A new initiative, Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership, has launched in Nairobi, Kenya. It aims to support and connect innovation and technology incubators and accelerators in tapping into new markets, find their trusted partner across the Mediterranean as well as build new perspectives, knowledge and networks.
The Partnership also matches with the priorities of President-elect Ursula von der Leyen, who called for a ‘European comprehensive strategy on Africa, our close neighbour and our most natural partner’, and who also highlighted that a sustainable Europe investment plan will have to stimulate innovation, competitiveness and jobs, and that innovation happens when people from different backgrounds and perspectives blend together.
Its purpose is to strengthen partnership through new actors and to test new models to support Africa-Europe cooperation in the area of Innovation. The initiative focuses on the dynamics of people and their creativity, and aims at establishing a partnership between equals.
Partnership activities include connecting incubators and accelerators from the EU and Africa through networking and technology transfer actions to support ‘close to market’ applications of new products and services, as well as capacity building to improve access to finance (grants and financial engineering mechanisms) for African entrepreneurs and innovators.
Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership develops through three pillars:
- Building partnerships among leading African and European incubators;
- Exploring models for technology transfer and access to market;
- Capacity building among African tech-entrepreneurs.
As part of the initiative, running from January 2019 to June 2021, networking events in Africa and in the EU will be conducted to build and foster relations between incubators, accelerators and technology transfer entities.
The Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership is funded by the European Commission and will run until May 2021. The team, based both in Africa and in Europe, carries out this initiative in close collaboration with experts of the advisory board which includes:
- Anna Ekeledo, Executive Director of AfriLabs
AfriLabs is a network organisation of over 158 Technology and Innovation Hubs across 45 African countries; leading the development of programmes and building partnerships that support and work with these innovation hubs and other stakeholders to raise high potential entrepreneurs that will stimulate economic growth and social development in Africa. - ‘Bosun Tijani, CEO – Co-Creation Hub Nigeria, a Social Innovation Centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity. CcHUB is Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space designed to be a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyze creative social tech ventures take place. The HUB is a place for technologists, social entrepreneurs, government, tech companies, impact investors and hackers in and around Lagos to co-create new solutions to the many social problems in Nigeria.
- Samir Abdelkrim, Founder and CEO of StartupBRICS, a media and a consultancy focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa and emerging markets. It was funded in 2013 and it is the first blog in French 100% dedicated to the news Tech, Innovation & Startups BRICS and emerging countries. Samir is also a African technology reporter for Le Monde and is the Founder of Emerging Valley.
- Robert Sanders, Senior Project Advisor of EBN
EBN is a network of around 140 quality-certified EU|BICs (business and innovation centres, incubators, accelerators and other support organisations) and approximately 100 Associate Members that support the development and growth of innovative entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs in Europe. - Ben White, Founder and CEO at Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A), connecting startup entrepreneurs with the knowledge, support programs, mentors and investors they require to succeed. Ben has been venturing in the African technology and media space since 2003, launching AfricaNews.com as one of the first pan-African news websites. He has done ethnographic research on the emergence of software cultures in Kampala, Uganda and taught classes in digital entrepreneurship at the University of Amsterdam. Ben set up the ICT Entrepreneurship program at the Humanistic Institute for Development (Hivos) where he funded early initiatives like the iHub and Ushahidi. Ben is on the board of ActivSpaces, a Cameroon based incubator, and is a founder of AfriLabs, a pan-African network of innovation hubs. An angel investor and partner at Sanaga Ventures, Ben is also a founder of the African Business Angels Network (ABAN). In 2007 he started VC4A, an online platform and global network organization for high growth high impact entrepreneurs.
