Afrilabs

AfriLabs is a pan-African network organisation of 225 Innovation centers across 47 African countries.[1][2] Each hub serves as a meeting point for entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, tech companies and web/mobile engineers in its community. AfriLabs provides a network for technology and innovation centers across Africa to network, collaborate and share knowledge. Beyond connecting hubs across Africa, AfriLabs partners with developmental and corporate organizations to organize capacity building programs and initiatives physically and virtually for tech hubs and their communities.

AfriLabs
Official logo
Formation2011
Location
  • 17 Inuwa Wada Crescent, Utako Abuja Nigeria.
ServicesNetwork Organization
Board Chair
Rebecca Enonchong
Executive Director
Anna Ekeledo
Websitewww.afrilabs.com

History

AfriLabs was founded in 2011 to build a community around the rapidly emerging tech hubs in Africa. AfriLabs was founded with five hubs: Nailab Kenya, iHub Kenya, HiveColab Uganda, Activ Spaces Cameroun and Banta Labs Senegal and had her first gathering in the launching of IHub. In 2012, AfriLabs was formally registered in the Netherlands as a foundation and hired its first Executive Director in November.[3] 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 ‘Virtual Incubation project and added 5 more hubs to its network from East Africa.[4]

In 2014, AfriLabs had its second global meetup in Berlin.[5][6] AfriLabs also collaborated with The Rockefeller Foundation to launch a Digital jobs challenge.[7] AfriLabs Launches1st Collaboration Challenge with support from Microsoft4Afrika[8] and initiated the hub sustainability challenge with AfriHIve.[9] In 2015, AfriLabs had its first African meetup in Egypt.[10] OSIWA carried out an assessment in partnership with the organization to explore hubs as creative spaces. AfriLabs hosted a sustainability workshop, 'Hub in a box'.[11] while the official AfriLabs website was created, branding was carried out. AfriLabs launches 'social media takeover' 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, 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 March, AfriLabs held its first Virtual Board Election and elected new board members into the team. On April AfriLabs in collaboration with Microsoft hosted a free technical training for startups and entrepreneurs in Lagos,[12] Nigeria. On July, AfriLabs and ICT4SI partnered to host their first West African social innovation workshop in Abuja, Nigeria. In August, AfriLabs had 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".[13][14]

Board members

The current Board Chair is Rebecca Enonchong. She is also the Board Chair of Activ Spaces, Cameroun. The Board team members include; Moetaz Helmy (Board Secretary), Kudzai Mubaiwa (Board Treasurer), Fatoumata Niang Niox (Francophone Representative) Nekesa Were, Daniel Chinagozi and Linda Kwamboka (Board members).AfriLabs Admits new Board Members AfriLabs Board Members

Advisory board

AfriLabs advisory board consists of Michael Oluwagbemi (founder of LoftyInc Allied Partner), Seye Bassir (Director of Investment at IFU.).

Secretariat Team

ANNA EKELEDO (Executive Director), NEKESA WERE (Director of Strategy), TEMITOPE ISEDOWO (Director of Programmes), JENNIFER OKEKE-OJIUDU (Events Coordinator), KENECHUKWU .C. CHUKWU (Member Services Coordinator), NANKO MADU (Senior Programmes Manager), RAHEL CHUKWU (Operations and Francophone Engagement Officer), VICTORIA ALOZIE (Finance Officer), FARIDA UMAR (Monitoring and Evaluation Officer), PATRICK ASHU (Programmes Officer), OMONE TESSY OKOLO (Executive Assistant to the Executive Director), JOSHUA OMENA .A. (Communications Lead), PASE TEMITOPE (Events Associate), ANNA LEKWOT (Member Services Associate), SARAH ETIM (Communications Associate), TAIYE SALAMI (Programmes Associate), FUNMILAYO CAULCRICK (Programmes Associate).

Operations
  • Connecting hubs, collaboration.[15]
  • Creating of platforms for members to communicate, share knowledge and collaborate.[16]
  • Capacity building of hub managers and start-ups.[17][18]
  • Crowd source community knowledge.[19][20][21]
  • Disseminating important information, best practices with hub trends local and international through newsletters, press releases and social media.[22][23]
  • Engaging stakeholders: Tech Hubs, Investors (Angel and Venture Capitalists), Government, Developmental and Corporate organizations.[24]
  • Creating linkages within the African ecosystem.[25]

Programmes
  • AfriLabs Capacity Building Project (ACBP)ACBP

Over the years, AfriLabs has carried out research on African hub needs, capacity gaps and best practices. Based on these research, AfriLabs designs and runs a series of initiatives for tech hubs like the AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week. These initiatives have now been updated and expanded into the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP), 2m euro capacity building project, being implemented thanks to Agence française de développement) (AFD)’s support through the Digital Africa seed fund.

  • Catalyst

The Catalyst Program is a cross-stakeholder initiative of AfriLabs in conjunction with (African Business Angels Network) ABAN that aims to strengthen entrepreneurs and startups, hubs and angel investors, while delivering impact results to institutional funders. Learn more here: Catalyst

  • EdTech Hub

The Global EdTech Hub

The EdTech Hub is a collaboration between the Overseas Development Institute, Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, Results for Development, Open Development and Education, Brink, Jigsaw Consult, BRAC, AfriLabs, and eLearning Africa. Funded by the UK Department for International Development, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The EdTech Hub seeks to help improve education technology in developing countries. AfriLabs is a regional partner of Global EdTech Hub.

  • COVID-19 KTN Alliance

AfriLabs in partnership with the KTN Global Alliance are working on a rapid analysis of challenges, impact and innovation response to COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, with a focus on Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The aim of the analysis is to inform an intending support from the UK’s DFID and the KTN Global Alliance to innovation systems in Africa to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to provide lessons and best practices to strengthen the innovation response to future crises.

  • COVIDaction

COVIDaction, a partnership between DFID’s Frontier Technology Hub, Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub), UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering will be working to build a technology and innovation pipeline to support action related to the COVID pandemic, with a focus on Africa. Learn more: COVIDaction.

  • Project Rollo

Project Rollo is a capacity building program dedicated to inspiring and supporting Small African enterprises in African countries facing challenges to survive after Covid-19 outbreak. It is composed of an intensive online bootcamp where business owners and their teams will be asked to develop and execute strategies in a competitive risk free environment with different market outlooks. This project is supported by UNDP and AU.

AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week

AfriLabs Hubs Learning week was launched in August 2017 and it consisted 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] It is a capacity building virtual workshop that empowers hub managers and staff with requisite and formal incubation management training and skills needed to start, operate and expand hubs/innovation centers in Africa.

The AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week is a quarterly series of capacity building virtual workshops that empower innovation and hub managers and staff with requisite and formal incubation management training and skills needed to start, operate and expand hubs/innovation centres in Africa. The first AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week for 2019 is a two-part series. The first part held from Monday, the 25th of March 2019 to Friday, the 29th of March 2019. The second part was held from Monday, the 24th of June 2019 to Friday, the 28th of June 2019. AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week 2019

The AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week is a series of capacity building virtual workshops that empower hub managers and staff with the requisite formal incubation management training and skills needed to start, operate and expand their hubs.The 2020 AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week Series 1 was supported by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) under the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP). learn more here. The AfriLabs Hubs Learning Week series 2 is a follow-up of Series 1 and is facilitated by existing and experienced hub managers within the African ecosystem and is focused largely on practical case studies and strategies that work. During the learning week, hubs have the opportunity to apply for meet up grants. Successful applicants will win a 2,000 € grant to host a virtual meetup on the SDGs and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Learning Week Series 2 is part of the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP) and is supported by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) support through the Digital Africa seed fund. Read more here


References
  1. "nHub Nigeria and 10 other tech hubs join Afrilabs - nHub Nigeria". nHub Nigeria. 2017-06-01. Archived from the original on 2018-02-22. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  2. "AfriLabs welcomes new hubs into pan-African network". Disrupt Africa. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  3. "Woman on the Rise: Tayo Akinyemi, Executive Director of AfriLabs". GA Blog. 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  4. "AfriLabs welcomes new Hubs into its Pan-African Network | IT News Africa – Africa's Technology News Leader". www.itnewsafrica.com. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  5. "Global gathering of innovation hubs, from Africa and other c ." Venture Capital for Africa. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  6. "A Gathering of Africa's Tech Hubs: AfriLab Gathering at Re:publica Berlin". Indigo Trust. 2013-05-28. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  7. "Engaging African Tech Hubs in the Search for Digital Jobs - The Rockefeller Foundation". The Rockefeller Foundation. 2014-12-18. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  8. "Microsoft 4Afrika Announces AfriLabs 'Collaboration Challenge' – Nigerian CommunicationWeek". nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  9. "AfriLabs and AfriHive collaborate to host a series of dialogues on hub sustainability - LIONS@FRICA". LIONS@FRICA. 2014-11-13. Archived from the original on 2018-02-22. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  10. "AfriLabs annual gathering moves to Egypt". Disrupt Africa. 2017-05-09. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  11. "AfriLabs to co-host "Hub in a Box" sustainability workshop". Disrupt Africa. 2015-11-06. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  12. "Register to Join the Microsoft-AfriLabs Training for Startups on Azure and BizSpark - Microsoft Care GH". Microsoft Care GH. 2017-04-05. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  13. "The supersize the valley conference -- Changing the paradigm -- from individual to ecosystem". techpoint.ng. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  14. "Events - The Next Economy Supersize the Valley Conference". www.allevents.ng. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  15. "AfriLabs and AfriHive collaborate to host a series of dialogues on hub sustainability - LIONS@FRICA". LIONS@FRICA. 2014-11-13. Archived from the original on 2018-02-22. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  16. "AfriLabs joins forces with SPIDER and iHub | AfriLabs". www.afrilabs.com. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  17. "Microsoft-AfriLabs Training for Startups | AfriLabs". www.afrilabs.com. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  18. "AfriLabs network | Funds 4 Africa". Funds 4 Africa. 2017-12-02. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  19. "Hub in a Box! #hubsustainability". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  20. Hub, Africa News. "AfriLabs to co-host "Hub in a Box" sustainability workshop". Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  21. "AfriLabs to co-host "Hub in a Box" sustainability workshop". Disrupt Africa. 2015-11-06. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  22. "InfoDev and Afrilabs to Launch East Africa Virtual Incubation Pilot Program". Kachwanya.com | Kenya Tech News. 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  23. "AfriLabs Strategic Partnership with Hivos for AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2017 | Innov8tiv". Innov8tiv. 2017-09-05. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  24. AfriLabs (21 December 2017). "#AfriLabsin2017 Great feedback from the conference AfriLabs organized in partnership with 1% Club. A stakeholder conference in Abuja, Nigeria in November 2017 called 'Supersize the Valley' that brought together over 150 entrepreneurs, government,investors&corporate organizations.pic.twitter.com/WBP5PN5Epn". @AfriLabs. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  25. SolutionsTeam. "Pan-African Tech Network Expands To Chad And DR Congo With 11 New Tech Hubs". www.solutions4africa.com. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  26. count, Making all voices. "Making All Voices Count - A grand challenge for development". Making All Voices Count. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
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