By creating inexpensive computers for Togonian students, Sam Kodo made a significant contribution to addressing the issues he identified in his native country, but his path did not begin in this direction.
Sam originally started building robots when he was just eight years old. Sam would take apart obsolete gadgets like TVs and radios that were destined for the trash and utilise the parts for his own inventions.
Sam’s encouragement from both of his parents was one of the factors that helped him succeed as an engineer.
Sam was able to read books about equations and formulas as well as electronics since his father, a physics lecturer at the University of Lome, had easy access to the library. As a result, Sam became a self-taught engineer.
Of course, his mother also contributed significantly to Sam’s achievement. Sam’s admission that his mother occasionally bought him toys so he could disassemble them and use the parts to make completely different things for his own experiments is one approach to demonstrate this.
Sam discovered that he couldn’t utilize a computer to complete his assignments while still an undergraduate. Due to this, he had the idea to create his own computer, which would be less expensive than a typical computer because he thought that many other students faced a similar problem. By creating a device of this nature, he would be able to provide these students with more convenient access to computers at a reasonable cost. Just $90 is the asking price for his machines!
His company, Infinite Loop, which he established in 2013 with the cash he received from Forum des Jeunes Entrepreneurs, a national competition for young entrepreneurs in Togo, enabled the creation of these computers.
Sam claims that reading the biographies of the Wright brothers and Thomas Edison in a magazine when he was young gave him the inspiration to pursue his career, and ever since, he has never once wavered in his commitment to sharing his passion through his creations.
Notably, Sam Kodo has a significant number of awards and recognitions to his name as a result of his contributions to using technology to improve Africa. Among them are, the Anzisha Prize Fellow in 2014 and Mandela Washington Fellows in 2015. He also gained recognition at the 2016 Africa4Tech that held in Marrakech, Morocco.
