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The Africa Inventors Cooperation Organization (AICO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Dubai-based investment company to assist with funding to develop inventions in Zimbabwe and other member countries.
The MoU, signed on June 4 this year, was between the Technology Finance Company of Africa (TEFCOA), a joint company between the Common Fund for Technology and Investment Trust (CFTI) and AICO, and FasterCapital of Dubai.
TEFCOA executive chairman Ignatius Nyongo said this during an interview with New Ziana on Friday.
“The parties will each raise or contribute 50 percent towards a selected project, which should be at the startup stage. This means that the innovation should have been reduced to a working prototype. In addition, the investment company will be the Technical Co-founder in the selected startup, and will also assist in marketing and sales,” he said.
Nyongo said the inventors would have to work closely with their national associations to ensure that their inventions are tangible, adding that the MoU also includes an agreement that TEFCOA will represent FasterCapital in the 31 member countries of AICO.
AICO member countries include Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’ Ivoire,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Kenya and Lesotho’
Others include Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Common Fund for Technology and Investment (CFTI) is an equity Fund through which any person can invest in technology projects.
Nyongo invited inventors to come up with inventions, emphasizing that these should solve technical problems either at national, continental or global levels.
“It can be high technology or low technology, rocket science or simple. What is more important is that it solves a particular problem and that the innovation has a market need,” he said.
New Ziana