Young entrepreneurs tackle corruption in Kenya
Young entrepreneurs are paving the way for youth-led enterprise and excluded SMEs to access public procurement opportunities.
By Eliud Luutsa
Public procurement isn’t accessible to small businesses
For the longest time, the fight against corruption has relied on reactive laws and policies that only start acting after the corruption happens. This leads to a wild goose chase with prolonged court cases that hardly recover the lost funds. Public procurement is a legal nightmare for small businesses who stand to gain immensely from winning tenders.
Additionally, most government entities use direct contracting in procurement. This direct contracting is flawed with unfairness and kickbacks with tenders being awarded to an elite group. This excludes most young entrepreneurs who are not connected enough and often run SMEs that are not known well enough to be directly contracted.
Furthermore, many small businesses lack the knowledge and awareness of the public procurement process and its potential benefits. When they encounter difficult and costly tender applications, they turn away, and in effect, turn away from contracts and business that can benefit them and their communities.
Young entrepreneurs break into the public procurement game
This is where our Innobid solution comes in. Unlike the conventional reactive approach, our solution is predictive and seeks to detect and flag corruption (anomalies) before it happens, saving the government entities, law enforcement, and the courts, resources and time.
Our Innobid solution solves this problem by promoting a competitive bidding process that levels the playing field for all businesses, reduces the risk and cost of bids screening and due diligence, and fosters a business culture of transparency and trust.
Innobid is an e-procurement solution that seeks to automate the public procurement process, leverage AI and Machine Learning to detect and flag price and beneficial ownership anomalies in the bids submitted and incorporate citizens in monitoring to enhance transparency in the process.
The idea conceptualization started in July 2022 by six young entrepreneurs from Kenya, Namibia and France who were tired of the state of corruption in Africa and angry enough to do something about it.
The idea and prototype (then known as Angaza) won the Accountability Lab’s HackCorruption Hackathon held in Johannesburg South Africa in July 2022. This achievement unlocked USD 10,000 seed funding as well as training, mentorship, and a chance to develop the prototype into a finished product.
We are currently focused on developing the system and its business model, engaging stakeholders, and building the solution’s offline and online visibility with the goal of launching it publicly next year.
Disrupting the public procurement process - opportunities and challenges
Innobid contributes directly to the following changes in how the existing public procurement process works and for whom it works.
- Automation of the public procurement process supports to reduce risk and the cost of bids screening and due diligence.
- Anomaly detection to predict and flag corruption before it happens.
- Increase competitiveness between businesses by levelling the playing field.
- Incorporating citizens in monitoring the procurement process to foster a business culture of transparency and trust.
However, significant barriers remain in getting Innobid to scale. Right now, there is insufficient stakeholder buy-in from the stakeholders we need on board the most. Whereas, everyday citizens are excited to see our solution come to life, it has been difficult to get the government entities and big businesses to commit to using our solution in their procurement processes for fear of disruption to their existing structures and income streams. We need to prove the long-term business incentive to inclusive procurement processes to get them on board, and this is a challenge we are facing head on.
Furthermore, the digital divide across Africa limits some businesses and citizens from using our platform. With the high cost of internet and the lack of access in many areas across the country, small businesses are in some instances unable to tap into this digital service.
We also need to secure the financing required to get Innobid up at scale. As we are a founding team of young people, we do not have deep pockets. The process of pitching, client acquisition, and maintaining our technology takes a great deal of resources. We need strategic partners who believe in our innovation and its disruptive potential to comit the required capital and jump in the ring with us to move this initiative forward.
Meet the team behind the innovation
The founding team span not only Africa but Europe too. We are a driven, ambitious, and multi-faceted young team. Our passion for the topic stems from the wide variety of professional and personal experiences we have. Each of us has a unique focus and value add to the team. We have the variety of skills and expertise needed to make Innobid a successful company.
Eliud Luutsa – Kenya: An Entrepreneur, Social Innovation & Strategic Design Professional serving as the Chief Operating Officer.
Maria Kauhondamwa – Namibia: A Systems Analysis Professional playing a key role in the product development.
Wilbard Kangwiya – Namibia: A Sales and Marketing Professional supporting in the online and offline visibility of the solution.
Baptiste Nardone – France: A political science and public administration professional in charge of Partnerships and Public relations.
Matilda Gitonga – Kenya: A software engineer responsible for product development.
Rejoice Amutenya – Namibia: A software engineer, Graphic designer and entrepreneur supporting product development and marketing initiatives.
Thinking at the system level
If the Innobid technology is implemented at scale, we know that we can break through established structural barriers to make the public procurement process more accessible to all. Innobid has taken a systems approach to address the root of the problem in public procurement and has consulted with key stakeholders to devise a solution that is driven by the challenges and opportunities in Kenya. So, what would we see if Innobid achieves its impact?
- Faster and cost-effective public procurement processes
- Corruption-free procurement process devoid of kickbacks and favoritism
- Transparent, honest and accountable public procurement process that is trusted by the business community, citizens and other stakeholders.
- Improved fairness and leveled playing field where businesses of all sizes have equal chances of supplying to government entities.
Our learnings thus far
Through our consultative approach to developing Innobid, we have come to learn that speaking directly with those who stand to benefit and those who are currently excluded can help to craft a solution that is relevant and in demand by small business. The solution we have created seeks to tackle the underlying issue by creating a technology solution that addresses structural that facilitate corruption in the public procurement system.
However, in undertaking this process we have also learned that technology does not solve problems, it’s only an enabler – a tool. In fact, it is people who solve problems. It’s critical to involve the people in addressing the problem and developing a solution. Especially when it is those same people who will be using the solution and stand to benefit most from it.
But the biggest takeaway is that we now see that it is high time we move away from reactive approaches to solving corruption and addressing other social issues that confront the underserved, the youth, and small business. As young leaders and innovators, it is time to embrace proactive and predictive methods that save time and resources, and create a more inclusive and just system. Supporting Innobid to reach scale will create such a system; increasing and distributing the benefits to a wider swath of the population.
Get in touch
Want to get in touch with us and the team? Learn more about Innobid here https://lnkd.in/dHWwgHpU.
About the Author
Eliud Luutsa is the Ye! Advisor for ITC in Kenya. He is also the Co-Founder of Centrafrique Consulting Ltd. He is passionate about youth, empowerment, and social justice. He is active in the Kenyan innovation and startup ecosystem where he serves to raise awareness about entrepreneurship to his fellow youth, create community, and through the Ye! Chapter Kenya, provide meaningful activities and events that serve young people in following their entrepreneurial pursuits. Connect with Eliud through his Ye! member profile.
