Feature: Kenyan innovator's challenges of commercializing products

Kenyan student Paul Ntikoisa came up with an innovative idea two years ago, targeting to solve problem of girls dropping out of school.

Studying Education, Ntikoisa had developed a sanitary towel from the locally available banana fibre.

By the time he graduated late 2014, Ntikoisa was optimistic of securing partnerships and support from various stakeholders to commercialize his idea and begin making money.

"I feel stuck at the moment. I have made my efforts to patent the product and I am still waiting for the response from Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI)," Ntikoisa told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"But getting the necessary support and capital needed to take off is one of the challenges I am currently facing. But I am not giving up," he added.

"Patenting is the beginning of the process since you have to protect the innovation to be able to benefit from it," noted Ntikoisa who won an award for the innovation in a scientific conference held at Kabarak University, in Kenya Rift Valley region in 2014.

The 26-year-old anchors his hope on the community's recognition of his innovation as a means of boosting girl-child education in the country to attract individuals and organizations committed to creating a favourable learning environment for the girls.

"This kind of sanitary towel could be cheaper because we will be utilizing the locally available materials," he said.

"But I have realized it is not an easy journey. An innovation has to be utilized to meet its intended purpose to be useful to the community. It does not contribute to any socio-economic development if it fails to reach the consumers," argues the innovator.

Ntikoisa's predicaments is a reflection of the many challenges that thousands of Kenyans inventing products are facing to reach the market as Peter Kimathi, a product branding and marketing specialist says.

Kimathi says it takes more than a breakthrough in the discovery to become a rightful owner of the product and generate an income from it.

"First, they must patent the product to be able to reap the full benefits. Second, they must know how to brand it and this cannot happen without money. It is a serious challenge when there is no or little capital. Many of them are faced with this challenge," he said.

Under the Kenyan industrial laws, the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) is the only entity entitled to patent innovations, giving the owner exclusive rights to prevent others from manufacturing, using or selling the product.

One pays 34.50 dollars as a fee for application of the exclusive rights and has to wait for up to 18 months for the publication of the submission as a procedure of determining the qualification of the product for a patent.

A grant for patent is offered after KIPI officers are satisfied of the standards of the product in an assessment exercise. The examination exercise costs 57.47 dollars and the owner finally receives the patent at an additional charge of 34.48 dollars.

Lack of information on proper certification of products hinders many Kenyans from marketing their innovations and in the long term denies consumers access to useful products, argues Kimathi.

"There are thousands of Kenyans coming up with innovations each and every day but very few of them manage to reach the market," he noted.

"It is discouraging when youths give up on their ideas because of lack of direction on what to do to become successful. It is a problem that cannot be ignored and mentorship is one of the ways to solve it," he said.

Statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organization show that out of 1,651 patent applications made to KIPI between 2000 and 2012, only 487 received a grant for protection. Endit