Straight Talk with Chukwudi Obi

Zimbabwean startup Informstion Technology (IT) company Saisai was awarded the SWELL Innovation award at the just concluded DEMO Africa 2014 conference held in Lagos.  The prize for Saisai is an all-expense paid trip to Silicon Valley, USA as part of the SWELL Innovation Tour, which includes the exclusive participation in SWELL’s intensive soft landing programme in Silicon Valley. A t the Microsoft sponsored exhibition, Irofit and VOTO took the first and second runners up positions respectively. SWELL’s Founder Mike Chen, expressed his excitement to be holding the inaugural SWELL Innovation awards in Africa and partnering with DEMO Africa adding that the SWELL Awards in Africa will represent an important element of the Global Startup Engagement platform to accelerate disruption and invoke corporate participation. Executive Producer DEMO Africa, Harry Hare, commended participants for showing such great enthusiasm towards finding much needed solutions for Africa...

United States Secretary of state, Senator John Kerry has said that the 40 new start-ups who participated in the 2014 edition of the Microsoft sponsored Demo Africa exhibition were developing real world solutions worthy of real investment and global attention. This is coming as he stressed that both research and evidence support the case for Africa’s emergence into the global economic landscape. Senator Kerry who spoke through a recorded video message  at the 2014 edition of Demo Africa exhibition in Lagos recently said the US Department of State supports inspiring and challenging African innovators and entrepreneurs through various initiatives, including Demo Africa, observed that a great number f African countries are demonstrating real promise toward a market led economic system. “By promoting entrepreneurship, especially among students and young professionals – in other words, the next generation of innovators and inventors – and harnessing their energy and cre...