Journey to Tomorrowland: Episode 1

The Journey to Tomorrowland podcast explores the theme of the future of work. Join the host, Micheal Akintunde, as he explores this fundamental concept and hear how young African leaders from different educational and cultural backgrounds think and are approaching it. Each episode is filled with mindblowing conversation with extraordinary Mastercard Foundation alumni.

In this episode, my guest is Dr Comfort Ayikoru, a medical doctor from Uganda and a social entrepreneur. She’s the CEO and Co-Founder of Buricare Limited, an award-winning, eco-friendly baby carrier with integrated vital sign monitoring designed to support premature infants in low-resource settings. 

She shared her wealth of experience as a social entrepreneur and how this shapes her idea of the future work and the possibilities that are available.

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Transcript

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (00:04):

Hello there and welcome to Journey to Tomorrowland, a podcast series brought to you by the Mastercard Foundation Baab platform. The ham is simple to reimagine how we understand the future of work by listening to inspiring stories and learning from powerful moments that shape our journeys. I believe the future of work is deeply personal and that every story matters in how we define it. My name is Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde and I'm an Alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program from the University of Cambridge, and I will be your host. In each episode, I sit down with guests from diverse educational and professional backgrounds to share their stories of their perspectives on the future of work, and of course, leave us with an unforgettable G of inspiration. So sit tight and let's get started.

Welcome to joining to Tomorrow Land podcast. This is the first episode in a series of many great inspiring episodes to come. This is a space where we explore one of the fundamental questions of our time, especially to the youth. What does the future of work mean to you and I as a young leader, entrepreneurial innovator, researcher, policy experts, students, or you just thinking about transition, how have you seen the future of work? What excites you? What worries you? What would you like to see changed? These are the sort of questions that we explore in this series on this podcast. Hi, I'm your host. My name is Micheal Akintunde today, and I'm an Alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program from the University of Cambridge. And I'm super excited for the amazing conversation you're about to listen to. My guest here is Dr. Comfort Ayikoru, an award-winning entrepreneur in the space of maternal health and an Alumni of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Comfort. Welcome. It's good to have you on the podcast.

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (02:28):

Thank you so much, Micheal. It's really amazing to be here sharing my knowledge in the areas of my interest. And when you reached out to me to actually be in this podcast, I was super excited because I was like, this is an opportunity for me to share more about the things that I've learned along the way. So thank you so much. And how are you doing? Because it's been a while.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (02:52):

Well, I'm doing really, really great, honestly, and I'm super excited as well to have you on this podcast because I really value your perspectives on entrepreneurship. I think our holdings have got a lot to pick and learn from you sharing your ideas and some of the things that you're working on. But without making any assumption for anyone who doesn't, it was not come across your work and the things that you do. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, what you are doing currently right now, the areas you are exploring and probably why you are in that space right now?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (03:33):

Thank you so much. Like you said, my name is K Coral and I am a medical doctor from Uganda and I just recently completed my MPH a L in population health sciences from the University of Cambridge under the Mastercard Scholarship. So I am a proud alumni and I am set to graduate this May. So in case any of you will be in Cambridge around May, you're most welcome to actually attend my graduation. Aside from that, I am currently back in Uganda where I lead a social enterprise called Buick Limited. And what we do is we develop local locally needed double layered preterm carriers that are fitted with vital monitoring sensors that is able to pick up the vital signs of a preterm infant and relay this information to a mobile app such that a doctor can remotely monitor many babies at the same time. And the reason we actually came up with this is because in our settings, very many preterm babies actually die because we do not have neonatal incubators where they can be taken care of.

(04:40):

So it's very hard for you to actually monitor their vital signs. So we decided to develop a low cost alternative that can work in such settings. So that is what I have been working on and I am happy to be here sharing my knowledge on the journey that we have come along. And aside from work, I also do other things on the side. I have hobbies I like to read, and I also like to listen to music and dance as well and travel in case I have money. But when I don't have money, you always find me at home. Yeah.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (05:16):

Oh wow. That's interesting because I also enjoy listening to good music. And of course we can talk about the type and genre of music that you listen to so that we can find a way of interest perhaps. But you also mentioned when you're talking about yourself, you talk about the work that you are doing and at the heart of this series is to discuss much more and to discuss fundamentally the notion of the future of work and what it means for us. But before I go deep into that and explore that concept more, I want you to understand how did you get into what you currently doing in the space that you are now, which is the neo net care and the maternity aspect of it and ensuring that mothers, they have the joy of having their baby, getting all the necessary things that they need to know about the health of their baby.

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (06:19):

So like I said, my background is in medicine and surgery and when we started, it was not even an idea that we wanted to put out there as an entrepreneur idea. So the whole point was to save babies that are born preterm and prematurely. And this is because in 2020 I actually lost a niece to prematurity complications and we did not have an unal intensive care unit where she was given birth to. So unfortunately as we were being referred to a regional referral, that baby died and wrote. And when I returned to school that year, I realized many other babies were actually dying because we do not have enough infrastructure in place that could take care of them. And this was a gap that I identified and I shared with a few colleagues in class, I also shared with my pediatrics lecturer and she encouraged us to brainstorm ideas on how we can actually solve this.

(07:24):

So that is how URI care started because we then came across something called kangaroo Mother Care, which is a proven intervention to take care of preterm babies. So we just decided to enhance kangaroo mother care because we realized many mothers were already practicing it, but most of them were using very dirty clothes to do it. And sometimes it was hard for them to monitor their baby's vital signs. So we're like, what if we create something that enables them to practice kangaroo at the same time also monitors their vital signs. So that is how the whole idea of pure care came about.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (08:03):

So sorry to hear about the story of your knees. One general theme that I've also seen is that we all have stories that shape how think about the future of work and the possibilities in that space. And with the kind of work that you did, not only have you won so many awards, you've also saved the lives of so many babies in Uganda and in many other countries in Africa. So thanks to the work that you and your team that you're doing. And the next question I would like to explore with you is you are thinking about the direction you're taking is as an entrepreneur, and I believe that that is also at the heart of our understanding of the future of work. When you hear about the future of work, for example, what does that mean to you? How do you think about it?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (08:57):

Actually, the future of work fascinates me because we are in an era where technology is shifting everything. We are seeing power being shifted from institutions to individuals. So when I think of future of work, what comes in my mind is how we can actually use technology to advance so many things, including product development and also reducing the workload. So that is one thing that really fascinates me about it and the fact that you can actually be able to create different ideas using the already available tools like AI to brainstorm on how to better improve certain things in different sectors. And this in turn helps to even employ more people along the way. Well

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (09:44):

That's an interesting take because right now there is no way ordinarily that we can discuss the future of work without how artificial intelligence is helping us to be able to come up with different ideas and innovate and even reiterate. So work out our ideas. And I think that aspect is important. But when you look at the continent, especially with the youth and everybody, the youth specifically, do you think that the future of work, it's really exciting for a lot of people? Or do you think there is a level of fear that you can see out there?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (10:24):

I think one thing is Africa is developing and we are trying to adapt to whatever trends that are coming in. But at the same time, what scares me is the level at which we are adapting. So sometimes other continents are already far away when it comes to innovation around AI and stuff like that. But when it comes to us, we are a little bit slow. And I think that is one thing that scares me because at some point the future of work is going to actually be mostly dependent on people that know how to use AI and know how to use these tools to enhance themselves in their career development. So that is one thing that really scares me. And I believe that if we are to go past that as Africans, we need to make sure that we have the skills that can empower us to actually deliver the work that we're supposed to deliver.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (11:25):

Well, let me pick a little bit on what you said there because I really love it. The future of work is important, the way we think about it, especially in relation to other continents. And again, I don't want us to miss other point because we want us to also talk about our entrepreneurial centric to it. But do you think that when we think about the future of work, we should be thinking about it as future of work in Africa, which means that it might not have anything to do with HAI or anything, it might just be that the future of work in Africa is different.

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (12:01):

I think Africa is among the largest growing populations and you can see that we are actually the youngest population that is currently available on the earth, and that means job opportunities When it comes to entrepreneurship these days, it's very hard for people to actually get jobs in institutions, these major institutions that have already been set up. So I believe the future of work is going to be more of, is going to depend more on entrepreneurship than actually people being employed. So we need to have young people that can be able to create things, young people that are more creative and people that can think outside the box to be able to make sure that actually things are done. So in my opinion, that is where the work is leading and that is where Africa is leading. We need to have people that can think outside the box and can get the work done.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (12:58):

Well. I believe that's very crucial as well to the future of work because it's hard, seriously to imagine the future where you can't think creatively and think outside the box and think critically about the solutions and then the problems that are in our environment. I always also say to myself that one of the goals of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program is to help the youth on the continent to come up with ideas, to solve some of the problems on the continent and then to make our continent a better place. And I want to ask you again, which is still very central to what we've been discussing, would you say as an entrepreneur building something on the continent being to solve one of the fundamental problems, do you still think that this point, I just want you to reemphasize that point, that employment, going for jobs, looking for jobs is the best way to go, or we just have to think about how to come up with solutions to some of the endemic problems on the continent?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (14:02):

So in my opinion, and with the way things are moving right now, I think the best thing for us to do and even for our institutions to do is to empower the young people, especially those that are still in school, to be able to create stuff, to be able to actually come up with projects, projects that have the potential to change the world. And I think that is the way forward if we are actually planning to move. So in most of our universities, most times the courses that we take are courses that just enable us, that just allow us to be employed under certain people. But I think if we take away our minds from being employees to being job creators, then we're going to have a time whereby people are just going to think of different ways of coming up with solutions to the current problems that we're actually having on the continent. And I believe us tackling the problems in our continent in our own way, using our own solutions will go a long way rather than getting solutions that already made in a different continent to come and be used in Africa, which may not ideally be the best for us.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (15:20):

I think that is usually the problem as well because we realize quite often that some things that work somewhere, especially in Europe or in the US can't work because of the peculiarities of our environment and all those kind of things. But for anybody that stick kind of thinking, okay, this is entrepreneurship is very central to the future of work, as you've highlighted and people should start thinking entrepreneurially, can you give me an example, at least in the kind of work that you do, I know you've won so many awards and you've been invited to come and speak and to several workshops if it is not non-disclosure, that kind of thing. Can you tell me about the opportunities that you see when you are building and the kind of support that are kind of held there for entrepreneurs?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (16:15):

I think it's best to just start with the kind of support that is there because there's also a lot of challenges that entrepreneurs face when they are developing their products or services in Africa. But I think for us, when we started, I'm just going to give an example of myself because I have worked this journey. So when we started, it was a little bit hard for us to get in the initial support because we just had an idea. But one thing that helped us was us building a working prototype and because we had a working prototype and we had the need, it was easier for us to apply for different grants opportunities within the country. And that is how we got some of the support. And I think a major support usually comes from accelerator programs within countries in Uganda, there are different accelerator programs that a country is running.

(17:13):

And then also on regional levels, there are accelerator programs, especially for those entrepreneurs that still do not have the money to start their businesses. There are programs where they can actually get enrolled in and learn about entrepreneurship and then they're taken up. Another route that you can use is through the universities. I specifically studied from the University of Barra, university of Science and Technology, and it's one of the places where we actually learned a lot about how to innovate in healthcare space. And they had this particular lab whereby they would actually teach us how to conduct research. So I think that is a major route for very many students to take, especially through their universities because there are incubators within those universities that they can use. There are resources that they can actually use. And that helped to take us a very long way because then we're able to register our business with a help of them. And also people from UNBS were able to register the business. And then we also started different lab tests that were being done using the labs that they were providing us, which ideally we wouldn't have gotten. So these are all the opportunities that you can get there out there as a youth or as an entrepreneur that is trying to come up with any solution out there.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (18:41):

But yeah, that's really amazing and thoughtful. You also mentioned that there are challenges that are very peculiar to you being an entrepreneur and thinking about the future of work as an entrepreneur on the continent. Do you want to talk a little bit on a few of them?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (18:56):

Thank you so much. If I'm to list them, there are quite many, but I'm just going to say the major ones that we have faced particularly as Bureau care. And I think the number one is of course funding. That's a big, big issue that we faced, especially when we were starting because we literally had to fundraise among ourselves, a co-founder and I also have three other four co-founders on the team. So we had to raise money among ourselves to build our first prototype and all that. So it was very hard for people to believe in us initially. We actually applied for very many funding opportunities and got rejected over and over again, like one after the other to the extent that we almost gave up. But thankfully one of them eventually took us on, that was total energies. There was a program that they were running in Uganda.

(19:53):

Unfortunately for us, we were among the winners. So that is what really kicked started our success story. But you realize that even when you kickstart with that kind of funding, then the next hurdle comes in and which is the team that you have. So it's very hard for you to build something if all of you in the team do not have the same vision. Initially when we started, we were quite many, but right now our numbers have reduced, like I've said, we are four, but when we started, we're around six people, we have had to lay off two people. And the reason why we laid them off was because our goals did not align with their goals. And there were very many instances where someone had, I particularly had to take on a lot of workload and most times they were not doing the work that they were supposed to do.

(20:44):

So all those team dynamics come in and you as a leader, how do you navigate such spaces when your team is not functioning well? So all those are challenges that I particularly faced, but in a way it made me learn a lot about different things about how to actually carry a team from when it is small to where we are currently. And then the third challenge that we have faced is the regulatory bodies and standards. You realize the product that we're developing is a medical device and medical devices, you cannot just take them out there to test them like any other product, it has to undergo different stages of research. And in all the stages that we have gone through, we have faced a lot of challenges that have actually delayed us by quite some time because ideally this product that we're currently developing should have been launched already, but we are just now preparing for the pilot studies.

(21:44):

So you can see how many years that we have spent to even reach where we are. And all this is because of the regulatory requirements that have been placed for the particular product. So it became very hard for us to navigate that. And on top of that, Uganda does not have ISO certified manufacturing company, so we have to had to hire some from Kenya and it comes with all its costs and also transportation costs and all that. So my advice would actually be for young entrepreneurs that are looking to develop products, you actually first need to do a lot of market research about the product and whether you can make it from within your country or not, because then it'll enable you to identify the costs that you may incur while developing this product. And then you weigh whether it's cost effective or not. So I'll just say those are the major challenges that we have faced, but there are so many others that I consider it,

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (22:51):

Well, it's the thing with entrepreneurship, it's never linear line. It's almost like hos and downs. And that's why entrepreneurs are so important in our world because they are very optimistic and then they can always just come up with different strategies and ideas to solve the problems that they might be facing at any particular point in time. I have other questions that I want to push to you. I noticed that recently you just moved to Uganda. What motivated your decision? You were here at the University of Cambridge, you did your master's here, and lots of people, as you may understand, they don't want to go back to Uganda. But I want to understand for you, because I believe there must a connection between you going back the work you do and the future of work that we've been talking about.

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (23:52):

That is a very tricky question, but I'll just go ahead and say this. I think what drove me back to Uganda was the fact that I wanted to see the impact that we have actually scale. And yes, I was in Cambridge doing my masters, but while I was there, even though the company was existing and existing and doing work, it was not to the scale that I wanted. So it was not used for me to stay in the UK and look for jobs yet I could actually go back to Uganda, fix what is currently there and possibly employ more people. So that means I would be creating more job opportunities for different people out there. So that's the major thing that brought me back because I want to see U grow into a multinational company that is not only in Uganda, but also across all other African countries and also other low and middle income countries because I believe pet and babies are being born everywhere. So ideally if successful, our product will be used in any part of the world. And if I stayed back in the UK that the growth and the progress that would be having would stall and I do not want that time is money for an entrepreneur. And I take that so seriously. So that was the major reason I came back.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (25:27):

Well, if you're thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, and this is one of the things that happened, you have to think deeply about the problems you're trying to solve, how you can scale the solutions. And sometimes that may require that you have to be back on the continent to really understand the context and continue to develop your business, which I think it sounds really amazing and fantastic to me. So for you, it's not a case of, oh, I didn't know what to do next or something. It's just more about I have something that if I grow it, it has the capability and the capacity to really help a lot of people. And that leads me to this particular question, which is I know there are a lot of things happening. You've met, you've touched on three of them, but did you notice some things, probably new ones or trends that may be impacting your ideas and your business and how you're growing them? The business in particular? I mean, do you notice any trend that may be impacting your business, your social venture, for example?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (26:34):

Okay. I think the major thing that is impacting us right now, and I think not only my business alone, but the work that I do and any other thing is the use of technology and ai. So that is one major thing that I believe has impacted us greatly. And even when we are developing our product, we are having that in mind of how we can use AI for good. And in this instance, using AI to be able to analyze the vital signs that actually come from the baby and how to detect and stuff like that. And also be able to communicate to the mother when she's making consultations. Like I said, we have a mobile app that we have currently developed that a mother can use to monitor the baby's vital signs and at the same time use for consultation and then also have just iterative talks with interactive talks with the app and also the mother.

(27:38):

So those are the things that we have tried to incorporate into the current design that we have. And then another major trend that we have seen is at the moment, you know how climate change is affecting the world. So what we have done is in our product development, the fabric that we use, we make them out of eco-friendly materials. We actually use plant-based yarn to make our product because it's more sustainable than using synthetic yarn. And this, I think plays a role in the broader sustainability goals, and that also helps to save the environment that we're living in. So I think those are the major trends that we are following.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (28:23):

So comfort, lemme put this to you. What skills are you building right now to better position yourself and your business for the future of work and why those particular skills? You can touch on one or two of them, that's absolutely fine.

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (28:39):

Okay. So the major skill, when I started entrepreneurship, I never had any training on how to run a business, how to do accounting and finance and all that. And I think most of it I have had to self-teach myself. I've had to self-teach myself. And also through accelerators that I've been attending, I've had to learn some of these things. So one of the major skills that I am developing, of course I have some, but I am still improving myself in it, is running a project management. I think that's a key skill that most business owners ought to have. Project and business management, financial management. And then another one that I'm currently teaching myself is how to code data analysis. So it's something that I'm currently doing at the moment because I believe one thing about me is I'm a very creative person and my extent of creativity is dependent on how much I know. So the more I expose myself to different things that can improve the business, the better for us. So that's one skill that I'm currently learning and I believe will come in handy when it comes to developing future versions of our career or even other products that we are currently using.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (30:06):

That's absolutely fantastic. I've picked some of the skills that I can add to what I'm currently learning. And then just thinking more broadly about the necessary skills for the future of work. I think for me, I always see it from sub skills that are related to human connections. Of course, we all need to learn coding and improving our understanding of how to use the artificial intelligence agents and systems, but also important to also understand how do we connect with another human being? How do we build relationships and how do we network? And that's the area that I really love to explore alongside all the things. But yeah, thank you so much comfort. You've been here for quite some minutes now and I have learned a good deal from you. We have a tradition on this podcast, which is you can share the book, one book that Transformatively changed your life. If there's one book that you're going to recommend to that person that is Beauty in a Product in Africa, or something that you just feel like if you read this book, it'll change your life, what would that book be?

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (31:15):

I think the book that has always left an impact in my life personally is rich. That and poured, and I believe you must have read it. That's the book that I actually, even while I was joining entrepreneurship, I think that was one of the very fast books that I landed my hands on. And ever since then, I have never thought the same again in terms of how to use my money, how to invest and all that. So for someone who is looking into improving their reading culture, especially when it comes to business and all that, I believe that would be a very good book for them to read.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (31:56):

Well, for me, there are lots of books that I've read in my life and at every point I have to choose different books that appeal to what I'm currently going through in my life. So I think right now the book that I found incredibly transformative is a book titled Status Anxiety by a Man called Bolting. And the idea behind it is there are so many things going on in our environment that's shaping how we are thinking, and that is putting a lot of pleasure on us and how we can better manage that kind of thing so that it doesn't impact us. Thank you so much comfort for joining me today on this podcast. It's really been an incisive engagement. I've learned a lot from your stories. I've learned a lot about what you're doing in entrepreneurship and how you're building sustainable products to help more others in Uganda and across the continent, and some of the challenges you face and some of the opportunities that you see and your ideas about the future of work and the role that entrepreneurship really, really, really play. When we think about the future of work, I believe I always say that the future of work, when we think about it is rooted in our stories, but it's also fundamentally important that we understand the skills and then we understand the space that we have and then that should shape how we are thinking about the future of work. So thank you all of our listeners for joining in and listening to Comfort. Comfort. Do you want to say a goodbye or something to all of our listeners? A few

Dr. Comfort Ayiko (33:30):

Fine. First of all, thank you so much for a great opportunity. I have enjoyed this session with you, and I believe many others that are going to listen to it will actually enjoy it. I hope they do enjoy it. And for all the listeners out there, keep doing what you're doing. I know many of you sometimes worry about your future, but as long as you are doing what you think is right and what is going to impact your society, I believe you're on the right track. So just keep going. We are here to support you in any way that we can.

Micheal Akinkunmi Akintunde (34:04):

That's the key message. We are here to support you. Keep on building businesses, keep on impacting the future of work with your skews, with your courage, with your resilience. Thank you again and watch out for series two on this podcast. We before explore the theme of the future of work with another amazing, inspiring incisive guest. Thank you so much for joining me, and I would see some harder time.