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The TRUE Africa 100 is our list of innovators, opinion-formers, game-changers, pioneers, dreamers and mavericks who we feel are shaping the Africa of today and tomorrow. We’re featuring them over 100 days and we’ve asked each of them three questions.

Kamal Bhattacharya is director at IBM Research – Africa, whose headquarters are based in Nairobi. He’s part of the team behind IBM’s unprecedented $60 million investment in the next-generation technology talent, the Africa Skills Initiative.

How can a young person take advantage of IBM’s Africa Skills Initiative?

The Africa Skills Initiative is a significant investment that IBM is making into developing skills in crucial areas such as analytics, cloud and big data. The goal is to share our knowledge about the core aspects of the technology and its importance in the African context.

In this context, we will roll out the Africa Technical Academy and the University programme to 20 African countries. These programs will teach young professionals and students alike, but also teach the teachers using a plethora of tools that IBM has developed and applied in Africa. Most importantly we want to learn from young talent about how our software can be applied in the African context.

We at IBM believe that our tools are useful, but we don’t own all the insights in how they will be used to address critical societal problems in a commercially viable way. We merely want to teach and engage those who know, from young aspiring entrepreneurs to those who work in enterprises.

I think innovators in Africa should not lose sight of the tremendous economic and societal potential of using technology to give Africa a more pronounced voice from within.

In the same spirit, I just attended the opening of the Innovation Space @ iHub in Nairobi, where we are starting direct engagements with the budding entrepreneurs to help them get started. The launch event was awesome and our Research Lab is committed to engage and support as best we can.

Which upcoming innovations do you bet young Africans won’t be able to live without in the near future?

I honestly don’t know, but I can maybe talk about one area that I hope we will see an explosion of young Africans innovating. Now that I have lived on four continents, one of the striking differences in Africa for me is the nascent media and film landscape. The incredible cultural diversity in Africa has little means for expression. I think of, for example, the movie industry not only as an economic enterprise, but also as a mechanism to gauge the ability for society to express itself.

How will technology revolutionise the media industry in Africa across borders, and can it give rise to a pan-African cultural identity?

Having followed Bollywood over many years, I can see a significant shift in the way a new generation of filmmakers address critical societal issues wrapped in a mainstream staple that appeals to millions of people and is heavily discussed in social and traditional media. India is of course one country, has a huge domestic market and a filmmaking tradition that goes back over 50 years. But, I ask myself, how will technology revolutionise the media industry in Africa across borders, and can it give rise to a pan-African cultural identity? The technology is available and accessible. Whether it is music or film, we can today create any forms of expression at very low cost and of high quality.

I think innovators in Africa should not lose sight of the tremendous economic and societal potential of using technology to give Africa a more pronounced voice from within.

Who’s your African of the year?

I’m not one for personality cults, so I’ll answer the question from a slightly different perspective. One of the many privileges I have in my role is to meet many inspiring personalities, leaders across Africa, heads of state, successful and budding entrepreneurs, etc. Yet, I’d like to give a shout-out to a group of people that I have the luxury of working with on a daily basis and also meet in my frequent travels on the continent: the African scientists and those who come to Africa not only to advance the state-of-the-art in science and tech, but also are eager to work towards the scientific independence of Africa.

The scientific independence of Africa is an uphill battle, as I know first-hand, hence, my kudos to all of those who are eager to try.

A career in science is neither the most lucrative, nor the easiest to qualify for. It requires a lot of courage, enthusiasm and, at times, sheer luck. Africa is not a place that is identified with scientific discoveries, yet I meet with so many who still try, and so many who came from the most unlikely backgrounds, grew up under harsh circumstances, and yet established themselves academically at top schools around the world and still came back to the continent to make a difference.

The scientific independence of Africa is an uphill battle, as I know first-hand, hence, my kudos to all of those who are eager to try.

Find out more about IBM Research Africa

Catch Kamal on Twitter @kabhatta and @IBMResearchAf

Come back tomorrow for the next TRUE Africa 100 and keep up to date using the hashtag #TRUEAfrica