Kisumu gears up for Lake Basin Innovation and Investment Week

By Dickson Odhiambo

November 12, 2019.

Kisumu gears up for Lake Basin Innovation and Investment Week

Kisumu City will next week host the first ever Lake Basin Innovation and Investment Week which is set to attract about 500 participants.

The Event is set to be held within the Lake side city as from November 18 to 22 at Acacia Premier Hotel.

Addressing the press in Kisumu today ahead of the one week event, Managing Director of Winam Capital Philip Pande said the City of Kisumu is ready for the event.

 Pande says the event is a pre-eminent annual entrepreneurship gathering that convenes emerging entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and ecosystem supporters from the 14 counties of the Lake Region and beyond to spur investment in innovative businesses for sustainable economic development of the region.

He says the event which has a theme “Promoting Innovation and Investments for Sustainable Development of the Lake region' will provide an empowering platform for entrepreneurs/innovators, manufacturers, investors, development agencies, enablers, government and policy makers to showcase their innovations/products, pitch their ideas, build partnerships, secure funding, innovate and to find their target customers creating new goods and services that will transform societies.

He says 5 day event is convened by Winam Capital, Lake Hub and FabLab Winam with the aim of demonstrate the potential and opportunities in entrepreneurial innovations and initiatives in the Lake Basin Region for Investment.

“In the increasingly unemployment stricken world coupled with a widening population bulge in our country, Kenya, there is need for young people to secure their future through creation of alternative jobs and opportunities. That is why we the young people of Kisumu are taking matters in our own hands in an effort to promote innovative business mindset while partnering with development agencies and ecosystem support players to be solution providers other than seekers of it, elsewhere,” Pande says.

During the event, a number of pragmatic agenda has been lined up with an attempt to come up with possible solutions to the challenge of youth unemployment, inadequate policies and to strengthen partnerships and collaboration for sustainable and resilient entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Lake Victoria Basin.

“Monday 18, is set aside for workshops on Agribusiness workshops with a particular emphasis on the National strategies on Agriculture and Youth Employment-We thank the German Corporation in Kenya (GIZ) for their support towards this. We shall also have employability workshops bringing young job seekers to interact with serial Human Resource practitioners and facilitators to help improve their job hunting skills,” read part of the press statement.

During the official opening of the week on Tuesday 19, the event will host a high level delegation led by the Deputy British High Commissioner to Kenya.

 “We will be joined by LREB counties leader and other dignitaries and delegates to discuss pertinent issues enlisted in the agenda and have resolutions for actions and improvement of the ecosystem. This day shall be wrapped up with a high level CEOs’ dinner bringing on board thought leaders drawn from across the region to facilitate the conversation on investment and entrepreneurial promotion,” adds part of the press statement.

On Thursday 21, there will be practical events dubbed, Hack4LakeBasin and in one session the organizers of the event shall congregate policy leaders where the stake holders will begin the process of coining a one-stop policy on agribusiness, cooperatives, youth employment and enterprise development which shall be popularized and adopted by LREB counties to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

 “In another event we shall have the best coders and tech gurus in the region converting challenges into Innovative solutions for each of the six subthemes and sharing such solutions with respective stakeholders and partners. We shall also have a Kids Hackathon in which children and teens will be provided with an opportunity to share their innovations and gifts in entrepreneurship for possible incubation and further development,” the press statement further reads.

A half-day on Friday 22 has been set aside to visit investible projects and sites within the region in which we encourage investors and financial institutions to highly consider and other potential pipelines we have and continue to prepare. 

The climax of this exciting schedule will be marked with a gala event in which the Lake Basin Entrepreneurs and business leaders will be recognized for creating impact in the region while solving the most pressing social needs of the lake region.

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