Tolulope Olukokun
Many Africans believe it is more classy to pay for every services or goods one may need, which is nothing bad really especially if one can afford it.
Affordability in this sense does not necessarily mean having the means of payment, but putting into consideration the time and effort you may need to get things done by yourself.
I would like to expose to you the benefits of DIY as a concept to be adopted especially in Africa.
“Do it yourself” (“DIY”) is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things without the direct aid of experts or professionals.
1) Economic benefits : on the surface, it saves you some money and you can also offer your services for a price.
2) Product availability: if a product you really want is not available, with DIY you could make it available to you and create a market for it
3) Product quality: When you make a product available, you ultimately determines its quality and that is to your benefits as well.
4) Customization: Then it can be one in a million, fully made for only you.
5) Empowerment: it could also serve as some sort of empowerment for you, to learn new ventures and make gains
The basic economics of DIY suggests
that it saves money but on a deeper study, it is sometimes more costly if time, labour and material costs are factored in and that is why it advised to adopt the concept only if you are doing it to:
1. Catch fun (learning and entertaining)
2. exercise (Physical and mental exercise)
3. Innovate: Innovation is the combination of different ideas and contribution of the different minds and so when you are into the concept of DIY, naturally, different ideas will pass through your mind and that could spark up an innovation of a new product out of the existing one.
We should not misunderstand Invention as Innovation.
Simply put, invention is bringing out a new product that has never existed anywhere, while innovation is bringing out something new out of an already existing product. As Grasty explains it, “if invention is the pebble tossed in the pond then innovation is the rippling effect that the pebble caused.”
To be an innovator, thinking is paramount and you need to follow and active process of thinking. You must endeavour to think creatively.
To innovate successfully, you must do the following,
1) Think Associatively
2) Associate Ideas and concepts for compatibility
3) Explore the relationships between existing objects/products and your ideas.
All of these are needed for a successful innovation and it is understandable that it could still be extremely difficult for some and I have to say this category of people that…
“If you CAN’T Innovate, Please COPY, But Copy LEGALLY! Yes it came out right, it was what I intended to say, copy it, but copy it in a way that you will not be penalized for it and that is by getting the authority to do so, copy in a legal way. A lot of products we see today are closely related and that can only mean that it is some sort of a copy of another, so when you copy an existing innovation in a LEGAL way, go the extra mile to modify it to reflect some sort of addition from you, my 2 cents.
I have said all the above so we could use the knowledge acquired here to innovate for the mitigation of climate change.
My mission and that of ThinkELectric Africa Initiative is to accelerate Africa to renewable energy so we could mitigate climate change, the effects of climate change is too extreme and what a better way if we can put our heads and ideas together to bring lasting solutions to undo all the activities that we have done to our mother earth.
I would not be able to complete this without mentioning that mitigating climate change is our collective responsibilities, our government and private companies might not do anything about this because they are too scared, scared that it may be costly and they might loose there financial powers which is not true.
The earth deserves better, all that it needed has been provided, the trees, the wind, the sun, heavy bodies of water, and with all of these we can generate all the energy we ever need.
In the words of Greta Thumberg, Let the fossil fuel stay in the ground.
It is a challenge to all of us, let us wake up to this call, support and partner with ThinkElectric Africa initiative as we reduce carbon emission through the provision of Clean and Affordable Electric mobility for Africa and with our sound research and development and a proven result, we will make this happen soonest.
You can as well join us in making the land and marine environment clean and healthy as we make available cheap recycling machines for individual homes and communities so every one of us can participate in this. Remember, it is our collective responsibilities.
Thank you.
A speech delivered at the CAMPUSTECHFES2019
*Tolulope Olukokun is Founder/Coordinator of ThinkElectric Africa Initiative, an NGO with the sole mission of accelerating the transitioning to renewable and sustainable energy.
