“It takes a village to raise a child,
and it takes an eco-system to raise a start-up.”
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African countries
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Mentorships
TECH ENTREPRENEURSHIP INITIATIVE ‘MAKE-IT IN AFRICA’
WE PROMOTE DIGITAL INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT
About us
Our mission
In close collaboration with corporate and financing partners, social enterprises, hubs, and networks, we support the growth of an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs in the digital sector – to facilitate better access to finance, markets and skills.
Our goals
- unleash the creativity and potential of entrepreneurs
- collaborate with the brightest minds to shape a digital future
- promote digital technologies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
- create new jobs and opportunities
Our approach
- inspire. digital innovation by sharing good practices and showcases
- connect. and support tech start-ups through matchmaking and other exposure opportunities
- develop. and create a supportive environment for digital entrepreneurship
Selected activities
Make-IT Accelerator
The Make-IT Accelerator strengthens entrepreneurs’ skills to scale their innovation and achieve growth, cooperation and investment readiness.
Digital Innovation Made in Africa
We showcase selected tech entrepreneurs focusing on social impact, in different formats, like exhibition, web-clips and online catalogues.
Entrepreneur’s guides to investment
Explaining how to access capital in Kenya and Nigeriato, foster financing opportunities by sharing information and match start-ups and investors introducing funding instruments and sharing an investor directory.
More
TEF-GIZ entrepreneurship programme 2018
Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and Make-IT in Africa collaborate to strengthen 210 ICT and tech-enabled entrepreneurs with capacity development, mentoring and seed funding aiming at creating new jobs and growth in 54 African countries.
Airbus BizLab & Make-IT joint accelerator programme
Airbus BizLab and Make-IT in Africa’s joint accelerator #africa4future aims to support 10 tech start-ups in the fields of unmanned logistics and remote sensing to find technology solutions contributing to UN SDG #9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
Impact Since 2017 …
… 131 digital entrepreneurs from 16 countries in East and West Africa have received support directly and indirectly from Make-IT, to build capacity, acquire investment (of more than USD 1.7 million), set up their businesses, establish new partnerships and scale up their innovations. 46% of these are female founders.
… 4,493 founders and employees in tech start-ups and their local business partners have improved their capacity for growth, increased income and developed future-proof employability.
… more than 2,000,000 people have already been reached through innovative digital products from start-ups with a high potential for social impact in key sectors. These include e-agriculture, e-health, fintech, education and smart energy.
Our Team
Dr. Jan Schwaab
Head of Programme
@ GIZ Eschborn, Germany
Matthias Froehlich-Rehfeld
International Coordinator
MAKE-IT DESK BERLIN
@ Impact Hub Berlin, Germany
Chiemelie Umenyiora
Regional Coordinator – West Africa
MAKE-IT DESK LAGOS
@ Impact Hub Lagos, Nigeria
Mutembei Kariuki
Regional Coordinator – East Africa
MAKE-IT DESK NAIROBI
@ GIZ Nairobi, Kenya
Stephanie Wiedner
Junior Adviser
@ GIZ Eschborn, Germany
Gideon Berhane
Junior Adviser
@ GIZ Eschborn, Germany
Cecilia Mwangi
Junior Adviser
@ GIZ Nairobi, Kenya
Andrea Ermert
Controller
@ GIZ Eschborn, Germany
Ngukeghen Haastrup
Regional Controller
@ Impact Hub Lagos, Nigeria
Tobias Botsch
Intern
@ GIZ Eschborn, Germany
Kira von Plettenberg
Intern
@ Impact Hub Berlin, Germany
Abraham Ameh
Intern
@ Impact Hub Lagos, Nigeria
Testimonials
The support is fantastic and helpful. It has helped us to further shape our business into a more profitable solution. It has also helped us highlight some of the activities that we should continue to track. We are also further highlighting our unique value proposition. It has been a fantastic journey.
The support from Make-IT has been phenomenal. Especially the weekly workshops and frequent check-ups with the Cc-HUB team. We are currently receiving a lot of actionable advice especially on our additional product, a supply chain management system. Through Make-IT, we have also gotten linkages to Technoserve and CARI project.
The sessions and facilitators provided by CCHub have been fantastic, and we have had a lot of learning points that have guided us towards properly positioning our business for scale. Before the accelerator, we started off thinking we needed money to scale, only to discover gaping holes in terms of our offering as well as skills gaps that we must fill; before we think about fund raising.
Our Partners
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