By 
By Aanuoluwa Omotosho and Oluwatobi Opusunju
About 600 participants, 109 startups and 30 speakers will be participating in this year’s Sahara Sparks, the innovation and technology entrepreneurship event, holding next month, May 26 and 27 in Dar es Salaam.
The participants will engage in eight (8) sessions of deliberations, pitching and networking around Sahara Sparks 2017 theme: “Towards Smart Solutions”. This year’s event is leveraging on that of last year which focused on the theme: “Breaking the Barriers.”
Organisers, Sahara Ventures, expect this year’s turnout to be more as delegates are expected from within and outside the continent. The two-day event is designed to round exhibitions, product launching, pitching sessions, talks, panel discussions and networking Already confirmed to attend as speakers from Nigeria are Daser David, founder/CEO of nHub, Jos Plateau State and Olusegun Oruame, who leads the team at Qitech Technologies Limited.
Sahara Sparks promotes early stage companies by providing them with the opportunity to be exposed, pitch and exhibit their products and services, to find investors and potential partners.
Sahara Sparks 2016 saw more than 109 early stage companies (startups) participating in the largest ever innovation and technology entrepreneurship event to be organized in Tanzania. The event had more than 600 attendees mostly young entrepreneurs from all over Tanzania who were showcasing their products, pitching in front of the audience, seeking partners for their businesses and all of them hoping to scale their businesses to the next level.
Dr. Hassan Mshinda, Director General of Commission for Science and Technology, Tanzania provided an interesting keynote falling under the 2016 event theme of “Breaking the Barriers”, how can we create an ecosystem to support the growth of innovation and technology entrepreneurship in the country.
