Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenya’s smart city Konza Technopolis has unveiled a plan to help local startups secure partners for their long-term growth and position them for the global markets.
Through the MSME–Innovator Connect Forum the initiative seeks to help close to 80 per cent of startups that often die within the first year of operation in the country.
In Kenya, MSMEs contribute over 33 per cent of the country’s GDP and support the livelihoods of more than 15 million people.
Despite their importance, the MSME sector faces various challenges, which Konza says can be resolved through embracing technology, strengthening value chain integration and access to more markets.
Konza Technopolis chief executive officer John Paul Okwiri said the plan is to expose MSMEs to technology-led collaboration and innovative solutions.
“Many Kenyan innovators are developing solutions that never reach the businesses that need them most. By directly connecting MSME owners with innovators, we are supporting solutions that respond to real operational needs and reduce the risk of business failure,” said Okwiri.
The move comes at time that government is staring a spike in startups and businesses from the disbursement of National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) Project fund.
Th five-year Kenyan government initiative, funded by the World Bank, is looking to empower over 820,000 vulnerable youth by providing business grants and startup capital.
The forum was held in partnership with Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), the MasterCard Foundation, Red Bull, Youth Enterprise Development Fund and the UNDP Timbuktoo Africa initiative.
According to Okwiri, unlike traditional innovation events, the programme followed a problem-solution fit approach, embedding innovators alongside MSME owners to understand daily operational challenges before developing prototypes.
Mercy Mutahi, an innovator who participated in the forum, said collaboration among innovators is critical to developing solutions that can survive in real business environments. She noted that many challenges faced by MSMEs are too complex for individual innovators to solve alone.
“When innovators work in silos, even good ideas struggle to scale. This forum made it easier to collaborate, co-create and build solutions together. Having people to think with, test ideas with and challenge assumptions makes the solutions stronger and more practical for MSMEs,” Mutahi said.
To support this sector, Konza Technopolis brought together 50 MSMEs and 50 local technology innovators to jointly identify operational bottlenecks and co-develop solutions that can be applied directly within businesses.
The focus was on manufacturing, agribusiness and information and communication technology, sectors considered critical to Kenya’s industrial growth.
The forum also marked the launch of the Konza MSME Incubation Programme, a structured three-month initiative that will support the most viable solutions developed during the forum.
