SABTIA WELCOMES OUR NEWEST MEMBER
The College of Engineering and Technology
The University of Dar es Salaam
A recent visit to SoftstartBTI, the Business and Technology Incubator based in Midrand, South-Africa by representatives of the University of Dar es Salaam Business/Technology Incubation Project, proved to be quite advantageous to both parties, as knowledge sharing is the main objective of any Incubator across the board. After visiting many of the incubators in South-Africa, the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET) of the University of Dar es Salaam decided to join hands with SABTIA (The Southern African Business and Technology Incubation Association).
“We are very excited about this association to SABTIA and the African Incubator Network” Prof. Bavo Nyichomba, The Director of Technology Development and Transfer Centre, who led the Tanzania delegation.
About the University of Dar es Salaam Business/Technology Incubation Project
The Tanzanian Government through the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the Tanzania Gatsby Trust (TGT), and the Carnegie Corporation of New York co-finance a pilot business/technology incubator project. The project started in 2003 and is being implemented in the three pilot locations of Kibaha, Morogoro and Lushoto.
The Project is being administered under the aegis of the CoET and implemented by the Technology Development and Transfer Centre (TDTC) in collaboration with other units of UDSM.
At present research-based and in its pilot phase, the Project is envisaged to evolve into a platform for framework of the National SME Development Policy (2003). The objective of this Pilot Phase is to pilot replicable case studies of demand-driven business/technology incubators that are sustainable, demonstrably, technically feasible, economically viable, and relevant to national policy objectives.
The target group of the incubator programme is:
- Operators of SME’s, existing or would be, and/or
- Graduates from different levels of education and training institutions
The pilot phase (2003 – 2007) comprises of the following stages:
| Preparatory Phase | To promote the concept of technology incubators | |
| | To identify locations where pilot incubators could be successfully established and confirm their feasibility | |
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| Development Phase | To establish the identified incubators for the three selected communities | |
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| Implementation Phase: | To provide ongoing support to the incubator tenants | |
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| | To disseminate the outcome of the pilot phase | |
| After care Phase | To ensure business sustainability of SME after graduation from incubators | |
Status:
The pre-operational phase of the Pilot Project has been completed, and the Implementation Phase has started with the physical establishment of the three pilot incubators in Kibaha, Morogoro and Lushoto. This included the taking-off of incubator services to tenants/clients in January 2006.
About the Pilots:
All pilot incubators address problems of local economic development improving the entrepreneurial base in the area of food processing.
The Kibaha Business/Technology Incubator was designed to be a “hybrid incubator” i.e. a combination of “incubator with walls” and”incubator without walls”. It has a total of twenty-six enterprises/groups; divided into four processing categories namely Cashew Nut Processing, Cassava Processing, Fruit and Vegetable Processing and Dairy Products Processing.
The Morogoro Business/Technology Incubator has a total of nineteen (19) clients/tenants who are 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; diary processing; mushroom production and processing; soya processing; honey production and processing; and poultry processing. The type of incubator being implemented in Morogoro is an incubator without walls.
The Lushoto Business/Technology Incubator is also an incubator without walls. A total of twelve (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. The nature of their businesses include fruits and vegetables processing into juice, jam, pickle, etc; processing of diary products (fresh milk, yoghurt and cheese); production and supply of fresh potatoes, fruits and vegetables; drying of fruits, vegetables and spices; and baking.
Incubator tenants/clients are being provided with a comprehensive range of subsidised facilities and services until their graduation, depending on circumstances that may include all or some of the following:
- Modular incubator space;
- Common (shared) administrative services;
- Hands-on enterprise counselling;
- General entrepreneurship training;
- Specific tailor-made training;
- Technology incubation
- Specialist advice/external networking;
- Information
- Assistance to access Markets;
- Access to finance/loans; and
- Care after “graduation”
In addition, each of the Pilot Incubators have been given a specific focus:
- In Kibaha, the focus will be on the processing of cashew and cassava, with respective dedicated production cum training facilities
- In Morogoro, the focus will be on postharvest processing (including handling) of fruits and vegetables and –related-the application of solar power.
- In Lushoto, the focus will be on postharvest handling of agricultural produce including marketing.
Contact details for further information:
Dr. Cuthbert Z. M. Kimambo
Team Leader
University of Dar es Salaam Business/Technology Incubation Project
College of Engineering ad Technology
P. O. Box 35131, Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Tel.: +255 754 281680
Email: kimambo@udsm.ac.tz
Website: www.coet.udsm.ac.tz
