This article contains promotional content .(February 2023) |
Formation | 2011 |
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Location |
|
Services | Network Organization |
Board Chair | Moetaz Helmy |
Executive Director | Anna Ekeledo |
Website | www |
AfriLabs is a pan-African innovation-focused organisation that works with over 400 innovation hubs in 53 countries and other stakeholders to raise successful startups and entrepreneurs that are developing and deploying innovative solutions to African problems through the adoption of technologies.
AfriLabs was founded in 2011 with five organizations: Nailab Kenya, iHub Kenya, HiveColab Uganda, ActivSpaces Cameroun and Banta Labs Senegal. The first gathering of AfriLabs took place at the launching of iHub. In 2012, AfriLabs was formally registered in the Netherlands as a foundation and hired its first Executive Director in November. [1] AfriLabs also partnered with Indigo Trust and Hivos. In 2013, AfriLabs laid out strategic priorities and went into partnership with Microsoft 4Afrika and the Rockefeller Foundation. AfriLabs also got involved with the World Bank InfoDev's virtual incubation project and added 5 more hubs to its network from East Africa. [2]
In 2014, AfriLabs had its second global meet-up in Berlin. [3] [4] and also collaborated with The Rockefeller Foundation to launch a digital jobs challenge. [5] AfriLabs launched its 1st Collaboration Challenge with support from Microsoft4Afrika [6] and initiated the hub sustainability challenge with AfriHive. [7] In 2015, AfriLabs had its first African meet-up in Egypt. [8] OSIWA assessed in partnership with the organisation to explore hubs as creative spaces. AfriLabs hosted a sustainability workshop, 'Hub in a Box'. [9] While the official AfriLabs website was created, branding was carried out. AfriLabs launched social media takeovers for members and launched capacity building partnership with MBA programs.
In 2016, AfriLabs transitioned its secretariat assets to Abuja, registered as a non-profit in Nigeria, expanded the administrative team- secretariat, launched its corporate affiliate program with Africa.com and Facebook, and went into partnership with Making All Voices Count (MAVC), which resulted in the AfriLabs Annual Gathering, organizational support, the development of a virtual learning platform and regional Hub City meet ups in Dakar, Johannesburg, Cairo, Lagos and Nairobi. The first African Annual Gathering took place in Accra, Ghana.
In 2018, AfriLabs held its first Virtual Board Election and elected new board members to the team. In 2018, AfriLabs, in collaboration with Microsoft, hosted a free technical training for startups and entrepreneurs in Lagos, [10] Nigeria. In the same year, AfriLabs and ICT4SI partnered to host their first West African social innovation workshop in Abuja, Nigeria. In August, AfriLabs hosted its first Hubs Learning Week which was sponsored by MAVC. In October, The Annual Gathering took place in Cairo, Egypt hosted by the District and co-organized by Hivos and AfriLabs. In November, TNE in collaboration with AfriLabs organized the Supersize the Valley Conference themed "Changing the Paradigm: From Individual to Ecosystem". [11] [12]
The current Board Chair is now Moetaz Helmy from Egypt, founder of KMT House, Cairo. He replaced Rebecca Enonchong who served from 2017-2021 and took over from Michael Oluwagbemi who led the institutionalization of Afrilabs with global headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria after existing on adhoc basis prior to then.
2014-2017
Michael Oluwagbemi (Board Chair- 2015-17), Lynn Sellanga (Board Secretary), Rakotoarivo Sarobidy, John Matogo, Seye Bassir (2016-17). Resigned: Barbara Mutabazi (2015-16)
2017-2019
Rebecca Enonchong (Board Chair), Bernard Chiira (Secretary), Rakotoarivo Sarobidy, Board Treasurer, Regina Mbodj, Francophone Representative, Nekesa Were
2019-2021
Rebecca Enonchong (Board Chair), Moetaz Helmy (Board Secretary), Kudzai Mubaiwa (Board Treasurer), Fatoumata Niang Niox (Francophone Representative), Takunda Chingonzo, Daniel Chinagozi and Linda Kwamboka (Board members).
2021-2023
Moetaz Helmy (Board Chair), Linda Kwamboka (Board Secretary), Kudzai Mubaiwa (Board Treasurer), Elodie Nonga (Francophone Representative), Takunda Chingonzo, Daniel Chinagozi and Steve Tchoumba (Board members).
2023-Date
Moetaz Helmy (Board Chair), Steve Tchoumba (Board Secretary), Jeremy Riro (Board Treasurer), Dr. Itoro Emembolu, David Ogiga, Madeline Ileleji, Ahmed Bastawy, Berry Numbi, Rene Parker (Regional Board members).
AfriLabs's advisory board consists of Michael Oluwagbemi (founder of LoftyInc Allied Partner) and Seye Bassir (Director of Investment at IFU).
In 2019, AfriLabs announced the launch of its AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP). [22] The ACBP is a 36-month intensive capacity initiative designed by AfriLabs for African tech hubs to improve their capacity to support the growing number of startups and MSMEs in their communities across Africa. It is supported by €2 million from the French Development Agency (AFD) through the Digital Africa seed fund. [23] It aims to train hub managers and staff with African-tailored content, models and best practices for hub management and startup support. The programme's goal is to build investable startups across Africa. The AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP) is an intensive capacity building programme for hubs. This project is being carried out thanks to AFD's support through the Digital Africa seed fund. This includes:
The Capacity Building Awards is an initiative within the Capacity Building Program that provides a grant of €15,000 to winning hubs within the AfriLabs network to implement projects for the hubs and startups within their network, showcasing the application of capacity building models.
During AfriLabs's virtual 2020 Annual Gathering held from 12–14 October 2020, 17 innovation hubs were rewarded with 15,000€ each to implement startup support projects across Africa. Winners were selected from a pool of over 60 applications from every region in Africa. Some of the successful applications are collaborations between hubs in different countries and regions.
Ingenious City, Democratic Republic of Congo and a cross-regional collaboration effort from Roar Nigeria Hub, Nigeria and Centre d’Innovation de Lubumbashi (CINOLU) won for their projects on virtual incubation.
Under the women support category, Douar Tech (Morocco), Makerere Innovation and Incubation Centre (Uganda), Hive Colab (Uganda), Wennovation Hub (Nigeria) and DoniLab (Mali) won while Eldo Hub (Kenya), Maio Business Centre (Cabo Verde), TechQuest STEM Academy (Nigeria) and Junub open space collaboration projects were also successful.
For Investor & Mentor Networks Building and Matching category, a regional collaboration between Jacaranda Hub (Zambia) and GoDo Hub (Nigeria) won, as well as Ennovate Hub (Tanzania). ActivSpaces (Cameroon) and Recycle Up! (Ghana) won for their projects on innovative and practical methods of training start-ups within their network on financial management, communications and marketing. Meanwhile, Clean Technology Hub Abuja (Nigeria), Habaka Hub (Madagascar) and Tarkwa Entrepreneurship Development Hub (Ghana) were awarded 2,000 Euros each to host virtual meetups on COVID-19 and the SDGs. [25]
AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week was launched in August 2017, consisting of five virtual workshops on capacity building in the form of webinars for hub managers. The Hubs Learning Week in 2017 was part of the Manjaro Virtual Learning Platform Initiative sponsored by Making All Voices Count (MAVC). [26]
From 2020, the AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week is now being powered by the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme. It is now a series of virtual capacity building workshops that focus largely on practical case studies and strategies that work and bring together hub managers and staff from across Africa to engage each other on the skills needed to operate and accelerate African hubs. [27]
The Virtual Meetup Grant is a part of the AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week.
The Physical Workshop is a training workshop where content of the AfriLabs Capacity Building curriculum will be delivered physically in cities across Africa. Each selected city will serve as a convening point for participating hubs within the city as well as from surrounding cities and countries. The workshops will focus on highly interactive, practical and one-on-one mentorship sessions from established business owners in the local city. The workshops will be delivered in partnership with African Business Angel Network (ABAN) and Afric’Innov (Bond’Innov) in English and French.
The AfriLabs Annual Gathering is AfriLabs’ flagship event.
AfriLabs Connect is a digital ecosystem engagement platform to empower the African innovation ecosystem to thrive, accelerate and transform the continent. AfriLabs Connect will act as the digital face of AfriLabs, enabling all its stakeholders to connect, collect, share, collaborate, measure, meet KPIs individually and collectively.
Even though Africa's tech hubs have grown to a new record of 643 across the continent, some 25% of them only provide co-working spaces, presenting an opportunity for greater growth, according to a new survey. The research by Briter Bridges and AfriLabs is some of the most detailed about the tech hub ecosystem, and explores how the hubs finance themselves, offer startups. [28]
In 2021, during the AfriLabs Annual Gathering in Abuja, AfriLabs and Briter Bridges released a second edition of the report titled Bolstering Innovation in Africa. At least 1031 innovation hubs were identified as operational across Africa as of October 2021, using a combination of primary and secondary data collection methods, in an effort that has seen hundreds of hub managers involved, from Dakar to Cairo and Maputo. In this study, hubs are defined as support structures that offer services including incubation and acceleration programmes, co-working spaces and support structures to enable entrepreneurs to thrive.
A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture capital financing. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes its members' incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and a combination of the above.
infoDev is a World Bank Group program that supports high-growth entrepreneurs in developing economies. The program is part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit of the World Bank Group's Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice.
Coworking is an arrangement in which workers for different companies share an office space. It allows cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures, such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services, and in some cases refreshments and parcel acceptance services. It is attractive to independent contractors, independent scientists, remote workers, digital nomads, and people who travel frequently. Additionally, coworking helps workers avoid the feeling of social isolation they may experience while remote working or traveling and eliminate distractions in home office. Most coworking spaces charge membership dues. Major companies that provide coworking space and serviced offices include WeWork, IWG plc, Industrious, and Impact Hub.
The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is an Africa-wide technology entrepreneur training program, seed fund, and incubator headquartered in Accra, Ghana. The three-phased institution was founded in 2008 to provide training, investment, and mentoring for aspiring technology entrepreneurs with the goal of creating globally successful companies that create wealth and jobs locally in Africa.
iHub is an Innovation hub and hacker space for the technology community in Nairobi. It was started in March 2010 by Erik Hersman, a blogger, TED fellow, and entrepreneur and acquired by Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) in 2019. This coworking space, in Senteu Plaza at the junction of Lenana and Galana Roads, is a nexus for technologists, investors, young entrepreneurs, designers, researchers and programmers.
Silicon Mountain is a nickname coined to represent the technology ecosystem (cluster) in the Mountain area of Cameroon, with its epicenter in Buea. The name refers to Mount Fako. Silicon Mountain is currently home to tech startups and a growing community of developers, designers, business professionals as well as universities such as the University of Buea, Catholic University Institute of Buea, Saint Monica University and many others. This region occupies the entire Fako Division of the South West Region of Cameroon. The phrase originally was the de facto reference to the Buea Tech Community popularized during local tech community meetups such as BarCamp Cameroon 2013, Google I/O Extended Buea 2015 and the Kamer Design Meetups; but has eventually come to refer to the community of developers, creatives, organizers, business professionals, universities in the area.
Impact Hub Accra is a co-working space located in Accra, Ghana. The hub recently joined the Impact Hub through the Africa Seed Program. Impact Hub Accra main mission is to support inclusive growth in Ghana through the creation of a social innovation ecosystem by developing programs, providing workspace, access to capital and connecting entrepreneurs focused on solutions to regional challenges. Impact Hub Accra is seeking to build a globally integrated entrepreneurial community that promotes high impact developments in West Africa.
Co-Creation Hub, commonly referred to as Cc-HUB or the HUB, is a technology-oriented centre located in Yaba, a district of Lagos. Founded in 2010 by Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe, it provides a platform where technology-oriented people share ideas to solving social problems in Nigeria.
Mimi Kalinda, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda and raised in South Africa, is the Group CEO and co-founder of Africa Communications Media Group, (ACG), a pan African public relations and communications agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Tenity is a startup incubator, accelerator and early-stage VC founded in 2016 in Zürich focused primarily on Fintech, Insurtech, Regtech and Deeptech. It provides incubation and acceleration programs helping startups to connect with corporates, experts, mentors, and investors for early stage venture and late stage venture investing, and collaboration opportunities. The company currently has operating hubs in Zürich, Singapore, Madrid, and Tallinn.
Olatunbosun Tijani is a Nigerian-British entrepreneur who is the current Nigerian minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, since 2023.
Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. also known as CFA is a Nigerian journalist and a former television presenter at Channels TV. He is into digital marketing and known as a technology entrepreneur with focus on business coaching and public speaking. He hosted the first virtual telehealth conference of Nigeria’s telemedicine company, CareClick with the theme ‘The Future Of Healthcare Today’ on 24 September 2020. He was involved in various ICT-related companies that contributed to the development of the Founder Institute. He is known as the founder of Pacer Venture and has links with Climate Action Africa. He is the MD/CEO of Anambra State ICT Agency.
Citizens' Gavel is a civic tech organization aimed at improving the pace of justice delivery through the use of technology. It was established in 2017 as Open Justice by Nelson Olanipekun, from an incubation programme of Civic Hive, the incubation and media arm of BudgIT.
Mohammed Ibrahim Jega, an indigen of Jega, Kebbi State is a Nigerian entrepreneur and technology startup founder. He is better known as the chief business development officer at the online payment processing gateway VoguePay.
The Ion District, Ion Innovation District, or Rice Innovation District, is a technology park and innovation district in Midtown Houston which was established as a joint initiative between Rice University and the City of Houston. It has also been called the South Main Innovation District. The district's central hub and first building is the Ion, which opened in 2021 after owner Rice Management Company (RMC) converted it from a former Sears store. The building houses coworking and office spaces, business incubators and accelerators, classrooms, a prototyping lab, investor studio, and restaurants. Current tenants include Chevron Technology Ventures, Microsoft, and Liongard. The district also includes Greentown Labs Houston, a business incubator focused on climate technology and sustainable energy, and a large outdoor plaza.
The African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) is a multistakeholder forum that facilitates dialogue on Internet governance issues. It is one of the 19 regional IGF initiatives and aims to address and discuss the issues of all 54 nations in Africa.
CIIE.CO is an Indian startup accelerator and incubator that supports early-stage startups located at IIM Ahmedabad in Ahmedabad, India. It was founded in 2002 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in India. It is a Center of excellence set up at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad with support from the Government of India's Department of Science and Technology and the Government of Gujarat.
FinTech Association of Sri Lanka (FASL) is an independent, not-for-profit cross-industry organisation representing Sri Lankan and the global FinTech community to support the development, innovation and investment in the FinTech sector.
Climate Action Africa commonly referred to as CMA is a climate resilience organization located at GRA Ikeja, Lagos. It was founded on July 14, 2021, by Grace Oluchi Mbah and Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata. It provides a platform for climate consciousness with data resources to support policies on evidence-based climate issues in Africa. In April 2024, Climate Action Africa formerly known as CMA announced its change of acronym to CAA. This was announced in a climate workshop in Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.
Khalil Halilu is a Nigerian business and tech expert, entrepreneur and the current executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure NASENI. He was appointed to this position by President Bola Tinubu on 1 September 2023.