Cisco Systems has announced plans to set up a $500,000 innovation hub in Nairobi this September. The company says the hub will be designed to tap the tech enthusiasts in the region.
The hub will take in a cohort of 50 developers per session, and will be holding different groups per year. There will be no pre-defined duration for each session; the length will be on a need basis. The participants will first be assessed for the viability of their digital innovations.
The Nairobi-based hub is just one of the three hubs Cisco is setting up across sub-Saharan Africa. The other two will be in South Africa.
Cisco East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands representative, David Bunei, said, “The innovation centers will be free for use by digital innovations and small medium enterprises. Here they will horn their digital skills, meet, and collaborate among themselves and get experts advice.
They will also have access to some of our infrastructure (APIs) which they will use if need be to build solutions around them.”
Bunei said that during his address at the 11th edition of Cisco Annual Cybersecurity Report. Contained in the report, are details of how malware have become sophisticated over the years as cybercriminals horn their skills. It also touched on the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning by both people and institutions. They use these technologies to detect and arrest suspicious activities.
The report reads in part, “In the modern threat landscape, adversaries are adept at evading detection. They have more effective tools, like encryption, and more advanced and clever tactics, such as the abuse of legitimate internet services, to conceal their activity.”