Africa innovates Magazine -AI4DEV - Flipbook - Page 51
H O W D I D YO U S TA RT YO U R
JOURNEY?
Brain-child of Kenneth Mwandingi, Ergo
Analytics offers a tech solution, which
improves contact tracing, to reduce the
risk of new cases of COVID-19 infections, to help avoid the country going
into economy-damaging lockdowns.
I started Ergo Analytics back in 2017 as a part-time
project after I finished a Masters in economic analysis.
My goal with this was mostly to keep busy and ensure
I always kept up with advances in the space of data
science research and development.
W H AT I N S P I R E D YO U TO
C R E AT E YO U R P R O D U C T ?
The fast pace at which the pandemic came, was an
easy inspiration for me to do something. My partners
and I, just knew we needed to do something to help,
using our skills. It is important to help our country’s
economy to keep going safely during the pandemic.
W H AT A R E T H E C H A L L E N G E S
O F P R O D U C I N G O R D E P LOY I N G
YO U R P R O D U C T ?
Due to the obvious privacy concerns, the implementation of our product was something that could only be
done with government involvement, and going in, we
knew that this would be a limitation. As a result, things
have been a bit slower than we would have hoped.
W H AT H E L P W O U L D YO U N E E D
TO S C A L E U P A N D I M P R OV E
YO U R P R O D U C T ?
At this stage, it’s a matter of getting total buy-in from
the government since the product is ready. The nature of
the project means it’s not really something we can use
beyond COVID-19 but we have been experimenting with
adding other capabilities, such as safely tracking truck
drivers’ behaviors because they are one of the groups
most at risk of contracting and spreading the virus.
T E L L U S A B O U T YO U R S E L F A N D
YO U R B A C KG R O U N D .
I am a graduate of the Barcelona Graduate School
of Economics with a Masters in Specialised Economic
Analysis. I run Ergo Analytics part-time while having a
full-time job at Debmarine Namibia. This has allowed
me to amass greatly varied experiences in survey, data
analysis, application design, and managing projects.
W H AT A R E YO U R H O P E S FO R
T H E F U T U R E O F YO U R I N N OVA T I O N A N D YO U R B U S I N E S S ?
I am immensely driven by the desire to innovate. Even
beyond COVID-19. While keeping in mind how challenging it is to get new ideas rolling in our region, my
partners and I, have high hopes to drive innovation in
data science applications and automation.
SHOWCASING AFRICAN INNOVATION 51
