Afrilabs

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.[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's 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] and also collaborated with The Rockefeller Foundation to launch a digital jobs challenge.[7] AfriLabs launched its 1st 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 assessed 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 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,[12] 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".[13][14]

The current Board Chair is now Moetaz Helmy from Egypt, founder of KMT House, Cairo. He replaced Rebecca Enonchong who served from 2017-2021.

2017-2021

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-Present

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).

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

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

In 2019, AfriLabs announced the launch of its AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP).[24] 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.[25] 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:

• 30 physical workshops in 15 convening African cities.
• 12 Quarterly Hubs Learning Weeks - a series of peer-to-peer virtual capacity building webinars
• Full hub management certification course in partnership with a major African university
• Hubs-in-Residence at AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2020 and 2021
• Toolkits on business development and investment management
• SDG meetup grants (€2,000 per selected hub)
• Capacity Building Awards (€15,000 per selected hub)
• Travel sponsorship for hubs in-residence program, physical workshops, etc.[26]

The AfriLabs Annual Gathering is AfriLabs’ flagship event, which provides a unique opportunity for tech hubs within the AfriLabs network and other stakeholders of the African technology and innovation ecosystem (such as corporations, development agencies, academics, and investors) to convene and network.

The 2021 AfriLabs Annual Gathering marks AfriLabs's 10th anniversary. The event aims to celebrate and reflect on this milestone and what the future holds for innovation in Africa.[30] The gathering was themed “AfriLabs at 10: A Decade of Empowering and Inspiring Innovation across Africa”, illuminating AfriLabs's growth and impact on the development of the African innovation ecosystem. The event was held in Abuja, Nigeria, from the 27th to 29 October 2021. The 6th edition of the AfriLabs Annual Gathering aims at fostering interpersonal relationships between different stakeholders which will lead to the emergence of new partnerships and continued development of the African continent.

The event celebrates and reflects on the strides of the Innovation Ecosystem in Africa. AfriLabs's selection of the theme is a reflection of their impact in empowering hubs and driving innovation across the continent.[31]

AfriLabs is excited to announce that they are partnering with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to support local networks of innovation hubs in Africa. The partnership with the GIZ project Make-IT in Africa supports the organisational development of local tech hub networks and associations, as well as strengthens the connection between tech hub networks and AfriLabs through a series of strategic discussions before and during the 2021 AfriLabs Annual Gathering in Nigeria.[32]

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.[33]

Briter Bridges founder Dario Giuliani, a co-author of the report, tells The Africa Report: “I have always thought we have been gauging hubs’ work with the wrong scale. Hubs have been playing a catalyst role across Africa’s cities that transcends the mere act of supporting start-ups. Although several such organisations still offer only co-working facilities, an often understated role these hubs play is that of safe havens for the youth in otherwise poorly conducive environments, as well as forward-looking training centres promoting digital literacy.”[34]

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.

In 2020, Mozilla and AfriLabs partnered to convene a series of roundtable discussions with African startups, entrepreneurs, developers and innovators to better understand the tech ecosystem and identify new product ideas to spur the next generation of open innovation. This strategic partnership will help develop more relevant, sustainable support for African innovators and entrepreneurs to build scalable resilient products while leveraging honest and candid discussions to identify areas of common interest. There is no shortage of innovators, creative talents, and diverse stakeholders across Africa coming together to solve social, economic problems unique to the continent.[35][36]

Djembe Consultants officially launched an Insights report in collaboration with AfriLabs as part of the AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2020. The report surveyed over 1,000 pan-African innovators and features the unique perspectives of some of the continent’s most experienced and informed social and economic experts and commentators.[37]