ZIMBABWEANS can solve many challenges that they are facing today by adopting smart solutions, Paltech and Power Africa Labs founder Leornard Muyambo has said.
Muyambo (LM) made the observations during an appearance on the platform In Conversation with Trevor hosted by Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN).
He discussed products like smart mobility solutions and a smart bench as well as challenges faced by local authorities.
Below are excerpts from the interview. TN: Greetings! Welcome to In Conversation with Trevor, brought to you by Heart and Soul Broadcasting Services. Today I'm in conversation with Leonard Tatenda Goodwill Muyambo, the founder and team lead at Paltech and Power Africa Labs.
LM: Thank you Trevor. I'm excited to be here. TN: So you've actually done things. But before we go there, Leonard, I should ask, why so many names? Leonard Tatenda Goodwill? What's the story behind the many names?
LM: So my grandfather was so excited that I'm the first grandson. And my mom was thankful. So Leonard comes from my grandfather. So he's like, I'm going to make this one. That was my grandfather's favourite. And my mom, I was born at eight months. So Tatenda is, you know, my dad, which is, it's a bit corny, but it's interesting. He got to tell me later in life where goodwill comes from here. So it's a vested look where Jesus is born. So the scripture sets goodwill unto man for his son has been born. This is the look for me. I went into the Bible. I looked at the scripture in that scripture because to me, his son had been born. I just had to say, you know, Goodwill unto man.
TN: So you are, like we said, when I made the introduction, you are the founder and team lead at Paltech and Power Africa Labs. What do you do? What do those two entities do?
LM: So what came first was Paltech labs. We started it first to answer urban design questions. How do we reinvent cities? So as I travelled, I realised labs were a thing. And I'm also a scientist by background. So I'm obsessed with experimentation. So labs are these hubs that are actually supposed to be run by governments and cities.
They come in to take a holistic approach to our attic or much. That's we're like, okay, we really think smart cities are going to be the anchor to solving all these urban challenges, particularly in Zimbabwe.
So powerful labs are starting to answer the crisis with urban cities, particularly using digital technologies to sort of advance the productivity of cities. And then as we prototype, we saw that we couldn't do it. We took up a job that we could not accomplish because it was so big. And it's the role of the government that was supposed to step in and support the lab actually. So it's like, okay, let's take the products that we have created out of poverty and launch them so that we can actually become profitable. I have actually transferred it to my wife because we have some sort of similar background. She is now running the lab in the same way we used to run it. But more only on the sustainable building site and green buildings and urban development.
TN: So you say you had created products. Take us through some of the products that you've created. The ones that failed and the ones that succeeded. What products did you create?
LM: So one of the interesting ones was with urban mobility. We came in and said, look, the entry point to smart cities is smart mobility, to see how we can solve that informal public transport system.
So we took a step back and said, okay, how do we digitize? How do we come along and then improve the chaos? Because as much as it is chaos, it's innovation. It fed into the psyche of people not always being on time. So there was no way a scheduled bus was going to work like it was in London.
To describe time we use events. And what was interesting was like the notorious aspect of Africans being late is because to them, the event happened.
And I was like, okay, let's look at what happened to the public transport system. It failed because I think personally beyond Esap it failed because it was not culturally fit for the urbanisation that was happening.
That's why you see a lot of informal public transport was popular in Harare and we started studying the patterns. So what we saw is that kombis are actually in oversupply for their routes.
TN: Okay, that's interesting.
LM: If they know of a supply, why is it that one route has got so many kombis and there are so many numbers of people commuting. So it shouldn't be a challenge that smart mobility can become, you know, widespread. So it's aimed to do it.
TN: You know what? What's interesting is you are solving a problem that's already being solved by IPT. But the biggest challenge that we face with ride hailing right now is the price. So how do we make it affordable?
LM: The same solution in my view is the same solution as I guess. Which for me was, we could have just been bullish about it. We could have succeeded. So even mobility is one product.
TN: And then the other project?
LM: The second product is the power smart bench. The smart bench was designed to sort of create spaces where you can digitally connect people and make access to the internet. But ever since we came up with a product, a lot of things have changed. So I said, okay, if we created this hub that can connect people, how can we put AI into it? So we didn't start experimenting by putting, you know, an age compute.
TN: AI smart, smart bench technology, innovation and that kind of stuff. Talk to me before we go to the bench.
LM: So I think when we started, we wanted to beautify Mutare using technology. And its better that it's hard for me personally. Because you're freshly out of university, you're minted with ideas. You've got your local authority guys. We can change the landscape. And to be fair to the government, institutions have been working. So we almost got investment from Taiwan. And I did visit, credit to Mr. Sakala. He was the first person to give me an audience. It's like, look Leo, you want to invest.
- “In Conversation With Trevor” is a weekly show brought to you by Heart & Soul TV. It’s also available on YouTube.com//InConversationWithTrevor.