Business Insights

Building capacity for Africa, by Africans – Afrilabs

In the last few months, we have hosted several webinars and discussions on how hubs could evolve to remain impactful. Pandemic or not, we need these conversations to figure out how to solve Africa’s challenges, find our place in the global space, and build sustainable innovation systems for the future.

One glaring problem in developing sustainable innovation systems is the continent’s capacity gaps. African hub founders and their staff lack access to Africa-tailored content, models and best practices for hub management and startup support considering the unique and challenging African business environment.

As a solution to these gaps, AfriLabs launched the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP) on the first day of the AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2019 at the African Union Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It’s a two-million euro, 36-month intensive capacity building programme for hubs. This project is being carried out thanks to AFD’s support through the Digital Africa seed fund. While still in its first few months, the programme has picked up some steam with activities including the 2020 AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week and has given grants to three hubs to host SDGs and COVID-19 virtual meetups.

Learn more about the ACBP and how you can be a part of it at www.afrilabs-capacity.com.

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