Microelectronics is the most dominant technology in our world, but it does not have a creative presence in Africa. Without it, there is no ICT. It matters so much that US, Canada, Japan and Europe have integrated foundry projects for their students.
It is the gunpowder of the knowledge economy army. Without it, you lose the battle of global competition. Africa must develop its microelectronics industry, organically, from bottom-up. And we mean students for continuity and sustainability management. Microelectronics is the engine that drives the information age and without its constant evolution, ICT cannot advance.
In this campaign, we want to help establish at least one world-class microelectronics institute and ten microelectronics labs in the continent within five years.
We will form African Microelectronics Network to enable SMEs and universities share and network design kits, process data, and technology files. This is the major way to creatively improve Africa’s Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) and move Africa forward by designing and manufacturing ICT products, over mere importation of them.
Preamble to the Roadmap
This document is prepared to enable African stakeholders understand what it would take to establish a microelectronics institute in any African university with already existing engineering and science programs. A more comprehensive version of this document has been submitted to World Bank and other international organizations for grants in partnerships with universities we have assisted to develop grants in this area.
It is provided to offer clarity on what a typical budget and microelectronics benefits are in training and educating the next generation of African leaders. If you have the resources to fund a microelectronics institute, we will help to execute it with absolute commitment to quality.
Our proposals are structured to be profit-centers and never cost-centers and they survive through organic growth. It is engineered under the tripod partnerships of SMEs, universities and governments.
If you have the means to make this roadmap a reality in any part of Africa, let us know. The ideas are here, but funding is nowhere.