Sensei, and the Sensei is the Supervisor of the student's final dissertation project. A Student is assigned or chooses a Sensei right from the start of his/her academic program, and will be under that Sensei's main supervision for his/her entire university program. This does not exclude, the particular student to receive lectures, tests and guidance from other Professors. Up-to now, I guess it looks exactly the way you know it elsewhere in the world's University programs.
Borrowing from a personal experience studying at a Japanese University, a Sensei is much more than just lectures, your Sensei will;

1. Offer personalized career guidance: Forget about the Auditorium based "Career guidance" structures where a prominent person is invited to offer a lecture of how they made it and that's it. A Sensei, will spare time out of their busy schedules to have a cup of coffee with you (student) regularly and together explore what careers, the future holds.

2. Act as a big brother/ big sister: Leaving the Class issues aside, your Sensei might as well invite you for a coffee, give you a lift to a park or even help you discover a price friendly shop. Do not get shocked if when your internet jams at your 10km away apartment from the university,and your Sensei voluntarily drives to your apartment to fix it for you free of charge (of-course).
Up-to now, I still can not believe it or figure out how, despite my Sensei's extremely busy schedules that involves things like reviewing research papers,business trips,supervision of PHD students' research papers, or working on a complex cloud based solution for over 10 hospitals, he will still find time to drive me to an awesome shopping area.

Carrying my luggage in my Sensei's Car

3.Act as a mentor: A Sensei designs 2 Dimensional academic programs, 1-the usual fundamental joint class work material and 2-personalized material that drives each student to realizing their individual dreams.
This is extremely important!, whereas back in the days it was okay for all students in a class to study a particular domain and have a common understanding, Today's world demands extreme creativity and high levels of specialization. You must be extremely good at something otherwise, you will never find a job or be useful to your community.

The one shoe fits all days are gone. If its a Computer Science class, some students have interests in Data Mining, Cryptography or Web-Application development. Whereas all computer science students should take fundamentals of computer science as in Academic Curriculum says, a Sensei will carry an extra effort to offer side insights/books to read/references/new tricks to the students that match their different interests.

4:Keep class environment as friendly as a home: From Universal Primary Education in Uganda through First ranked secondary schools to modern University classrooms in Africa, a typical classroom always has only about 4 items (chalks/computers-students-lecture and furniture.) but in Japan's classrooms there is something extra.
Only in Japan, will a Sensei, give you a break time and cut for you some fruits, offer some snacks or make for you a cup of coffee or surprise you with a Halloween Cake. Much as some people might claim that fruits and chocolates are for kindergarten, such small things mean a lot in terms of psychology (if I borrow recent Mark Zuckerberg's psychology behind 1-T-Shirt). An apple shared with classmates, psychologically relieves a mind that has been cracking "a triple integral maths calculation" and replaces the "lost energy/dead cells".

5:Strive to build an academic relationship with his/her students:A Sensei will consequently develop a Dad-like relationship with his/her students. Sensei regularly asks each of his/her students to present about anything, or how they are doing over their usual life and more.

Conclusion:
Doing all the above 5 items is not stipulated in a Sensei's contract with a university, it is a culture.
This is a culture, worth borrowing a leaf from.

Such a culture builds a strong bond between the Sensei and his/her students, similar to the "Dad-Son" or "Mum-Daughter" bond, to the extent that a student ends up working extremely hard to succeed so as not to disappoint/spoil the bond.

Anyway, I do not need to detail what such a bond can lead to, since if I tell you to pose and look around you,you will either read "Toyota, Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic brand or an article about a Japanese Nobel Laureate .

Dutahe!!!!

A JAPANESE MAGIC BUS DRIVER

A Japanese Magic Driver

Wearing Sparkling White Gloves is the Bus Driver

Growing up in villages of East Africa and later on moving into its cities, one big challenge that I experienced was copping up with the reckless tax drivers while crossing streets.

A friend of mine once asked a Kampala Tax Driver, why he had almost knocked her while she was crossing at a Zebra-crossing and the Driver replied her “Gwe Zebra?” literary meaning “Are you the un knock-able Zebra?”.

Conversely, as I move along streets of Tokyo and Sendai, I am usually amused by the meticulousness and hospitality of “Japanese Bus Drivers”. Below you will find why I chose to call the Japanese Bus Driver a “Magic Bus Driver”;

1.He only makes a 2 Minutes Delay Margin: Across the Japan Cities’ bus stops, you will find a Bus Schedule that stipulates the different arrivals of the different “buses that pass-by your current bus stop”. Public Buses begin circulating the city at 7am till 9pm, with a schedule that has several intervals like 7:45am, 8:10am, 8:34am and so on. Trust me, just like the figure is 8:34am, irrespective of rain or some traffic jams that could have happened along the way of the given bus, once the clock ticks 8:34am, magically  you suddenly see the bus arriving. Imagine a bus that moves say across Kampala {Old Tax Park – Gayaza}, Nairobi {City to Garden Estates},Dar{Posta-Survey}, or Kigali {Kanombe-Rubangura}  and makes a stopover at each of the bus stops along the way while respecting the different schedules marked at each bus stop.

This might seem to be the same throughout all developed economies, but wait! There is the Bullet Train {Shinkansen} that traverses the Main Cities of Japan. Shinkansen travels at a speed of 320km/hr and departures around every 9 minutes, has all its seats and toilets cleaned at every stop and guess what, it only makes a “6 seconds average delay time per day”. I repeat 6seconds delay after a figure got by summing up delay time of its over 10trips a day.

2.He says Arrigato Gozaimasu to each of the over 50 passengers: You cannot believe it, unless you have boarded a Japanese public bus. The Driver, despite being meticulous on keeping his over 50 passengers bus on route, he will pose as each passenger gets off the pass to say “Arigato Gozaimasu –Thank you” and this is done for each passenger. It is not just that, the Driver will also once in while “say a word to welcome passengers on board over his/her microphone”.

3.He sticks to a constant speed of 40km/hour: Whereas the Japanese driver will keep the 2minutes delay margin only, he will not rush or try to accelerate past 40km/hour. I once sat right next to the driver to see if there could be a lock on his accelerator pedal like “our failed Technology in East African Buses that called SpeedGovernor”. A SpeedGovernor was a fabricated sensor (most probably made from one of the Jua Kari) that would cut fuel flow to the Engine whenever the driver accelerated past 90km/hour. The Technology worked for a few months and later disappeared. In Japan, things are different, the speed governor is naturally embedded in the Driver’s Leg, the buses can race up to 180km/hr but to the magic Driver, driving at 40km/hr is the best choice especially when you have over 50 people at your back.

4.He also tells humorous anecdotes and teaches history&culture. This time, it is not every Japanese Bus Driver, but if you happen to board other Public Buses, like the one I did board called Loop Sendai Bus, then you get to test another experience of the magic driver.

Loop Sendai is a bus that traverses the city of Sendai {Biggest Town of Tohuku Region}, passing by the city’s historical sites and natural beauties. For your Information “Sendai is a lovely city full of green”.

The Driver of LoopSendai Bus has a microphone attached to his chin and will simultaneously drive as he explains history of Sendai, throws some jokes {that leave those who understand Japanese laughing to crack their ribs}.

5.He monitors in real time every centimeter of the entire Bus: The bus has 8 mirrors (that is: 2 usual side mirrors, and 6mirrors inside the bus). The Bus Driver synchronously crosschecks through all the 6 mirrors, before takeoff to verify if all passengers are okay, not to mention that he occasionally poses to see if you are dropping the exact fare into a coins case embedded onto the bus.

Now that I got a Jitensha, I hardly get to meet the Magic Driver again, but he is a man I respect and had I not seen him old, may be my dream would not have been today's but rather a Bus Driver too.

Dutahe!!!.