Bots hearing aid technology targets 40m clients
Staff Writer | Monday September 28, 2015 15:44
The solar ear can last for five years, and costs about P3,000 or $600 and is considered affordable by world standards, where common hearing aid devices cost about P9,000.
Located in Riverwalk Mall (Gaborone), the company that manufactures the solar ear, Deaftronics was born out of a non-profit entity called Godisang Trust, whose former employees, all with hearing aid difficulties, and well trained in the technology, commercialised the solar-ear technology.
More than 15 years ago, a government funded technology research institute BOTEC, now known as BITRI, developed the solar ear and unbundled it to the local market for mass production.
It is this BOTEC proto-type that has been developed further by Deaftronics, resulting in over 10,000 units of the solar ear sold since commercialisation.
The company is not thinking small as their target is to sell 40 million of these units. Their solution has been hailed by even the World Health Organisation, which estimates that about 360 million people in the world would need hearing aids such as the one developed by Deaftronics.
That translates into some US$21 billion, without including possibilities of device replacement that can happen at least ten times during one’s lifetime.
In recent years, Deaftronics has endeavoured to develop its business network and improving its positioning to become a specialist centre for hearing aids in Africa. It has so far provided training and empowerment to different centres including the Institute for the Deaf in the Jordan, the National Institute for the Deaf in Cape Town, South Africa and Solar Ear in Sao Paulo, Brazil.