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	Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften	17. Nr.	August 2008
Sektion VS 3.	Africa and Europe: Historical and Cultural Dilemmas and Challenges for Nationhood and Development Dokumentation | Documentation | Documentation

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Using Indigeneous Knowledge Systems in Harnessing Science and Technology for Indigenous National Development:
Lessons Gained through Technology Incubation and Implication for Success

Bavo B. Nyichomba (University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)

Abstract

It is now generally agreed that in Tanzania, small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) play a crucial role for the potential of gainful employment and income-generation and thereby the wealth creation capacity of the nation. Their role is particularly critical in the national effort to eradicate poverty. However, a survey carried out in 2002 by the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET) of the University of Dar es Salaam—in collaboration with a non-governmental organization, Tanzania Gatsby Trust (TGT)—did indicate that SMEs in Tanzania were faced with a lot of problems that hindered their growth and their contribution to the national economy.  The survey did portray a sector that was largely informal, unproductive or else under-performing and a sector that was highly constrained by lack of innovative, managerial and technical skills—deficiencies that, in turn, impacted negatively on income-generation capacity. 

It is against this background that the College, in collaboration with the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO), and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, established a business/technology incubation pilot project to assist small and medium entrepreneurs out of the said problems that constituted an entrenched vicious cycle of under-development. 

The Conference paper will provide a detailed story of the intervention by the College in three selected areas located within three regions of the country; it will narrate the kind of formal and informal contacts and interaction it initiated, as well as the various elements of a business/technology incubator concept that came to be established for a programme of “brooding and hatching” of an new strain of entrepreneurial businessmen and women in the community. While the paper will relate both the successes of the pilot phase of the incubator programme, it will also point out the problems encountered. More particularly, it will trace some of the problems identified in the initial surveys to strong influences of the conceptions, assumptions and practices of the old colonial system that Tanzania experienced for the more than seventy years of colonization period before 1961. 

1.0     Introduction

Background Information

It is generally agreed that in Tanzania, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) play a crucial role in employment and income generation.  Further, SMEs play a fundamental role in utilizing and adding value to local resources. Their role is particularly critical in the national efforts to eradicate poverty.  However, preliminary surveys have shown that SMEs are faced with a lot of problems which hinder their growth and hence their contribution to the national economy.  Currently, most of SMEs are largely informal, under-performing and in need of considerable assistance to overcome entrenched disadvantages.

It should be noted that to a large extent, the existing poverty in Tanzania and other African countries is a result of the earlier colonial policies including those in education and training which were mainly aimed at preparing a workforce that was meant to reinforce colonial values including preparing students for white colour jobs.  There was no emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovative skills in schools and colleges curricula, which could have assisted individuals in exploiting indigenous technologies as well as the adaptation of foreign technologies into local use after their graduation.  The above resulted in continued dependence on foreign aid in terms of technologies and managerial expertise.  Further, industries built by then were those aimed at processing our natural resources for export without any value addition.  Moreover, there was no supporting mechanism in terms of transfer of technology and loans for individual to start up businesses that will bring about fast socio-economic development in the country. . The colonial rule strongly engrained a system of mistrust between Banks and SMEs/individuals culminating in harsh conditions demanded of SMEs on loans even after independence in 1961.

In order to respond to the demand of our society, the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET), University of Dar es Salaam embarked on a special program on technology development and transfer to the SME’s in 2003 using business/technology incubators.  This program was initiated in collaboration with one of the Non-Governmental Organizations called Tanzania Gatsby Trust (which receives funding from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Ashden Trust of the United Kingdom) and the Carnegie Corporation of the United States.  In this context, the main objective of technology business incubation schemes is to provide useful lessons for the preparation, implementation and management of such schemes with a view to replication aimed at developing SMEs. Further, technology business incubator schemes are expected to be integrated to support programmes that are provided by Government, academic institutions and the private sector, either individually or, ideally, in partnership, with the intention of nurturing budding enterprises and proactive entrepreneurship in selected economic sectors.

Moreover, the incubator would encourage market-driven research in collaboration among the university units as well as with external stake holders including Government institutions, Non- Government Organizations, private enterprises, to mention a few (Bamiro 2004).  It is thus expected that technology incubators shall therefore enhance technology transfer from the university to SMEs, thereby enabling Tanzania to solve societal and developmental challenges more readily.  It should be noted that SMEs technologies are easier to acquire, transfer and adopt and are better positioned to satisfy limited demands including technological ones brought about by small and localized markets due to their lower overheads and fixed costs.

This paper therefore narrates experiences gained in establishing technology incubators in the country and achievements gained so far in terms of their effectiveness to the industrial and socio-economic development in the country.  

2.0     Situation Analysis

2.1       An Overview on Government Policies

(a)        Tanzania before Independence

Before 1961 the Tanzanian economy was a primary exporting colony.  Until World War I Tanganyika was a German colony, exporting coffee and sisal.  After World War I it became an English colony and was soon engaged in the export of sisal and rubber.  Tanganyika was to a large extent, dependent on imports.  The colonial Government main policy was to discourage capacity building in terms of human and physical resources to support the industries aimed at adding value to the raw materials such as sisal, cotton, cashew nuts etc.  In general, the private sector was completely discouraged in investing in the whole range of industries.  This was due to the fact that the colonial Government did not provide any support in terms of financial loans, technology, and entrepreneurship skill training for indigenous Africans to invest in industries.  As such the informal sector as well as indigenous entrepreneurs including women, youth and other disadvantaged groups were discouraged in taking part in economic activities.

Further, training in schools concentrated in producing the manpower which was aimed at white colour jobs so as to support day to day office activities of the colonial Government.  In other words, the Government trained job seekers rather than job creators.  On the other hand, the Government trained a good number youths to join the army or police so as to ensure their security at large.  Lack of support mechanism to indigenous African including loans from Banks resulted into most people losing confidence in starting up substantive businesses, as this was seen to involve a lot of risks with no future values ahead.  This kind of ideology was also inherited by our African leaders who took over from the colonialism and can well be traced in their policies formulated after independence: discouraging entrepreneurship and private ownerships.

It is worth noting that the colonial era, most research was carried out in the field of agriculture by research institutes established to help them exploit the natural resources for their own market, and the majority of researches adopted this paradigm even after independence with many agriculture-based research results diffused through the extension service.  But the research results were never commercialized or used to enhance socio-economic development of the country.

(b)       Tanzania after Independence

In 1961 Tanganyika became independent; however, the income was still low as most of its economic activities were concentrated on primary products only.  The economy at that time could only support growth by expanding agriculture export in terms of raw materials.  In 1964 Tanganyika united with Zanzibar and became Tanzania.  The country continued to depend on England as the socio-economic and physical infrastructure was inadequate.  Serious industrial expansion started during the post-independence phase.  There were about 35 industrial firms by then engaged in processing agricultural products for exports and local consumption as substitute of imports (tea estates, coffee curing plants and oil mills).  Manufacturing industries were mainly confined to serve the above industries with simple spare parts.  The first industrial policy was aimed at achieving two things: first, to establish an industry for processing agricultural products for export and to achieve rapid national economic growth, second, to put up an industry that would substitute imports and encourage foreign investments.

The above policy was reinforced by the Basic Industry Strategy (BIS) which aimed at, first, reinforcing industrial growth by giving industry priority over other sectors and by maximizing the use of domestic resources and second, by initiating changes in the structures of production by stressing the need for development of a wider range of capital and consumer goods (Musonda 1992: 65–66).  Following this policy a number of giant parastatal industries were established.  However, the BIS policy did not bring any noticeable changes in industrial growth.  The above was caused by the macro-economic crisis of 1980’s, which was brought about by the constraints of foreign exchange coupled with other policies such as the Arusha Declaration, which encouraged and favoured the public sector and discouraged the private sector.  As a result of that, there were price distortions, low capacity utilization, inefficiency, low productivity and lack of positive incentives to encourage the manufactured products for exports (Van Englen 1996: 76; Masuha 1996:16)

The 1986 government policy on trade liberalization came too late to reverse this trend. Consequently, the local manufacturing and production capacity was almost wiped out or reduced to a negligible contribution to the national economy.  In order to overcome the above, the government set up policies that would give priority to efforts to bring about enhanced productivity and the mainstreaming of entrepreneurial skills to the whole range of industries in Tanzania.  This included the manufacturing, processing, production and service industry including the informal sector. Pursuant to the above, in 1994 the Government established Development Vision 2025 aimed at transforming the country’s predominantly low productivity agricultural economy to a semi-industrialised economy led by modernised and highly productive agricultural activities, which are reinforced by a supportive industry and by services.  The above was followed by the Tanzania Sustainable Industrial Development Policy (SIDP) 1996-2020 which places specific emphasis on the promotion of local industries.  In the Sustainable Industrial Development Policy-SIDP (1996-2020), the Tanzanian Government recognizes the role of the private sector as the principle vehicle in carrying out direct investment in industry.  The policy document accords specific emphasis to the promotion of local industries including SMEs, encouraging informal sector businesses to grow and formalize, and indigenous entrepreneurs - including women, youth and other disadvantaged groups - to take part in economic activities.

As from the financial year 2000/01 to 2002/03, the Tanzanian Government implemented the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) (URT 1998; 2000) a medium-term strategy.  The PRS was an integral part of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.  It focused on a number of critical issues in poverty reduction including pro-poor growth.  To this end, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were envisaged to play a very important role.

Starting from the year 2005, the government is implementing a five year National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty - NSGRP (URT 2004).  This is a national organising framework for putting the focus on poverty reduction high on the country’s development agenda.  It also keeps in focus the aspirations of the Tanzania Development Vision 2025 for high and shared growth, high quality livelihood, peace, stability and unity, good governance, good education and international competitiveness.  The NSGRP adopts an approach that counts on the contribution of all sectors including the transport sector towards growth and poverty reduction. 

The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Policy (URT 2003) sets strategies for development of the SME sector, which aim at removing the barriers that hinder the development of the sector.  The Policy is an integral part of the government’s Private Sector Development Strategy, and aims to create an enabling business environment as well as to strengthen and network institutions that can address the constraints and at the same time seize the opportunities that determine the growth and the standard of performance of the SME sector.  One of the priorities in the Policy is the facilitation of SMEs to access technology, business support services and working premises. 

It can thus be concluded that the slow speed of today’s SMEs sector development is squarely rooted to the earlier colonial Government policies which discouraged the establishment and growth of the private sector by not providing a conducive environment.  Further, failure to commercialize research results in different areas is the consequence of the earlier colonial paradigm adopted by our Government of not providing support services to enhance research and development.  To date University research has mostly been geared towards publications and academic promotions (URT 2004).  The establishment of recent Government policies tries therefore to address the above problem by supporting the private sector to grow as well as the utilization of research results so as to enhance the national socio-economic development.

2.2       An Overview on the Status of SMEs in the Country

Previous surveys carried out by the Ministry of Trade and Industries (MIT) in late 1990’s on SME’s indicated that there were about 1.7 million businesses operating in Tanzania, which are estimated to employ more than 3 million people, with micro businesses respectively the formal sector having been included.  Available data on SMEs sub-sector in the country shows that it contributes nearly one third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and creates employment opportunities.  Moreover, there about 700,000 new entrants into the labour market every year.  About 500,000 of these are school leavers with few marketable skills and the number is ever increasing year after year.  Most of these people end up in SME sector, and especially in the informal sector.  In addition, a large number of brilliant University and College graduates with entrepreneurship ideas end up becoming jobless mainly because the start-up phase for them is the most difficult. There is no place in Tanzania where these young people are being provided with a favourable environment to use their know-how.  It is also difficult for the graduates to get loans from banks to start up their own private enterprises.

A Pilot Survey carried on 2002 by TGT in collaboration with CoET (UDSM 2000) on the status of SMEs in Tanzania shows that most of the SMEs lack proper working tools, updated technology, adequate markets for their products and many depend on personal funds as a source of capital.  Further, it was also found that most of SMEs were not of aware of the availability of technologies and training opportunities (in entrepreneurship) within the local training institutions.  It was further observed that the SMEs sector is largely informal, underperforming and in need of considerable assistance to overcome the entrenched disadvantages and barriers.

The Tanzanian Government recognizes the role of the private sector as the principle vehicle for carrying out direct investment in the industry (URT 1996a). There have been specific emphases on the promotion of SMEs, encouraging SMEs to grow and to formalize, and in order to stimulate the development of SMEs in the country, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MIT) developed a policy on Small and Medium Enterprise development in 2003 (URT 2003).  The policy is an integral part of the Government’s Private Sector Development Strategy, which aims at creating and enabling business environment as well as strengthening an networking institutions that can address the constraints an at the same time seize the opportunities that determine the growth and the standard performance of SME sector.

It can thus concluded that much as there a number of policies and legal frameworks put in place by the Government to provide an enabling environment to SMEs so as to enhance economic growth and achieving the rapid and sustainable eradication of poverty, there have not been substantial efforts to facilitate that in accessing support services from the Government, R&D institutions, financial institutions and other stakeholders.  Indigenous entrepreneurs, including women, youth and other disadvantaged groups are not properly supported to take part in economic activities.

2.3       Analysis of the Available SMEs Support Services

Technologies:  Over the years R & D institutions have been able to develop a number of technologies ranging from engineering, mining, mineral processing, medicines, bio-technology, information technology etc.  In the industrial sector technologies in the following areas have been developed and they include: energy (solar energy, wind energy, energy efficient stoves, energy from agricultural wastes), construction equipment, mining and mineral processing machinery, food processing machinery (grain mills and hullers, animal feed mills and mixers, sugar processing equipment, edible oil processing equipment, fruit juice processing equipment) etc (UDSM 2002; Nyichomba 2006).  However these developed technologies are known to individual institutions and only few to users who in most cases come from the urban areas.  There has not been a “single stop station” within the country where all technologies developed can be found.  Further to that, technologies developed are uncoordinated, act in isolation and are not using cross-discipline methodologies.

Although the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) over the years has tried to create a database for different locally developed technologies so as to assist would be buyers or SMEs, little interest has been shown from them. This could be due to lack of this information in reaching the right SMEs or users as well as lack of demand for these technologies.  On the other hand, R & D institutions have been reluctant in revealing information on their technologies to COSTECH for effective promotion and popularization due lack of awareness of the benefits of such data coupled with lack of awareness of  Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) (Shemdoe 2003).  Given the current global competition, the government, industry and R&D institutions need to work together so as to ensure technologies developed by R&D institutions reach SMEs so as to enhance enterprise growth in the country (UNIDO, 2002).

Financial Support:  For SMEs to grow there is a need to develop the entrepreneurial capacity of the nation through provision of an enabling environment (financial support) for those entrepreneurs who wish to take the calculated risk of commercializing R & D results from R&D institutions or those who would like to invest in acquiring technologies from elsewhere.  Apart from financial support, SMEs growth requires the availability, access to and transfer of technologies and scientific information from R&D institutions to the industry and to the general public (URT 1996b).

Although there a number of banks in the country who are targeting the SMEs, including the Micro-Finance Bank (NMB), FINCA, PRIDE, EXIM, VISION, CRDB etc, they have very stringent conditions for their clients.  Some of the conditions include the need for SMEs or entrepreneurs to have a collateral or sureties of some kind for them to be given loans.  Repayment of loans is after a very short time and interest rates are quite high in most cases.  In addition, nearly all the banks require SMEs to have bankable business plans something which a lot of SMEs are not capable of.  This is because business plans writing requires money or an extensive training.  All of the above makes it impossible for most of SMEs to comply with these loan conditions.  On the other hand, the same Banks a capable of issuing soft condition loans to salaried workers who want to venture into starting up businesses as this involves less risk when it comes to servicing loans.  Again, this is the kind of colonial ideology which was inherited from the colonial rule which is still lingering in nearly all Bank operations of today

Training:  As an inherited culture from the colonial rule, entrepreneurship and technical skills were never taught in schools and colleges for fear that it would open up people’s minds and bring about competition with products that are imported from abroad.  The technical skills taught in schools were limited at carrying out day to day maintenance of processing machines used for natural raw materials such as sisal, cotton, coffee etc for export.  In this case technology innovation and development was suppressed in one way or another.  This culture continued even after independence.  As a result of that, to date most SMEs or individuals in the country require training in business management so as to be able to run their business in a competitive way apart from being trained in a given technology, which SMEs need to run their enterprises.  Such areas of training include; entrepreneurship skills, marketing, business planning, management of small businesses, record keeping, quality assurance etc.  There are, however, various institutions in the country including the University of Dar es Salaam which are capable of conducting this training, but at a cost.  Thus, for the above to happen, SMEs need assistance in acquiring the said knowledge from the Government or from donors as they cannot afford to foot the training bills on their own.

It can thus be concluded that the potential of the SME sector in Tanzania has not been fully exploited due to a number of barriers that hinder the development of the sector.  These barriers include weak business and project development services, low access to finance, low access to technologies, non-supportive institutional framework, weaknesses in the legal structure, poor infrastructure, etc.  This undesirable situation has persisted for a long time, despite the existence of various programmes aimed at developing the SME sector.  Thus, for entrepreneurs to start or strengthen their businesses, it is necessary to overcome the above barriers.  The satisfaction of the above requirements necessitates the establishment of an incubator which will facilitate the above.

3.0     Establishment of Technology/Business Incubators

In order to accelerate diffusion of technologies or R & D results from the UDSM, whether indigenous or foreign/imported, to relevant SMEs/industries it was thought best to use the business incubation process. This is because experiences in other countries such as India, USA, U.K countries etc. have shown that transfer of technology or R & D results using incubators is fast and effective (UDSM 2005a,b). Incubators are, by their very nature, designed to act as bridges between academic institutions and the industry and allow transfer R & D results between the academic and the commercial worlds under a protected IPR environment (Amstrong 2002).

It is for these reasons that CoET in collaboration with a non-government organization, Tanzania Gatsby Trust (TGT), hired an expert from Europe, specialized in Business incubators, to come and conduct several seminars for stakeholders with a view of educating and sensitizing them on this topic.  He also developed a Consultative document in collaboration with stake holders on a possible National Business Programme expected to be added to the Government of Tanzania Policy for SME development (URT 2003; 2005).

Following a number of workshops in between 2001 and 2003 under the auspices of UDSM, TGT and Ministry of Industry and Trade Collaboration which involved a number of relevant stakeholders, it was decided to establish the National Business Incubator Programme (NBIP) which eventually would become one of the key implementation mechanisms of SMEs Development Policy. Pre-requisite to the above is a successful testing of incubator models in a pilot phase (URT 2003). The overall goal of the incubation programme is to have a positive impact on economic development in Tanzania by improving SME’s access to technology and business.

The implementation of the NBIP and the University of Dar es Salaam Pilot Project started in January 2003, and was financed by the Tanzanian Gatsby Trust and the Tanzanian government.  The intervention by the Carnegie Corporation of New York through the University of Dar es Salaam started in March 2004.  For the period of five years of the first phase of the project following activities were successfully carried:

• Marketing/promoting the business/technology incubation concept;
• Background analysis to selected potential localities for the pilot project / Selection of potential clients/tenants.
• Performing feasibility studies.
• Preparation of business plans for clients and incubators
• Physical establishment of incubators.
• Operationalization of incubators.
• Progress Made on Incubators (2003 to 2007)

 The following is the status of the three incubators initiated by the University of Dar es Salaam in collaboration with TGT and the Carnegie cooperation in the three localities in the Eastern Zone of Tanzania, namely Kibaha, Morogoro and Lushoto (Kimambo 2005; UDSM 2006).  A brief progress report on the status of the three pilot incubators is given below:

(a)   Kibaha Business/Technology Incubator
The Kibaha Business/Technology Incubator was designed to be a “hybrid incubator” i.e. a combination of “incubator with walls(1)” and ”incubator without walls(2)”.  It has a total of twenty-six enterprises/groups, which have been selected as tenants/clients.  The selection was based on a set of criteria.  They are divided into four processing categories as follows:

• Fruit and Vegetable Processing: This category consists of four small enterprises that are owned by private individuals and dealing with post-harvest processing of fruits and vegetables into various products such as wines, juices, jams, pastes, pickles and dried products;
• Cashew Nut Processing:  This category consists of nine groups of cashew farmers (Primary Cooperative Societies) with a number of members ranging from 12 to 36 (Total 199 members) dealing with cashew nut processing.  The cashew nut processing has been split into two levels, whereby the groups will be handling the initial processing.  The final processing, including packaging, will be done in two centres, which are also clients/tenants of the incubator. The centres are owned by large Cooperative Unions, with a total of 690 members  for initial processing of cashew nuts, and for the final processing of cashew nuts with 2,400 members;
• Cassava Processing:  This category consists of ten groups of cassava farmers with number of members ranging from 15 to 75 (Total 262 members) dealing with cassava processing.  They will be involved in the processing of both the sweet and bitter cassava varieties in one level of processing;
• Dairy Products Processing:  In this category, there is one Cooperative Society with a total of 55 members.  They are currently involved with the collection and distribution of fresh milk.  Most of them are dairy farmers.  The project will assist them to do processing of milk into various products, preservation and packaging, which are all not being done at present.

In total, the Kibaha Business/Technology Incubator involves a total of 3626 people (households) when it is fully operational.

(b)  Lushoto Business/Technology Incubator
The type of business/technology incubator being implemented in Lushoto is an incubator without walls.  A total of thirteen (13) clients were selected for the Lushoto incubators.  They are all either Groups or Cooperative Societies, with numbers of members ranging from 10 to 126.  In total 645 people (households) are included in the Lushoto Business/Technology Incubator.  The majority of them are women.  The nature of their businesses include fruit and vegetable processing into juice, jam, pickle, etc; processing of diary products (fresh milk, yoghurt and cheese); production and supply of fresh potatoes, fruits and vegetables; processing of sugar cane into local beer (“boha”); drying of fruits, vegetables and spices; and baking.

(c)   Morogoro Business/Technology Incubator
The Morogoro Business/Technology Incubator has a total of nineteen (19) clients/tenants who have been selected, based on a set of criteria.  The clients as small enterprises and groups of less than ten members each (most are privately owned by a single individual.  They deal with the processing of various food products including fruits and vegetables into wines, juices, jams, pastes, pickles and dried products; dairy processing; mushroom production and processing; soya processing; honey production and processing; and poultry processing.  The type of incubator recommended for Morogoro is an incubator without walls.

The three virtual incubators in Kibaha, Morogoro and Lushoto were operationalized as expected and started to provide incubator services to tenants/clients in January 2006.  The initial services already on offer include training on both technology and business related aspects; support in technology acquisition in processing of cassava, cashew nut, fruits and vegetables; expert advice including legal and institutional matters; assistance to the incubator clients to prepare bankable business plans and linkages to microfinance institutions.

Following the preliminary results from the project activities since January 2006, other local stakeholders, including the Government, have shown some interests to support the project in one way or another. This is very positive and crucial for sustainability of the project.  For such interests and support to grow further, it is necessary for the project to realize tangible results that can make the impacts at target group level more apparent, i.e. growth of incubated businesses as a result of the intervention, increase in individual incomes, improved quality of lives, increase in employment, etc (UN 2004).

For the clients/tenants to realize such end-results they need a further 36 months so as to be able run businesses profitably and sustainably.  The above will be achieved during the second phase which took off on March 2007 and ends in 2009. This will be followed with after-graduation services aimed at ensuring that they continue to prosper/grow.  The project also plans to incubate start-up businesses, including those of UDSM graduates and staff, as such endeavors will have more direct and faster impacts on the socio-economic indicators. The project will also support CoET/UDSM to integrate education and training, research and consultancy in areas of national developmental interest at the immediate subject area level, which is one of the unfinished businesses of the UDSM’s Institutional Transformation Programme (UDSM 2006).

3.3       Expected Impacts

3.3.1    National Level

The project is expected to spearhead the development of technology entrepreneurship in Tanzania, enhance capacity building, and promote creativity and innovativeness, something which may not be realised during the second phase. Apart from raising productivity of SMEs, the other mentioned results (promotion of creativity and innovativeness) will ultimately stimulate venture capital as well as foreign direct investment in the country, which is also among the key inputs to economic growth and hence reduction of income poverty.  Hence, at national level it is anticipated that the project will facilitate the following (UDSM 2006):

• Sensitisation of all major stakeholders on the necessity for SME to access improved technology in a bid to raise their productivity and competitiveness;
• Government replicates the technology incubator model on a national basis;
• Strengthened national innovation system through capacity building and inter-linkages; and
• Review of relevant policies so as to favour the development of an enabling environment for the accessibility of improved technologies by SME.

3.3.2    Institutional Level

The project aims to realize the missions of both the College of Engineering and Technology and the University as a whole, namely:

• To play a leading role in the development, adoption, adaptation and innovation of technology in Tanzania;
• To play a pro-active role on policy matters related to technological development; and
• To have a positive effect/impact on the teaching and research output at the University.  Already a number of publications have originated from the project that have been presented at national and international levels.  These together with the fact that the results of the project are clearly visible to the public, contribute in improving the public image of the University as a leading research organisation in the country.  Having operational incubators that support the development of SMEs and innovations closely linked to the main function of teaching will ensure that proven results/outputs from the outreach interventions will provide effective and continuous feedback to training programmes, hence assisting the College to improve quality and relevance of its graduates at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, strengthen commercialization/transfer of technologies developed by CoET and its research findings, including acquisition of patents.  In the next phase more staff members and students will be involved in the project through student projects and postgraduate research.  Enrolment of students will also be expanded at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

3.3.3    Target Group Level: University Graduates and Staff

Limited employment opportunities and increased legitimization of the entrepreneurial career have resulted in graduates becoming more interested and actually choosing self-employment after graduation. While a 1991 national survey of the informal sector did not record any university graduate, a 1995 survey recorded already 1582 graduates in the sector. In graduate and employer (or 'tracer') studies performed by the UDSM, the vast majority of engineering and commerce graduates responding indicated that they were indeed interested in setting up their own premises.

It is noted that although many R&D institutions, as well as education and training institutions in the country, including UDSM, have been developing appropriate technologies for SMEs, many of these have not been commercialized.  Opportunities therefore exist for University graduates and staff to take up these innovations and transform them into businesses.  Pursuant to the above, there is a need to sensitize SMEs on available technologies at CoET and other R&Ds institutions as most of them are not aware on available technologies.  On the other hand, R&Ds should involve SMEs during their initial stage of technology development so as to ensure that they are marketable outside thereby facilitating easy and smooth commercialization (Bamiro 2004; Nyichomba 2004).

3.3.4    Target Group Level: SME Operators

Specifically, the proposed project will hopefully contribute to:

• Economic empowerment through fostering private-sector development;
• Promotion of an enterprising culture;
• Improved entry rates of SMEs into the productive value-added sectors; and
• Economic empowerment of women as a special group or category that has often been depressed and marginalised.

The above expectations on the impact of the project to the target SMEs is valid since each of the clients/tenants admitted to the incubation programme is operating according to a business plan that was prepared by the clients with the support of the project.  The further 36 months incubation given to clients/tenants in the second phase are for ensuring they achieve the targets of their respective business plans.

Conclusions

1. The old colonial system that Tanzania experienced from the 1880s to 1961 did strongly influence to weaken the enterprising nature of individuals and communities in terms self-confidence in starting up businesses.  This was due to a failure of the colonial system to mainstream entrepreneurship and technical subjects in the curricula of schools, as well as absence of business support services such as training, tools, bank loans and marketing networks for emerging indigenous entrepreneurs (including women, youths and disadvantaged groups who showed an interest in business start-up).
2. ecent government policies aimed at promoting the private sector are likely to support local institutions, SMEs and indigenous entrepreneurs.
3. The three pilot incubators in the country related above provide a model that seems to point in the right direction, as the preliminary results from project activities have attracted the interest and sympathy of local stakeholders including the government. The pilot programme will hopefully prove itself for country-wide applicability. It is also envisaged that the use of incubators will assist CoET and other R&D institutions in the country to speed up transfer of their technologies to small-and-medium-scale enterprises and thereby assist in the fight against poverty.  Furthermore, incubators will facilitate and strengthen partnership and networking between R&D institutions, local industry and the government.
4. In the final analysis, once successful incubators will sensitise the public attitude, not least the R&D institutions themselves, towards seeing research results or technologies developed there from in economic terms of contributing and value-added activities set in new products and processes, in licenses with royalties and in spin-off companies or firms that might emerge.

References

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Notes:

1 All business support services are assembled in one location.
2 Business support services provided for enterprises occupying their own premises in a common locality

VS 3.: Africa and Europe: Historical and Cultural Dilemmas and Challenges for Nationhood and Development

Sektionsgruppen | Section Groups | Groupes de sections

Inhalt | Table of Contents | Contenu  17 Nr.