Tech project a boon for 200 Arusha innovators

Arusha. Over 200 young innovators from the Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions are expected to benefit from a technological project that will enable them to innovate various technologies that will be used to solve various challenges in society and generate their income.

Speaking yesterday in Arusha at the launch of the second innovation programme in the life of technology, Twende Social Innovation Centre Director John Nzira said the two-year project is being sponsored by three stakeholders, namely, Koica, Samsung, and MIT D-Lab.

“The main goal is to reach out to students and community members, starting with an idea and innovating a technology that will help communities increase their income, as the technologies we have aimed at are for ordinary Tanzanians,” said Mr Nzira. 

According to Mr Nzira, the project started with giving training on building a different thinking capacity among the beneficiaries and how they would solve the challenges in society, including addressing the challenges facing the agricultural and food processing sectors through innovative technologies.

One of the beneficiaries of the programme, Ms Neema Mlawa, said that through their group, they have managed to develop a machine for sieving all kinds of grains, expressing that the machine has a capacity of sieving one sack of grain in 15 minutes.

She also said the machines they have innovated using local raw materials have the capacity to be powered by the batteries of cars, motorcycles, solar panels and hydroelectricity.

For his part, East Africa’s SSEA and Samsung Electronics Managing Director, Mr Tausen Lee, said in the project they will help add value to the available technologies and make them more digital.