Startup Firm Leads Kenya Into World of High-Tech Manufacturing

NAIROBI, KENYA — 

A three-year-old startup company is leading Kenya into the world of high-tech manufacturing, building a workforce capable of making semiconductors and nanotechnology products that operate modern devices from mobile phones to refrigerators.

Anthony Githinji is the founder of Semiconductors Technologies Limited, or STL, located in Nyeri, about a three hours' drive from Nairobi.

He brought his know-how to Kenya from the United States, where he started work in 1997 on semiconductors — materials that conduct electricity and are used in thousands of products.

He said the biggest barrier to entry in any high-tech business is finding a workforce with the right skills. In deciding to start a business in Kenya, his country of origin, Githinji said a meeting with the vice-chancellor of Dedan Kimathi University of Science and Technology, also known as DEKUT, was a game changer.

"DEKUT and STL formed a partnership that allowed for us to engage STEM-related education and develop it, tool it and orient it toward our specific industry, which is the semiconductor and microchip space and so we started attaching students and having internships through STL, and it became very clear and very quickly that the level and caliber of the education system and the product of DEKUT, I believe most institutions of higher learning in Kenya are very high level," Githinji said.

Female engineers

STL employs about 100 engineers, 70 percent of them women.

Irene Ngetich, a process engineer with a background in telecommunications and electrical engineering, graduated from DEKUT in 2019. She said she entered the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) sector after reading an article recommended by her father about another woman in the field.

"So, when I read through [it] ... she mentioned that in her class there were only two ladies. Of course, I love doing challenging things; so that stood out for me," she said.

Ngetich said the company's goal is "to be the leading [computer] chip manufacturer in Africa."

Semiconductors are used in almost every sector of electronics. In consumer electronics, for example, they are used in microwave ovens, refrigerators, mobile phones, laptops, and video game consoles.

Lorna Muturi, a mechatronics engineer who will be graduating from DEKUT this year, is just 22 years old, but already has been working at STL for two years.

"We build the semiconductor manufacturing machine within the plant and as a mechatronics engineer, I am involved in the automation of the system; [and] also involved in the diagnostics of the system in case there's an issue," she explained about her job.

Muturi said that at STL, she works with people who are comfortable with her and accept her as a woman engineer. Now she's able to go out and inspire others to join the STEM field.

STL CEO Githinji said the company prides itself on being gender overbalanced on the female side. He said the company turned out that way because of an extremely vigilant human resource development program.

"What you see at STL, whether it's deliberate or inadvertent, is the result of pretty rigorous attention to the human resource capacity of the individual. It so turns out that these young women in STEM at STL have a very compelling story to tell. They are extremely intelligent, they are doing exceptionally well, training very well and they are producing very well," he told VOA.

He added, "We also do have a lot of young men who perform very well and are exceptional in what they do."

Looking ahead

Githinji said the company is not profitable yet.

"We are still in the phase of building capacity, so there's a lot of expense that sinks into creating that capacity," he said. "The good news, though, is that we have customers, we have products, we have the view that these products are going to be more and more adaptable and compelling in the marketplace."

The company is working to establish relationships with other universities in Kenya, such as Strathmore and University of Eldoret, as well as in Uganda and Rwanda.

Githinji said he has also established a foundation named after his mother and his mother-in-law, with a goal of empowering under-privileged girls through STEM. With partners, he has built a computer lab in a remote village near Mount Kenya with about 20 workstations so kids and their families can benefit.