Vodacom drives Africa’s ICT innovation

Johannesburg (IT News Africa) —VODACOM has established the Vodacom Emerging Market Collaboration & Innovation (VEMCI) unit in South Africa that will drive innovation in the African Information and Communications Technology and services market.

The unit is aimed at providing an environment where ICT innovations can be identified and nurtured from inception to commercialisation, said officials.

“Initiatives such as VEMCI, to nurture and support innovative ideas and concepts that can contribute to new communications services and applications that enrich the lives of people in South Africa, are
essential,” said Romeo Khumalo, Executive Director: Commercial, Vodacom South Africa.

He said the VEMCI unit is an innovation-enabler for individuals, new start-ups and small businesses with innovative communication ideas and concepts, which could take years to reach sufficient economies of scale to achieve market adoption and to become sustainable businesses. VEMCI, in collaboration with its innovation partners in South Africa, will nurture new ideas and concepts from inception to commercialisation.

This collaborative initiative will offer selected entrepreneurs and small businesses access to financial, business, logistical as well as technical support and expertise to successfully take a specific idea/concept to market by following a structured business and product development
life-cycle methodology.

Vodacom will also introduce Vodafone’s open mobile applications development platform Betavine, to the South African mobile development community.

“Betavine is one of the ways we encourage innovation in the areas of wireless and Internet communication. It is an online open development platform and community, which supports mobile application developers in stimulating ideas, building, testing and launching great new applications for mobile and Internet communications and services,” said Khumalo.