| AfriLabs | |
| Location: | 18 Khartoum Street, Zone 5, Wuse, Abuja, Nigeria. |
| Formation: | 2011 |
| Leader Title: | Board Chair |
| Leader Name: | Moetaz Helmy |
| Leader Title2: | Executive Director |
| Leader Name2: | Anna Ekeledo |
| Services: | Network Organization |
AfriLabs is a pan-African innovation-focused organisation that works with over 500 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.