Paul Akwabi

Bold question: What if youth innovation ideas were taken seriously?

Path to Metis: Born and raised in the Nairobi informal settlement slums of Kibera, Mathare and Huruma, Paul spent most of his teenagehood translocating across the country to places such as Rift valley, Western Kenya and Nyanza and would finally settle in Mombasa where his career would take shape as he pursued his mechatronics and Information technology.

He dons several hats as a Mandela Washington Fellow, a technology therapist to children and teenagers interested in IT and a startup mentor. He is a strong advocate for tech literacy in areas such as online safety, robotics, coding and creative design with a firm belief that this combination of skills is of value addition to SDG 4 on quality education and SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth.

Paul bridges the digital gap of innovation and exposure to global resources creating a bridge between first world countries and third world countries to children and teenagers in terms of learning robotics and coding, Paul is the founder Tech Kidz Africa which is a holding company for Young innovators Magazine-a platform for young innovators to voice their innovations and get inspiration to build a culture of innovativeness from a younger age between 7 and 25years and Afribot robotic kits fabricated in Kenya and Africa for education learning.

He is an award winner in a couple of sectors; 2016 first position in ICT and entrepreneurship at the National innovation week organized by NACOSTI, 2018 Third position in Africa in Global Social ventures challenge held in Morocco and 2019 winner of the EdtechXAfrica representing Kenya in London on global EdtechXEurope the biggest Edtech festival in Europe.

He has been incubated at Nailab under Make-IT in Africa a German organization and also worked as an official with innovation centres like Swahilipot Hub and Techbridge Challenge under Techbridge invest. He has been on the jury of judges at Technovation Safaricom challenge, LEAP2 by Close The Gap Kenya and Tech Kidz Expo amongst others.