Alif Energy and Tewos Technologies companies, engaged in briquettes manufacturing from weed and in transport technology respectively are attending the STRIDE Ethiopia Expo 2024 at the Science Museum. ‘STRIDE Ethiopia’ Expo 2024 (Science, Technology, Research, Innovation, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship) was officially opened by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) last Saturday at the ICT Park here in Addis Ababa.
While launching the ‘STRIDE Ethiopia’ Expo 2024, PM Abiy stated the importance of collaboration to realize the development of technology and innovations. According to PM Abiy, the expo accentuates the commitment of the government to the development of technologies and innovations. As to him, Ethiopia is ambitiously working to realize its journey towards the digital age and to develop local innovational technologies.
PM Abiy acknowledges the innovational projects he observed at the ICT Park in the agriculture sector, the world-class data centers that can facilitate the construction of smart cities. Recognizing the efforts in the technology sector, PM Abiy underlines the need to accelerate technology transfer, local innovations, and inventions. To him, the world is investing most of its resources in technology and innovations as the sector is critical and a driving force for the overall development of countries.
The expo brings stakeholders from startups, ecosystem builders, corporations, government offices, academia, and development partners, according to the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT). Organized under the theme Science Unlocks, Technology Connects, Innovation Drives” from May 18-26, more than 150 companies and institutions both from the government and private sectors are exhibiting their technological products in various sectors.
Ali Ahmed is the founder and CEO of Alif Energy, a local startup company to works in the renewable energy sector manufacturing briquettes. He is among the exhibitors who promote his company’s products to visitors. While visiting the exhibition, The Ethiopian Herald journalists asked Ali about what he was exhibiting at the expo. Ali said that his company, Alif Energy, is a startup company engaged in briquette production from weed, Agri-Products, and waste and its aim is to produce and distribute affordable and clean energy for households and industrial consumers.
Ali came from Awash Town in Afar National Regional State to attend the tech expo. Ali was awarded during the third-round grant award competition in the UNDP-GEF Rural Energy Technology Innovative Ideas organized in 2020, facilitated by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology and other institutions. He was awarded 8,000 USD for his best innovative technology idea in the energy sector. After this award, he started activities to realize his idea into a product and established Alif Energy.
According to Ali, there is an unnecessary weed that covers over 1.8 million hectares of land in Afar and Somali Regional States. The weed, named Prosopis covers over 1.8 million hectares of land which affects the livelihoods of more than two million pastoralists as it covers the grazing land. The Prosopis weed invaded the arable and grazing land and the weed has no function yet, though it covers a huge land.
The idea of Ali’f Alif Energy Company is to use this weed to produce briquettes. “So far, charcoal was produced from big plans and the traditional way of charcoal production has a serious impact on deforestation and it pollutes the air. Similarly, using charcoal for cooking has healthy problems for women and children,” Ali stated adding that the briquettes that his company started producing plans to solve the above problems. First, the input to produce briquettes is the useless weed and secondly, the manufacturing process is through modern ways.
The production process is eco-friendly, according to Ali. Similarly, the product is decarbonized which makes it suitable for cooking. Briquettes are used for heating, cooking heat, and electricity generation. Biomass briquettes have become popular in developed countries due to their accessibility and eco-friendly import. Smokeless, no sparks, eco-friendly absorb odor, shaped to enhance burning and high calorific value.
Alif Energy already started production of the briquettes with limited capacity. His vision is to become the industry leader in manufacturing quality briquettes. He set a plan of supplying four million tons of briquettes in the next 10 years.
“This is an alternative energy source for cooking that can replace charcoal. Charcoal is common in low-income households in urban areas for cooking, but it has healthy and environmental impacts,” Ali stated. Considering its impact, especially on deforestation, the government is working to stop the production of charcoal. Hence, this demands alternative energy that can replace charcoal. In addition, the prosopis weed in Afar is expanding affecting agricultural and grazing land. “By using prossopis weed as an input, the idea is to produce a clean product that can replace charcoal for energy in urban areas,” Ali stated.
The idea was his innovation. And the manufacturing process is fully through modern way using modern machines. The product is also fully carbonized. In addition, the price of the product, according to him, is affordable for low-income families. His company started production as the pilot level and is waiting harvest machine to be installed a factory for full production. “I plan to plant 20 small briquettes manufacturing factories in the coming ten years and set a plan to produce four-million-ton product within ten years,” Ali said.
Ali stated that his product was approved and certified by the Environment Protection Authority and the Ministry of Water and Energy also evaluated and approved the quality of the product. In addition, his company agreed with the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) to get manufacturing machines for his business idea which currently is in the process. Next, he plans to make it open to the public through the capital market.
Participating in the expo has helped him to promote his product and to create connections with other companies and researchers engaged in the technology and energy sectors. “I have participated at the Startup Ethiopia Exhibition, and it is the second time to participated at national exhibitions. It has a lot of benefits for startup businesses,” Ali said.
Amanuel Alemayehu is a Software Development Expert at Tewos Technology Company. Tewos Technology was also attending the STRIDE Ethiopia Expo 2024 showcasing its products. Tewos Technologies engaged in application and software development mainly in the transport sector. At the exhibition, it exhibits ET Bolo, Tene Mekina and Yene Delivery products.
Tewos Technology specializes in digitalizing and automating manual works in in the transport sector. According to Amanuel, ET Bolo application is the major product of the company mainly developed to ease the controlling of inspected vehicles in Addis Ababa.
Amanuel stated that Addis Ababa has more than 700,000 vehicles. There are 62 certified vehicle inspection service providers in the capital. The Addis Ababa City’s Transport Bureau needs real-time data on these examined vehicles of the city. However, due to the manual system, it was tough to easily manage it. The ET Bolo application was developed to easily manage this problem.
For him, the new system has integrated the vehicle inspection service providers of the city with the city’s Transport Bureau which able the bureau to easily access the inspected vehicles of the city. The system was functional 10 months ago and so far, over 410 thousand examined vehicles have been registered in the system. The company also developed Yene Mekina Mobile Application to remind the owner to renew the services of his vehicle. In the future, Tewos Technology has a plan to develop appropriate applications to help the traffic management system.
Both exhibitors stated that their participation in the exhibition helped their companies to promote their products, to discuss with other innovators and to create business linkages.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 24 MAY 2024
