The Namibia Business Innovation Center (NBIC) inaugurated its mobile laboratory this week to celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Week. The lab is sponsored by Samsung, Telecom Namibia, MTC and the Southern Africa Innovation Support (SAIS) group.
The mobile laboratory will boost innovation, build capacity as well as help commercialise entrepreneurial ideas. Samsung sponsored about 50 mobile devices including tablets installed with Android software.
An 8-day session will be held in May as part of the Hackathon application finalisation which will be followed by a software development course for beginners in July. An Android developer workshop for beginners, intermediaries and advanced users, is slated for July.
It is estimated that about 75% of the world’s population has access to mobile phones and according to Marlon Parker, founder of RLabs Academy, the majority is the youth. “The mobile lab has the potential to revolutionize the mobile revolution in Namibia hence for innovation to work, we should look at our own setting and make changes relevant to our context,” said Parker. He added that the youth need to be trained to effectively use their mobile phones using the best technology available to them.
Credit: The Economist
