Press Release: for immediate release
Namibia Business Innovation Institute
Injini Edtech Sprint week
29 March 2019
NBII launches the first Edtech sprint week
The Namibia Business Innovation Institute (NBII) in partnership with the Southern Africa Innovation Support (SAIS) and Injini Africa Edtech Incubator launched and held the first edtech sprint week at the innovation village from the 25 – 29 March 2019.
Injini is a community of education technology (EdTech) entrepreneurs, academics, investors, educators, NGOs and tech hubs whose goal is to help realise and maximise the potential of EdTech to improve education in Namibia. The purpose of the group is to discover and meet each other, learn from each other and together build a robust edtech ecosystem that can make an impact on education.
During the 21st Innovation circle session which also took place during the week, the deputy director of innovation, Ministry of higher education, training and innovation, Mr. Nhlanhla Lupahla stressed. ”It is important to have an educator to advise you, when you develop an app or startup in the educational technological field because apart from content and technology you it is vital to have pedagogical knowledge as well.
“It is imperative to find a niche area, research and do it better than your competitors and also figure out how to keep your audience happy because that your word of mouth marketing” added NUST Lecturer: Informatics and Computing, Mr Gabriel Nhinda
Top 6 edtech startups were selected from 11 startups that took part in the sprint week. The week- long series of workshops and intense one-on one consultations with experts saw them getting much needed training in pitching their ideas, business model canvassing and ideation to get their startups in the best possible shape.
The top 6 edtech finalists will receive mentorship and training as well as advisory services from NBII in order to fast track the establishments of their businesses.
The Top 6 edtech start-ups are:
The second edtech sprint week is set to take place July, while the third one is slated for early next year.
The Namibia Business Innovation Institute (NBII) was established by the Namibia University of Science and Technology formerly known as Polytechnic of Namibia as a national institute to be recognised globally as a leading centre of excellence to transform innovative ideas into sustainable businesses and social solutions.
The SASAwards is the first annual award to celebrate and recognise the spirit of innovation and achievement in the startup ecosystem in Southern Africa (SADC region).
570 unemployed youths graduated from the Reconstruction Living Labs Namibia (RLabs), which is a social innovation programme under the Namibia Business Innovation Institute (NBII), at NUST.
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