Season 2, Episode 6: The Zambian Astropreneur, Ahmad Hamwi
Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 6! And it’s 2023! A quick note before we dive in about this new Season and how it’s a bit different than Season 1 (if you haven’t already caught our drift)…
First of all, we are still working on our Year 1 Thesis Report. We have gathered some great feedback and will be distributing to everyone in February… keep your eyes peeled for that and some other exciting announcements coming soon!
In Season 2 of Brym Labs, we will be highlighting stories directly from changemakers across the world - inviting them to tell their own stories in their own ways in the spirit of Citizen Journalism! In addition to a written piece that they write themselves, we’ll also be doing interviews so you get to hear from their own voice as well!
In this week’s Climate Story and Interview, we hear from Ahmad Hamwi! Ahmad is the Founder and CEO of Ignitos Space. We met in person at COP27 in Egypt when Ahmad was winning the Africa Grows Green Awards for his work with Ignitos Space! So excited to share Ahmad’s story and please feel free to reach out to the ‘Astropreneur’ as you learn more!
As always, feel free to follow along on Apple Podcasts as well! Hope you enjoy…
Reborn - The Zambian Astropreneur
Author: Ahmad Hamwi, January 26, 2023
How did we get here?
Thomas my guy, I believe you have unlocked something beyond this being just another blog.
I’ve worked in the climate change field for a few years now, but I was never pushed to find the real story behind it, and writing my story for Brym has made me discover things about me and my story that never connected before. So Brym, you are doing Fine!
This spans back to my early childhood, a 7yrs old boy with asthma, living in Lebanon on the outskirts of the city. At that age, I had two main interests: electronics and nature. Two very opposite areas, but where my passion found a home.
On weekends and on breaks, I used to spend most of my time in the forest at a mountain near our house. There I explored nature, I spent hours looking at different plants, insects, rivers and running water, and tadpoles (It fascinated me to see them grow into frogs).
On other days when I couldn’t go out of the house, I used to turn my focus to electronics. Anything that came to my reach, I started examining it, trying to understand how it works, and yeah sometimes I would take it apart using a variety of tools I found around the house (because my parents hid the main screwdrivers and tools from me for some reason!).
Things started changing after a few years when the mountain started to get eaten by machines. Bulldozers chipped away at my favorite place, and buildings started to grow. This didn’t only make me sad seeing my sanctuary being destroyed, but all the dust coming from the construction made my asthma attacks much more severe and gave my parents many nights of rushing me to the hospital for treatment and oxygen.
A few years later, at the university level, I decided to become a software engineer. I always understood the mechanical part of things, but the software was now what fascinated me, and how much we can create programs and worlds inside a computer.
Fast forward again to 2014, I went on a tourist trip to Zambia, a country where an uncle of mine had some businesses. I fell in love with the country in 1 week. Nature is beyond what I imagined! Victoria Falls, the largest natural waterfalls in the world, animals, forests, rivers, everything I was deprived of, and more!
A few months later I resigned from my job as an E-learning administrator for the American University in Beirut and moved to Zambia, a country where I knew no one. I stepped in as the executive director for the company my uncle had, as he lived in a different country. And that’s how in 2015, I set foot into my new Home.
In 2017, while running Zambia’s biggest AgriTech company “Roto Tanks”, we started another project in Siavonga on Lake Kariba (the biggest man-made lake, with the size of Lebanon!). That project consisted of building holiday homes and starting commercial farming activities on 2,000 hectares of land.
That project grew exponentially as we hired an expert agronomist, who taught me a lot about agriculture and precision farming. We had to listen to the plants, not to what the books are saying, so we know if they need more water or less, to know which type of fertilizers they needed, which apparently changes in every stage of growth of the plant, depending on a lot of factors, including the soil composition. We were conducting soil testing all the time, to keep track of what the soil is lacking, and what is already there, as putting excess fertilizer, whether organic or chemical, will lead to soil degradation. This led to higher crop yields and a more sustainable farming operation overall.
Through Roto Tanks, I started conducting workshops for farmers around the country to sensitize them to the use of technology for farming, how to use drip irrigation, fertilizer tanks, soil testing, and more. I found myself also gravitating toward some of my most successful workshops which were titled “make agriculture sexy again” where I taught the audience how to turn farming into farming as a business. It is important to be proud of being a farmer, compared to the shame and “poverty” titles that surround any young person doing farming.
Meanwhile, I started building my own company named “Green Future Enterprises”, which focused on the agriculture value chain. Our model includes everything from workshops and agri-advisory to importing fruits we got from the farms and various Agricultural products to chain stores around the country.
From there, in 2019, I left my last formal job at Roto and “Green future” grew. We established a name in the market, we even started some new projects and things were looking fantastic…Until March 2020, when covid hit, when there were big losses for the company, borders closed down, workshops got canceled, and the whole world went on lockdown.
2020 was a strange year, as many people's main focus was on survival. Although my businesses did not survive, I was able to personally survive. But 2020 had one more surprise for me.
On New Year's Eve 2020, I felt very tired and sick and went to bed early. The next morning, I was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with COVID-19. After two weeks, my condition worsened, I developed three holes in my lungs, coughed up blood, and struggled to breathe until the night when the doctors told my family that I wouldn't make it through the night.
I was in a state of mental confusion most of the time and lost track of days and time. But in the night when doctors gave up, I refused to.
In my timeless foggy state, I told myself that I hadn't achieved my purpose in this world yet and my time was not done. And in the morning, I was able to eat and talk, and I began to improve. It took a few months to fully heal, but I now had a renewed sense of purpose.
My purpose was to help people and save the planet. I didn’t know exactly how yet, I think maybe I still don’t know exactly how, but for sure we’ll figure it out. I even got myself a Tattoo on my forearm. A tattoo of a phoenix, symbolizes resilience, coming back from the ashes, health and business, and every aspect.
In 2021, an opportunity presented itself to me: a challenge in France, by VIVATECH, about using space technology. This was the opportunity I was waiting for.
Combining my software development background, my agriculture experience, and my interactions with farmers on the ground, I came up with an idea. I wanted to use satellites to help farmers get information about their land and soil, enabling them to do precision and climate-smart farming.
I started my research, took a few courses on how satellites work, put a team together, and started refining my invention. I applied for the competition, and from a worldwide pool of companies, we were selected to be on stage as a finalist!
And that’s when “Ignitos Space” was born. The name “ignitos” from ignite, to ignite the fire like a phoenix inside people and tell them that the sky is not the limit.
Ignitos Space’s concept evolved with time and refined more and more. Now we are developing “igniteAi” which is an artificial intelligence platform that provides actionable insights on the ground, to all farmers, using smartphones and even USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) for those who don’t have or know how to use tech.
We are now bridging the gap between high-tech and people who need it the most. All you need is a phone, smart or dumb, and we can locate where you are and give you information about your farm and enable you to increase your yields.
We have now won multiple awards around the world, including Africa’s best space innovation company, and more. We got invited to NASA and Virgin Orbit in Los Angeles. And most recently, we won the Africa Grows Green competition at COP27, where I met Thomas!
Ignitos now has a local Zambian team and is assisted by an international team and board of advisors with 30+ years of experience in various fields. In addition to our invention of artificial intelligence, we create systems and research on deforestation and agriculture advice to NGOs, governments, and more.
My Rebirth led me into Ignitos, but also into “the Astropreneur”, which became my new title. Through that, I decided to shine a light on my life experience and the various startups I started throughout my life, combined with courses I’ve taken in business, psychology, and coaching.
So now, I’m a motivational public speaker, a business coach, advocate for climate change, education, and of course agriculture. I conduct workshops and masterclasses and consult businesses to take them from zero to hero. As well, I’m a mentor for multiple local and international organizations.
What’s next? I guess we’ll write another story in a few years.
Huge thank you to Ahmad for sharing his beautiful story! Up next, look out for our next Climate Story on February 9th + lots of exciting things in the works for 2023!!
Have a great rest of the week everyone and a safe weekend.
