Cairo-based innovation hub icecairo’s goal is to equip young entrepreneurs with the skills to lead the way in green technology, as Egypt attempts to move towards a more sustainble future.

Launched earlier this year, icecairo is an offshoot of the successful ICT hub, iceaddis, in Ethiopia founded by steering committee chairman, Marton Kocsev.

Upon relocating to Egypt Kocsev immediately saw an opportunity to replicate the iceaddis experience; however, he recognised the need to tweak the project and how it related to the community.

“There was an interest to create something similar to iceaddis but have it focus more on environmental technologies,” says Koscev.

“The background is very similar to iceaddis in terms of how to set up an innovation hub and create a community around it," he said.

"However, we said from the beginning here in Cairo that we wanted to focus on green technologies and not just ICTs," he added.

Koscev also manages the hub’s green skills training project and points out that this is what sets icecairo apart in the Egyptian IT scene.

Icecairo provides regular training in three areas, namely green construction, energy and water.

“What we have seen is that there is enough support and hubs to help young ICT guys to enter the market with their ideas but there is no one to support green tech ideas and green tech entrepreneurs,” explains Koscev.

Although they are not yet able to provide soft skills and entrepreneurship trainings, the organisation is seeking to carry these out in the future.

“We are looking into the soft skills training side and we really want to have them on offer but need the physical space. We want a full scale incubator or even an innovation centre where we could, in a manner, graduate start-ups before they formally register as start-ups,” comments Koscev.

Icecairo is currently just a virtual hub as the organisation looks to establish a formal physical space.

Cairo is a notoriously busy city with space at a premium and the organisations has faced many challenges in securing a location; however, indications suggest that the end of August will see icecairo take up accommodation in a formal location.

The lack of a formal space has not deterred the growth of the hub as it runs its communications through a virtual base of Facebook and Twitter, organising workshops, meet-ups and training opportunities.

“We now have around 260 people who we work with on a very close basis in terms of organising those workshops and training sessions in the field of green technologies,” Koscev enthuses.

While there are currently no formal membership structures, these would be implemented once the organisation moves into a physical space.

While the IT infrastructure in Cairo is well established with cheap and effective broadband services buoyed by a tech savvy community, so-called green technologies have lagged somewhat behind.

It is into this gap that icecairo wants to inject itself.

“There are a lot of organisations like the government, NGOs, private sector all investing a lot of money into ICTs and young people in ICTs, but there has been almost nothing done when it comes to supporting people in terms of green technologies and the green technology sector,” says Koscev.

As Koscev and his team have transitioned into offering skills training surrounding the environmental technologies sector, the Egyptian ministries of education as well as trade and industry have begun to show an interest in the project.

Their main interests have been in the training projects as well as the support scheme for young entrepreneurs in the green technology sector.

The icecairo project has already seen successes emerge with a new and more efficient biogas system in development, while another entrepreneur works on a shading system made from paper that will increase efficiency in housing projects.

“These projects are very encouraging and so it is very important to us to offer training skills in the three areas of energy, water and construction in order to get young people into jobs. We are very much focusing on creating employment in the green economy,” says Koscev.

Looking into the future, the plans are to set-up regional hubs across Egypt and already the expansion into the city of Alexandria is in progress, Koscev concluded.