The China Price Paradox and Africa's Assistive Tech Industry Survival

Chinese tech, which is like the elephant in the room when it comes to the e-mobility shift across Africa and across the global south.

How much of a role does it play in your space?

We all know China is the manufacturing hub for the world for literally everything.

So in a sense, there's a lot of capacity there for manufacturing and also they do a lot of improvements or they always are taking a lot of the technologies we have to the next level.

So in my space, let me call it the assistive tech space, there's a very high need for, I would say, affordable technology.

assistive products.

One of the ways you achieve affordability generally in manufacturing is through economies of scale, meaning that you are able to produce quantities that justify the price, meaning mass production.

And obviously China has been doing this for a very long time.

And because of this, they are able to offer a variety of different types, quality, and sometimes make existing expensive products, make versions that are cheaper and more affordable

yeah

so what we've seen because they are both like positive and negative aspects to this because they are able to make anything and they have the range of whatever quality you need yeah so if you want like a really really cheap wheelchair you can get you'll get that it's just like all other products you know like whether it's shoes or others you can buy shoes of You can buy at $2 and they come here, they sell them at $100.

So the thing that's very critical in assistive products is this idea of, is it suitable for use? Does it meet safety standards? So there has to be safety standards.

And then there has to be quality standards.

So you're looking at durability, repairability.

The problem we have is people importing without knowing.

They just get tenders.

So we have this procurement-driven approach.

It's how government does it.

It's how NGOs do it.

So in procurement, you're not looking at it from a user perspective.

Most people don't have, they just will, they will try to get it at the best price.

And so they will supply say a tender for wheelchairs.

But then the wheelchairs that come, are the cheapest, the lowest quality, and they end up being either donated to the user.

And so the culture we are shifting is to say, you know what, users needs to be educated.

They need to be the ones driving a purchase and sort of give them the agency.

Chinese tech, which is like the elephant in the room when it comes to the e-mobility shift across Africa and across the global south.

How much of a role does it play in your space?

We all know China is the manufacturing hub for the world for literally everything.

So in a sense, there's a lot of capacity there for manufacturing and also they do a lot of improvements or they always are taking a lot of the technologies we have to the next level.

So in my space, let me call it the assistive tech space, there's a very high need for, I would say, affordable technology.

assistive products.

One of the ways you achieve affordability generally in manufacturing is through economies of scale, meaning that you are able to produce quantities that justify the price, meaning mass production.

And obviously China has been doing this for a very long time.

And because of this, they are able to offer a variety of different types, quality, and sometimes make existing expensive products, make versions that are cheaper and more affordable

yeah

so what we've seen because they are both like positive and negative aspects to this because they are able to make anything and they have the range of whatever quality you need yeah so if you want like a really really cheap wheelchair you can get you'll get that it's just like all other products you know like whether it's shoes or others you can buy shoes of You can buy at $2 and they come here, they sell them at $100.

So the thing that's very critical in assistive products is this idea of, is it suitable for use? Does it meet safety standards? So there has to be safety standards.

And then there has to be quality standards.

So you're looking at durability, repairability.

The problem we have is people importing without knowing.

They just get tenders.

So we have this procurement-driven approach.

It's how government does it.

It's how NGOs do it.

So in procurement, you're not looking at it from a user perspective.

Most people don't have, they just will, they will try to get it at the best price.

And so they will supply say a tender for wheelchairs.

But then the wheelchairs that come, are the cheapest, the lowest quality, and they end up being either donated to the user.

And so the culture we are shifting is to say, you know what, users needs to be educated.

They need to be the ones driving a purchase and sort of give them the agency.