Contract Design & Manufacturing Launch now on February 26, 2011

The official launch of our contract design and manufacturing services will now hold on th 26th of February 2011. Please click here to download the agenda. We are sorry for any inconvinience caused by this shift in date.

Venue is: No. 12 Abdulrahman Okene Road, opposite Assa Pyramid Hotels, off independence way, Kaduna

Our CDM srvice has already been utilised by a number of clients to build products including an Inverter PCB design and also the Ovim tablet both of which are already in the market.
We hereby wish to use this opportunity to invite the general public to this event.
The event is open to all without discrimination; however, we will be especially interested in the following:

1. Entrepreneur and businesses looking to make a new product or who want to be a distributor for some of our existing products.
2. Engineering firms and research institutes wishing to leverage our services to develop their own products.
3. Individuals, students, coppers and engineers, who are interested in a career in electronics design and embedded software. You can come and learn from us and we also are interested in outsourcing some of our jobs to qualified individuals who can deliver.

Highlights of the event:

1. Lecture by our founder titled: “The road map to Africa’s Technology Revolution”. This lecture presents a socially engineered plan that will ultimately lead to an advanced technology sector in Nigeria, by 2025, when Nigerias hi-techn industry will become one of the highest employers of labour.
This is the first economic development plan initiated by a non-government entity. Come and see why this will work and also learn of the coming opportunities and how you can gain from it.
2. Presentation of sample products from our contract design service.
3. The event will be followed by one week of training by our expert Nigerian staff including new members from the UK and Asia.
The training will cover Android programming and also embedded systems design using the arm architecture.

As there may be limited seats available, please register for this event by sending your details to info@microscale-embedded.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also book an appointment to speak to our experts if you are interested in these services.

From: www.microscale-embedded.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Microscale-Embedded/113981061965279

Note: Registration is FREE.

The Roadmap to Africa’s Technology Revolution

0. Introduction
You know it is difficult to convince a lot of Nigerians that Nigeria is a poor country. Most of us
believe that Nigeria is rich and the only problem is the misuse of the wealth. While I agree that
we have the resources that can make us into a rich country, I must however say that there is a
difference between having a potential and actual wealth.
Of course we have a large GDP - the second largest in Africa. But our GDP is small compared to
our population. Hong Kong is a city smaller than Lagos but their GDP is on par with the entire
country of Nigeria. And of course we have misused our oil wealth. We have failed to invest in
infrastructure. Prove? Egypt. Egypt’s GDP is roughly the same as that of Nigeria, but you cannot
compare the infrastructure in cities like Cairo and Alexandria with any place in Nigeria.
Proof that we are a poor country:

1. The richest man in Nigeria is not as rich as one 26 year old guy in America. I am talking about
Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook. It is not possible to be as rich as Bill Gates in a
country where the GDP is only about 200 billion dollars. Unless if Nigeria is a kingdom and you
are the king!

2. Absence of Mega projects.
Our gross domestic product of 200 billion dollars implies that each Nigerian is producing,
saving/investing and spending about 16000 naira per month. Of course this is not shared equally.
Some have access to billions while others are getting hundreds of naira or nothing. So if your
approach to riches is to get a bigger slice of the national cake, then you getting rich will
definitely lead to more poverty.
But there is another way: Making the cake larger, by creating wealth through production. We
will reduce our dependence on imports and we will even have excess to export. This will lead to
job creation and an increase in investment and economic growth. You will become rich and at
the same time you will be helping to eliminate poverty.
We need to grow our economy to half a trillion dollar economy (equivalent to 45000 naira output
per citizen per month). This would have more than achieved the vision 2020 plan to make
Nigeria among the top 20 economies of the world. According to our roadmap, this will happen
by 2025.
Lofty dreams and visions are nothing new in Nigeria. We had similar promises in the past:
Education for all by the year 200; Vision 2010; Vision 20 2020. We are very good at shifting the
goal post when the target is approaching. So why should Nigerians bother with the roadmap
when all previous attempts were only monumental failures that failed to leave behind any major
impact?
The roadmap is different. It is not a promise. It is not even a plan. It is a resolution and a
commitment. Similar to when JFK made a commitment to put a man on the moon within a
decade. It is a challenge we have given ourselves as citizens, engineers, academics, and
entrepreneurs. That it is possible for a Black nation to be one of the most developed countries in
the world. And that we can achieve this in a few years. We are sure that it is possible, but the
only question is how? Sincerely we have no detailed answer. We only have two things: the
roadmap which is a map to our destination with signposts along the way to reassure us that we
are on the right track. The second is the scientific method. We shall employ the scientific method
to discover how to move from one milestone to the next until we get to our destination. So we
are going to experiment a lot. And we will keep an open mind - ready to discard any ideas that
prove to be a failure in favor of anything that works.
Africa faces an uncertain future in a rapidly changing world. The world is at the threshold of
rapidly accelerating technological development. The coming revolutions in biotechnology,
robotics and artificial intelligence will render most of our current sources of wealth such as
natural resources and even labor insignificant.
So why did we fail in the past?
Africa has always been an isolated part of the world. We have never faced any major military
challenge from the outside world. So there was no real incentive to develop technologically.
Most of the technologically advanced countries today owe their technology to their efforts to
fight foreign domination or to dominate others. The parties to the two world wars emerged to be
the big super powers. Even the vanquished; Japan and Germany are among the 4 largest
economies today. Necessity indeed is the mother of invention. The space race was as a result of
rivalry between the USA and the former USSR. The growth of Silicon Valley is one of the
products of this competition. (DARPA was created in response to the Soviet lunching of the
Sputnik)
China has a very long history of fighting against foreign aggression. The great wall was built
over a period of about 800 years to keep the Mongolians out.
And because we were not technologically developed and our warfare was primitive, it was not
possible for rival kingdoms to dominate one another. So we ended up with relatively small
kingdoms. As a result it was easy for the colonial masters to defeat us. And even after the end of
colonization, there is little that holds us together as a country in terms of history, culture, and
language. Unlike in Britain for example where the English dominated. Similarly the Han
ethnicity is dominant in China.
The result is we have adopted foreign culture and unfortunately we have no sense of respect for
that culture. So at the end we are a people with no respect for any culture. For example, most of
us insist in teaching our children our mother tongues as their first language. But when the kid
starts going to school, he is taught in English, a language he does not understand. This is why our
children struggle with education. At secondary school they are still learning to read, while his
mates in other parts of the world are already engaged in problem solving and creative thinking.
Why it will work this time:
Most of our previous developmental programs were planned from the top and based on models
developed in the western world. It did not take local realities into consideration. For example,
there is no merit in too much emphasis on intellectual property protection at a time when we are
at a disadvantage. Our emphases right now should be on how to disseminate knowledge even it
means we trample on intellectual property of other countries at times. Also some western
business model that places a lot of value on design and development may not be workable at the
beginning. For example, if a customer asked us to design a product for them we cannot charge
him say 4 million naira for such an intangible thing as files in a computer. The model that can
work in Africa is that of partnership, where the designer is entitled to royalties.
Our approach is grass roots oriented. We will provide knowledge to the masses and show them
how they can use knowledge to generate wealth. Our program will use the scientific method and
control theory to socially engineer a change. We will use positive feedback to create a runaway
growth in the economy. We will discuss this in details later when we present the signposts of the
roadmap.

1. Microscale Embedded

The ultimate goal of Microscale is to use technology to address the problem of poverty in Africa.
Africa’s poverty is due mainly to the limited level of skills and usable knowledge among its
population. Most goods and services consumed in Africa is either produced outside of Africa or
requires the presence of foreign expatriates to produce.
Africa’s raw materials alone are no longer enough to solve its myriads of problems. Today’s
economy is often referred to as a knowledge driven economy. And rich countries are no longer
those that have natural resources, but those who possess the know-how and expertise to manage
information and use knowledge to produce innovative products and services.
Information technology is the backbone of the knowledge economy. It runs the computers and
the networks that enable people create and process information and collaborate with one another.
Embedded computers give intelligence to our factories and they form the nucleus of our gadgets
like phones, mp3 players and cameras. They can be found in even traditional home appliances
like the TV and washing machine.
Therefore if Africa is going to solve the problem of poverty, it must master Information
Technology not just as a user or consumer of its products but also as a producer.
The strategy of Microscale is two faceted. One, Microscale will be a model of how to start-up a
small hi-tech business in Africa. The aim is to show the viability of hi-tech business in Africa.
Secondly, Microscale will provide services that will enable other hi-tech companies to get
started.
The goal is to have a critical mass of SMEs that will transform Africa’s business environment
into an ecosystem suitable for hi-tech manufacturing and to make it possible for Africans to
participate in the 21st century global economy as a contributor.
Microscale’s slogan is “sowing the seeds to Africa’s Technology Revolution”. And we hope to
be the seed that germinates and gives rise to many trees that will become Africa's Microsoft,
Intel, Apple and Google of tomorrow. Governments have a large role to play in this effort. But
we believe, we as technologists, academics and entrepreneurs, we have to take the first steps.
Let’s sow the seeds first. Then we can call on the governments to help with the watering.

2. The signposts on the Roadmap
Signpost 1: the year 2011. Hi-tech products introduced
Microscale Embedded ltd introduces the first hi-tech products that are engineered by local
workforce. The CDM event of 2011 introduces some of the products and opens the eyes of
participants to the possibilities. What is new in Microscale’s approach is the use of local talent at
the design and engineering level of product development instead of the usual approach of merely
assembling in Nigeria while the design is done overseas. The Ovim tablet, which is jointly
developed by Microscale and Fasmicro, is a good example of this.
The result is a rise in local talent and a plethora of innovative products that were inspired and
developed locally.
A number of hi-tech businesses will be established and a semiconductor association of Nigeria
formed. The availability of design and manufacturing services from Microscale will enable many
graduating students to startup their businesses with minimal funds by relying on these services.

Signpost 2: 2012: Innovation springs from University students
An innovation award is introduced by Microscale in 2011. The award is given to the most
innovative project presented by a graduating undergraduate in a Nigerian university. The main
criteria for the award are its appeal to the Nigerian market as we will be looking at projects that
can be converted into products to be sold in Nigeria.
There will also be a TV show dedicated to the competition in order to inspire others and to
popularize innovative thinking among students.

You can download the full lecture here:
http://www.microscale-embedded.com/dmdocuments/The_Roadmap_to_Africas_technology_revolution.pdf