Timbuktu Chronicles

From Alliance for Science:
Patience Koku, 2018 Alliance for Science Farmer of the Year, discusses how she uses her entrepreneurial skills on the farm, and talks about the value of adopting GMO crops in Nigeria.

From Kumatoohighlights AgrixTech:

Meghan Rabbitt writes:
Malaria. Newborn jaundice. Hearing loss. These are just some of the health problems that the winners of this year's Johnson & Johnson Africa Innovation Challenge are tackling by leveraging everything from apps to a smart formula for soap...[more]

From the Cornell Alliance for Science:
Alliance for Science Global Leadership Fellow Patricia Nanteza of Uganda tells how US/European anti-GMO scaremongering impacts people around the world.

Emily Nonko reports:
...The work introduced Sheik-Abdi to the power of community funding, and he looked for other ways to apply it within Minneapolis. Since the first immigration wave of Somali-Americans in the 1990s, many had moved into the middle class. But Sheik-Abdi kept hearing about a roadblock: they couldn’t afford to buy a house in the city that had become their second home.

So again Sheik-Abdi mobilized his community to explore the potential of collective wealth. The result is Star Finance, a culturally appropriate, non-predatory mortgage option designed specifically for Somali immigrants and without the need of a bank...[more]

From Wandieville:
Dr. Priver Namanya, Senior Research Officer, National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO). A research institution contributing to food security in Uganda using conventional breeding methods and genetic engineering to develop disease-resistant crop varieties with enhanced nutritional value. Speaking in a session during the Science Stories Africa event, Dr. Priver speaks on the implication of Banana diseases. She shares her personal struggles and challenges during the National Banana Research Program. She encourages young scientists and researchers to remain resilient during projects.

Wandieville in conversation with Florence Wambugu, Founder and CEO of Africa Harvest :

Isaac Kaledzi writes:
New report finds 64% of food consumed in Africa is handled by millions of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), creating vast opportunities for family and women farmers...[more]

Chris Tachibana writes:
Community science groups have an inclusive, open-door ethos that makes them a natural place to learn informally about scientific careers. Members explore, create, and problem-solve as they work together on do-it-yourself projects in conservation, synthetic biology, and more. If you join a community science lab, don’t expect a straightforward path to a job. But do expect to meet potential mentors and advisors, make local connections, and gain skills to support your professional development...[more]

Impact Africa Network is...

...an ecosystem catalytic startup studio whose mission is to ensure young local talent in Nairobi can access the digital transformation opportunity in Africa as creators and owners and not just as consumers...[more]

Emmanuel Nuesiri writes:

Its October 2001 and I am on a bus in London observing the roadside shops when I saw Obalende Suya and smiled. Obalende is a place in Lagos, Nigeria, known for its amazing mouth watering Suya - a spicy kebab style grilled meat popular in West Africa. Having grown up partly in Lagos, it was good seeing a business venture from 'home'.

Recently, I was curious to find out what has happened to Obalende Suya in London? I googled and saw that it has remained a single location business. I wonder why a beloved African food brand with a lot of history and greatness behind it, has not been franchised to all the major cities in the world? What is it that is holding back world class African products like Obalende Suya from conquering the world market?...[more]

A book by Edna Adan Ismail covered earlier:

From Eater
Akoko, a new restaurant serving West African cuisine, will open on Fitzrovia’s Berners Street in central London this October.

The first project from a British West African group with Head Chef William JM Chilila, information released today said the the restaurant will “offer a unique window on the still relatively unknown West African Cuisine in a polished and relaxed setting.” It added that “the team are driven by the desire to bring West African Cuisine to London with bold yet refined dishes.”

Akoko means “time” and “the first” in Yoruba; thus, they say, the restaurant “will show Londoners that it is truly time to experience West African cuisine in a new and elevated way.”...[more]

From the Vanguard:
Doctors at a private hospital in Benin City, Edo State, Celltek Healthcare Medical Centre, have successfully performed stem cells transplant on a 62-year-old patient with multiple myeloma.

Leader of the medical team that carried out the operation, Prof. Godwin Bazuaye, told journalists in Benin City that the cell transplant was carried out in collaboration with Sudabelt, Terumo BCT and Global Blood Funds...[more]

Founded by Mohamed Rahemtulla:
CongoEats aims to provide you with a meal to accompany every moment. A first of its kind in DR Congo, the CongoEats platform connects you to your favorite restaurants. Not only is this platform accessible via mobile and desktop devices, it is also the easiest and most convenient way to reserve a table or to order your next meal straight to your door.via Disrupt

Solve-It Ethiopia via iCog

From West Africa Snail Masters:

Some of the best roses in the world bloom in Kenya. While the country is widely known for its scenic national parks and wildlife reserves, it’s also a major flower producer. Winnie Gathonie Njonge is the production manager at Nini Flowers, which sits on the shores of Lake Naivasha. She knows all there is about growing perfect roses and oversees the harvesting of 300,000 to 450,000 a day. “The ultimate goal of growing roses is to make other people happy,” she says. It brings her joy to know the roses she cultivates are sent to the United States, Japan and other countries, spreading love and beauty all over the world.

From AAS Open Research:
Catalysing scientific breakthroughs to develop novel but scalable ideas

Dr. Moses Alobo, programme manager at Grand Challenges Africa discusses one of the networks recent launches, the transition to scale for innovations programme, and explains how it can help drive societal impact.

The race for being the bearer of the world’s 5G platform, with mind-blowing speed of the internet, is on. It is turning out to be a bare-knuckled fight for who will get the rights and develop capabilities to host the Internet of Things – literally whoever will connect everything together will control everything.

Such a platform would provide the needed technological advancements for the development of the next industrial revolution. Africa, on the other hand, has a brilliant opportunity for other leapfrog technologies with or without 5G technologies. Everywhere you look you will find attempts at innovation, why, because there is a lot that should work better than it currently does, and the populace is restless and demanding as it should be.

We need innovations to develop the continent, but the current challenge is how to reconcile the innovator archetype (represented by that young individual who builds a flying object in your village from a motorcycle engine, a solar panel and some pieces of wood) with the cut and dried African scientist who conducts high level research and is invited to only the ‘president’s session’ in specialised scientific world congresses How do we bring together the former’s can-do attitude with the latter’s know-how, then focus it and deliver technologies and policies that solve some of Africa’s greatest challenges? This holy grail for innovations is what Grand Challenges Africa, launched in 2015, seeks to build and showcase...[more]

Oluwaseun Adedeji writes:
...In 2015, CGIAR scientists developed low-tech ways to rapidly transform wet cassava peels into high-quality, safe and hygienic feed ingredients. The process is simple and can be carried out by small-scale processors, more than 80% of whom are women. This transforms cassava waste into a valuable feed resource, generates new incomes, creates jobs and improves well-being by cleaning up the environment. It also helps reduce GHG emissions around cassava processing centres.

The results of this research and testing with the private sector are now moving into application, with innovative processing technology converting fresh peels into high-quality cassava peel mash for use as livestock feed (ILRI). Cassava peels are also being transformed into biogas that can be used as an alternative energy source – reducing emissions from fossil fuels.More here