NAIROBI | One Year B2B Matchmaking for Tech Start-ups in Kenya

Start-ups can’t do everything all on their own. That’s why it’s so important to find a match with a prospective business partner. Supported by Make-IT in Africa, the German Chamber of Commerce (AHK) organized exposure trips for 24 start-ups. The aim was to connect them with selected companies in Kenya or international partners, such as in Germany. Building contacts with new collaborators – and customers – for 2021.

ACCRA | Makers Assemble! and the Fight Against Covid-19 in Ghana – Interview with Lyndon McJohnson and Edward Akani

Makers Assemble was an initiative to better leverage digital innovations in the fight against COVID-19. Launched in June 2020, the collaborative project connects various ecosystem players in Ghana. The goal was to maximise the support of local innovators and accelerate the production of their solutions related to the pandemic. It was implemented by Ghana Tech Lab, supported by Make-IT in Africa.

Read the interview on our website.

MLIKA Top 100 start-ups in Kenya in 2020 - MLIKA Top 100 Kenya’s Most Promising Start-ups

Kenya’s entrepreneurial spirit shone especially bright in 2020. Supported by Make-IT in Africa the University of Nairobi and C4DLab nominated and selected the year’s top 100 start-ups in Kenya. The online event unveiled the winners over three days and strove to increase the entrepreneurs’ exposure to the market and potential investors, while strengthening their collaboration within the innovation ecosystem. It took place from 16th to 18th December 2020.

Hello Tractor is a leading AgTech innovator that connects tractor owners to farmers through an IoT-enabled digital solution. D4Ag by Make-IT in Africa and Mercy Corps Agrifin are working together to broker partnerships and engage in matchmaking between African AgTech start-ups and large digital platforms. As a part of the joint exploration of the potential for digital platforms to empower AgTech innovators, we asked six key questions to Hello Tractor’s Founder and CEO, Jehiel Oliver. Read the full interview here.

NAIROBI | ASSEK Annual Conference 2020

An entrepreneurship ecosystem thrives on having many voices – but only if they can find common ground. Where better to set the stage for shared discussion and exchange than at the Annual Conference of The Association of Startup and SMEs Enablers of Kenya (ASSEK) - supported by Make-IT in Africa. The event brought diverse stakeholders together with the aim of growing the innovation space. The event took place on 13th November 2020.

Exciting news will be shared next Tuesday at the “High-Level Announcement and Panel on EU D4D Flagships and the EU-AU Partnership on Digital Transformation”. The announcement will be made through an online event by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, as well as Heads of States from Belgium, Estonia, France and Luxembourg.

The High-Level Announcement will be followed by a High-Level Panel on the future of the European Union – African Union Partnership on Digital Transformation. Participants of this panel include representatives of the African Union, Smart Africa, tech companies and civil society from the digital ecosystem. The event will take place in virtual format on Tuesday, 8^th December 2020 from 17:00 to 18.45. Please note that you can participate without registration on http://d4dlaunch.eu/.

How to kick start your platform?

In order to help emerging platform operators in the Agtech sector to scale their business and integrate third-party providers, D4Ag by Make-IT in corporation with Deloitte Digital offered a Capacity Development Program for Platform Operators aiming at pushing existing platforms to the next level.

Over two weeks, 29 platform operators from Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana received training on two core topics, Business Models and Legal Frameworks, tackling challenges such as developing viable business models that are equally attractive for both platform operators and start-ups and managing legal aspects regarding data ownership and partnerships. Learn more on the gained insights in our blogpost.

Ehningen - 2. Dezember 2020. IBM gab heute bekannt, dass das Unternehmen die Digital4Agriculture Initiative (D4Ag) unterstützt, die das Ziel hat, afrikanische Startups im Agrarsektor zu fördern und langfristig die Lebensbedingungen lokaler Kleinbauern durch eine Steigerung der Produktivität und Qualität zu verbessern. Mit Hilfe des digitalen Fachwissens von IBM Services und dem Zugang zu genauen Wetterdaten, die von IBMs The Weather Company bereitgestellt werden, hat D4Ag erfolgreich begonnen und hilft über 36 afrikanischen Agrarunternehmen, sich besser auf die digitale Zukunft vorzubereiten. Hier geht es zur Pressemitteilung.

Pan-African | The ii2030 #Africa4Future Edition

The first virtual ii2030 event took place in 2020, bringing a diverse group of participants together from 26 countries, 65% of whom hailed from the African continent. Using virtual whiteboards, participants worked through various solution designs with virtual post-its, icons, creative drawings, and analytical rankings. The ii2030 #Africa4Future Edition aims to increase collaboration among innovators from corporates, startups, the public sector, NGOs, and the scientific community. ii2030 #Africa4Future Edition is being implemented in close collaboration with Airbus BizLab, UP42, CcHUB and Make-IT in Africa.

NAIROBI | Demo Day #Food Africa Accelerator

Agritech start-ups in Africa are changing the landscape of food supply – and in Kenya, many of them are run by women and young entrepreneurs. Make-IT in Africa supported Strathmore University and Pangea Accelerator to provide grants to 11 such “agripreneurs” in the growth stage, so that they could attend the accelerator Demo Day for FoodTech Africa that took place on the 27th November 2020. There they could explore possibilities to scale up initiatives, improve access to the market, and meet investors.

Evaluating the Potential of a Mentoring Programme for Tech Entrepreneurs in Rwanda

“How can we increase the availability of quality mentors?”, is a question we frequently ask ourselves. In a joint effort with our partner Mowgli Mentoring, we conducted a study that aims to answer this question. The resulting report Evaluating the Potential of a Mentoring Programme for Tech Entrepreneurs in Rwanda draws conclusions on how Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) can build up their local mentoring capacity to truly support entrepreneurs across all stages.

Though focused on Kigali, the report provides many insightful findings for ESOs in Africa, regardless of their location.

To learn more about our findings and recommendations for how mentoring could be embedded within the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Kigali and beyond, download the full report here.

To receive additional recommendations specifically for your organization’s mentoring programme, email [email protected].

EU:Africa Hackathon looking for participants and partners to jumpstart cross-continent innovation

The EU:Africa online hackathon is seeking innovative solutions to socio-economic problems in Africa that have been amplified by the COVID-19 crisis. Estonia and the African Union, in cooperation with Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Poland, with the implementing partners Garage48 and Smart Africa are organising an online cross-continental hackathon “EU-Africa The Post Crisis Journey” on 10-13 December 2020. The recruitment of participants and mentors has started on euafricathejourney.com.

Register now!

GIZ and Mercy Corps AgriFin are working together to foster the expansion of services and development of selected product bundles of key platform players in East and West Africa. In this blogpost, we dive into the ongoing learning process on digital platforms for agriculture, with a focus on the core aspect of “matchmaking” to facilitate partnerships between large digital platforms and the innovators that can bring a host of critical services for farmers and food systems.

TUNIS | Startup Gate Summit 2020

The Startup Gate Summit is designed to promote Tunisian, African and Middle Eastern Startups and to support governments to build an ecosystem based on knowledge and SMEs with high innovative value. Make-IT in Africa supported Startup Gate Summit with organizing two challenges and the startup village. The event took lace from 12th to 13th November.

Cultivate Africa is an event organized by the Africa Union Commission in partnership with Hallpax. Its main objective is to unlock a concerted multi-stakeholder partnership toward a sustained and effective response to potential adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and nutrition and food systems. Against this backdrop, GIZ and Mercy Corps AgriFin invite to the side session “Scaling AgTech Innovation through Digital Platforms”, which will give insights on how technology innovators in the agriculture sector in Africa can be supported in scale and operational viability by engaging with emerging models of digital platforms in order to maximise impact for smallholder farmers.

During our recent capacity development for AgTech start-ups, we gained many interesting insights into why digital platforms are so important in the agricultural sector and can be a tool for food security and sustainable development. For one week we immersed ourselves in the world of business modelling, platform integration, data analytics and technical interoperability with 29 start-ups from over 12 African countries and brought them one step closer to platform integration. Read more about it now in the blog post.

Exciting insights will be shared in the webinar Innovation-Ecosystems: Cooperation between #Africa and #Europe’, organized together with our partners FundingBox, DIHNET, and the European Commission.

Several speakers will participate during the webinar, in which we will introduce the ‘African European Digital Innovation Bridge’ initiative.

Join us on October 7th!

As a part of Make-IT Alliance’s commitment to build up international start-up ecosystems, they have teamed up with AsiaBerlin Summit to host the Make-IT Day 2020 on 24 September. This online-only event should be a top priority for anyone interested in getting more deeply involved in the development of start-up ecosystems in emerging economies.
Participation is free and registration is still possible. Register for the Make-IT Day 2020 now!

Africa AI Accelerator Ghana is out of the starting blocks and up and running. The call for entries concluded end of June and now eleven promising start-ups from Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda and Uganda have been chosen to participate in the 6-month business development programme.

The Africa AI Accelerator Program offers start-ups coaching and mentorship by AI experts at IBM. The 6-month programme is designed to support the eleven selected participants in business and product development. In addition to trainings, both virtual and live, the programme will help build collaborations between start-ups and global corporations such as IBM. Congrats for the selected participants!

Find out more about the start-ups that have been selected!

PAN-AFRICAN | Make-IT in Africa: Newsletter jUne, JUly/August 2020: Focus Ecosystem Collaboration

“It takes a village to raise a child – and it takes an ecosystem to raise a start-up”: This is the motto of Make-IT in Africa. In order to strengthen ecosystems, Make-IT works with different players in each of our five partner countries: such as political partners, ministries or innovation hubs. The goal: to promote knowledge exchange, offer capacity building for organisations, and promote multi-stakeholder dialogue.

Our newsletter this summer dives deep into the exciting progress made in nurturing business ecosystems – particularly for the digital and high-tech sectors.

Read more and subscribe!

Calling all EdTech start-ups! Time to raise your hand and get noticed.

Apply to the LOOP Accelerator Rwanda now!

Are you a rising EdTech start-up in Rwanda? Then raise your hand, because we want to hear about your innovations. LOOP Accelerator Rwanda is accepting applications for its programme which will run from September – November 2020. Start-up founders must be between the ages of 18-25 and be passionate about solutions which promote inclusive and equitable quality education opportunities for all – whether for schools, universities, self-learners, or professional training. Apply now to the LOOP Accelerator Rwanda. Deadline 31 August.

#Food Africa Accelerator: Kenyan Women and Youth in Agriculture to Access up to USD 100,000 in Investment

Kenyan youth and women-led agribusinesses have been awarded an opportunity to access USD 100,000 as investment for their companies through the Food Africa accelerator. The accelerator is inviting post revenue level agribusinesses in Kenya to apply for the program in order to meet the growing demand and challenge of food security in the country. This comes at a time where a recent report by the Kenya Food Security 2019 Steering Group revealed that, approximately 1.3 million people in Kenya are currently facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity, which has been further exacerbated by Covid-19.

Capacity Development for Agtech Start-ups - open call for applications

The new initiative Digital4Agriculture offers a unique training program that could be the next step for start-ups to level up and get platform-ready. We are looking for AgTech Start-ups that are keen to integrate their product or service onto a digital platform and want to expand their user base or open new revenue streams for their business.

The Robust and Sustainable Startup (RSS) Series from Make-IT in Africa in Ghana provides start-ups and small businesses with the expertise they need – not just to survive, but to succeed when faced with the challenges of a global pandemic. Starting at the end of June 2020, the webinar series will give participants an edge in a constantly changing Environment.

Register now for the last two webinars on Marketing and Business Model Design!

#Africa4Future Showcasing Event: Join Airbus Bizlab, GIZ and CcHUB on June 11, 2020

On Thursday, June 11th, 2020, the virtual showcase of the third edition of the Africa4Future will unveil 10 newest African companies from the programme using remote sensing technology (satellite imagery) to address the food insecurity and infrastructure deficit challenges across the continent. The online Event, will bring together investors, corporate executives and stakeholders from all around the world. .

Request an invite and be part of Africa4Future Showcase 2020 and learn more about the startups:https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/stories/Africa-4-Future-2020.html

Tech by Her Accelerator Programme: MEST and Make-IT in Africa announce 2020 Cohort

We are pleased to announce the first cohort of the Tech By Her accelerator program. The initiative, which was launched earlier this year, called for female technology founders in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya to apply for one of the ten (10) slots available for a 3-month intensive accelerator program for technology-based start-ups. It was organised by MEST - in cooperation with Make-IT in Africa.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has placed a heavy burden on developing countries unravelling enormous social and economic consequences. Therefore, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) together with “Team Europe” partners including the EU Commission, other EU member states, tech companies and civil society are calling out the global hackathon #SmartDevelopmentHack. We invite you to become part of this mission. The “Call for Solutions” is now open until 27.04.2020!

Read more about conditions for participation.

Rise to the challenge – #KillTheCorona

Under the motto “crisis, the mother of all inventions”, the #KILLTHECORONA challenge aims to discover and promote startups, who are inventing new approaches to combat this global crisis. It also highlights how new technology can offer sustainable solutions for everyday applications. Finally, the competition arose from a desire to supervise innovators and help them prepare for an eventual launch of their solutions on the market.

Read more about the challenge!

The Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative ‘Make-IT in Africa’ has launched the Rwandan Investment Guide “on the 30th of March 2020. As a reaction to the Corona Virus outbreak, the launch was live streamed via Facebook in form of a webinar. It mainly focussed on the importance of the guide to entrepreneurs and also highlighted its key content.

The Healthtech Challenge: Early support for made-in-Tunisia solutions in the fight against COVID-19

The Healthtech Challenge in Tunisia is a call for innovative solutions to help in the fight against COVID-19. The winning projects, TUNIRESP and SMARTBOX CONTAINER INDUSTRY, received 55,000 euros in funding. All nine of the shortlisted projects received mentoring to help them on their journey to counter the effects of the coronavirus crisis in Tunisia.

Investors have been hearing good things about Ghana and Nigeria for some time now. It’s no wonder: the region has seen a remarkable rise in entrepreneurs creating innovations to tackle big challenges. So it was high time to bring investors and innovators together with targeted matchmaking, networking, and partnership building. The result: Deep Dive Africa organised a seven-day Deep Dive Tour of the region from 27th November 2019 to 4th December 2019.

Read more about the tour in the news section.

How Make-IT is linking African start-ups with investors - a best practice from Ghana.

Each country in which Make-IT in Africa is active provides a wide range of support to their start-up ecosystems. An important part of these activities is the publication of an investment guide, which supplies tech entrepreneurs with the information they need to navigate their local investment landscape. It represents a cornerstone for the success of these young enterprises, together with direct training.

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Investment Ghana was published in December 2019.

Second Edition of Tech Trendscouting Toolkit has been launched at World Summit Awards in Vienna

VIENNA, 10 March 2020

Make-IT’s second edition of the Tech Trendscouting Toolkit has been launched at this years World Summit Award in Vienna. It was edited and published in cooperation with Mr. Alexander Felsenberg – the chairman of the German WSA Nomination Committee. The toolkit is a ten step instruction on how to become and maintain to be a tech trendscout.

MLIKA is an effort to support the startup ecosystem in the country and gives a platform for budding entrepreneurs to grow by identifying, recognizing and celebrating their innovative solutions to the various innovation ecosystem stakeholders.

Read more

On 18 February 2020, the sixth German-African Economic Forum NRW will be held in Dortmund under the motto: “Africa 2020: German companies on the path to success!” This year’s forum is aimed in particular at mid-sized German companies (with a focus on NRW) who would like to learn more about the African market as potential investors or trade partners.

Registration ends 13 February 2020.

For Tunesian Start-ups: Apply Now for the Factory of the Future. Deadline: 19 January 2020.

For more Informationen: Click on the link provided below.

The Ghana Hubs Network (GHN) Annual Gathering (AG) is an opportunity for key stakeholders in Ghana’s entrepreneurship ecosystem to meet, network and build professional relationships that will enable the GHN to operate more effectively. Supported by Make-IT in Africa it took place in Accra from 13^th to 14^th December 2019.

Together with Impact Hub Accra we are excited to introduce to you the Deep Dive Investor Tour. The main goal is to foster lasting relationships between West African Startups and European investors and potentially generate capital flows to the entrepreneurship ecosystem of Africa.

Start-ups for Health Care Improvement in Nigeria @ Impact Hub Lagos Copyright: GIZ/Nigeria

The Final eHealth Meetup @ Impact Hub Lagos

18 start-ups, one event and one aim: Innovating Integrated Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria. On the 12th November Impact Hub Lagos hosted the final eHealth Meetup - powered by Merck & GIZ Make-IT in Africa.

Read more: https://make-it-initiative.org/africa/2019/11/27/ehealth-meetup-series/

Make-IT in Africa, Merck and Nest hosted the 8th edition of the#WhatsGood series at Mettā Nairobi. How is data accelerating progress in health care? This question was discussed together with experts in this field such as Dr. Vanessa Kithyoma, the CEO of mHealth Kenya.

Three Start-ups - Bluewave Insurance, Staffbus and Bitmama - made it to the semi-finals of the International Pitch Challenge at Ruhr Summit 2019 in Bochum during The Startup Germany Tour from 28 October 2019 to 1 November 2019.

The Startup Germany tour focused on bringing various startups together to visit hotspots in Germany’s industrial heartland, get in touch with companies and investors and meet hundreds of other startups, corporates and a variety of top speakers at the RuhrSummit in Bochum, one of Germany’s biggest events for young tech entrepreneurs. The 2019 tour was sector focused on: InsurTech, Smart City, Logistics & Mobility.

Read more about whom of the entrepreneurs qualified for pitching on the main stage.

Make-IT in Africa and Mettā Nairobi bring you the Investor Readiness Masterclass. The session will be facilitated by Yacob Berhane on 17th October 2019 from 10.30 p.m. to 1.00 p.m.

Affordable Healthcare for All

Impact Hub Lagos powered by Merck & GIZ Make-IT in Africa hosted the second eHealth Meetup on “Affordable Healthcare for All”. The goal of the meetups was to bring together entrepreneurs supported in the joint Merck & GIZ Make-IT in Africa program and key stakeholders in the health ecosystem to discuss how to provide affordable healthcare. Panelists included entrepreneurs and innovators, working to increase access to healthcare to Nigeria’s growing population.

Make-IT in Africa, in cooperation with GreenTec Capital Partners, will introduce this training content in a one-day session in Nairobi

The course is aimed at start-up enablers (e.g. innovation hubs or other entrepreneurship intermediaries) to enhance the value these practitioners can provide on the ground. It seeks to enable practitioners to better carry out capacity building with tech entrepreneurs who need to improve their investment readiness to meet the Due Diligence Requirements of their present or future financing partners.

Make-IT in Africa and Mettā Nairobi bring you the 16th installment of the “Women-In” series where we will be hosting a star-studded panel consisting of women at the top of their game in the tech industry. The panel will be hosted on 2nd October 2019 from 6.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.

The main purpose of the series is to celebrate women in different sectors, their achievements, and their roles. Looking at the great strides that have been made over the years by women throughout the world, we want this platform to empower the next generation.

Make-IT in Africa, in cooperation with GreenTec Capital Partners, will introduce this training content in a one-day session in Lagos.

The course is aimed at start-up enablers (e.g. innovation hubs or other entrepreneurship intermediaries) to enhance the value these practitioners can provide on the ground. It seeks to enable practitioners to better carry out capacity building with tech entrepreneurs who need to improve their investment readiness to meet the Due Diligence Requirements of their present or future financing partners.

Make-IT in Africa, in cooperation with GreenTec Capital Partners, will introduce this training content in a one-day session in Accra.

The course is aimed at start-up enablers (e.g. innovation hubs or other entrepreneurship intermediaries) to enhance the value these practitioners can provide on the ground. It seeks to enable practitioners to better carry out capacity building with tech entrepreneurs who need to improve their investment readiness to meet the Due Diligence requirements of their present or future financing partners.

More than 3.700 people from 32 African countries participated in the Afric’Up 2019 summit. This event brought together different players in the Startup Ecosystem on a pan-African level in Tunis. Make-IT in Africa is delighted to support several Startups who participated in the conference.

The second part of the second bootcamp of the Joint Start-up Programme between Make-IT in Africa and Merck will bring 4 start-ups to Cape Town, South Africa to attend the SA Innovation Summit and an E-Health Meetup. During the Meetup the start-ups will present their solutions to an audience of investors, business representatives and other start-ups in the health sector. Further, a panel on application of digital solutions in healthcare and the establishment of a community of practitioners will take place.

The second part of the second bootcamp of the Joint Start-up Programme between Make-IT in Africa and Merck will bring 4 start-ups to Cape Town, South Africa to attend the SA Innovation Summit and an E-Health Meetup. During the summit the start-ups will exhibit their solution to an international audience and have the possibility to join different master classes, panel discussions and matchmaking opportunities.

The first part of the second bootcamp of the Joint Start-up Programme between Make-IT in Africa and Merck will bring 4 start-ups to Johannesburg, South Africa. During a demo day, the selected start-ups will showcase their solutions at a Merck South Africa infront of Merck experts, and their coaches. Further they will get further training to scale their business.

Among our Make-IT fellows who participated in our last Make-IT monitoring campaign, we raffled off three trips to the re:publica 2020 in Berlin. This conference is one of the largest of the internet and digital society worldwide. Around 25,000 visitors and experts discuss current issues of the digital society.

Make-IT in Africa and Mettā Nairobi bring you the 15th installment of the “Women-In” series where we will be hosting a star-studded panel consisting of women at the top of their game in the agriculture industry. The panel will be hosted on 28th August 2019 from 6.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.

The main purpose of the series is to celebrate women in different sectors, their achievements, and their roles. Looking at the great strides that have been made over the years by women throughout the world, we want this platform to empower the next generation.

State Secretary Dr. Mark Speich and his delegation joined a roundtable discussion with represantatives from several Startups from Ghana, Make-IT in Africa, the German Industry and Commerce (AHK) and the German Embassy.

The first bootcamp of the Joint Start-up Programme between Make-IT in Africa and Merck will conducted with 20 selected start-ups. During the bootcamp, selected start-ups will take part in workshops with Merck experts, external experts, coaches and assigned mentors.

Their Kick-off Bootcamp will focus on the status of the healthcare landscape in Africa, business operations, financial operations and the creation of a healthcare network, in addition to other topics.

Make-IT in Africa will be exhibiting at the annual African Women in Technology conference which provides a unique opportunity to connect with a niche tech community, build brand awareness, and show Make-IT’s support to an important cause that is improving gender diversity and inclusivity in the African tech space.

The African Women in Technology conference is a platform for female designers, engineers, innovators, product managers, software developers, start-up founders and tech enthusiasts to come together, annually hosted across different African countries. The organizers are dedicated to connect, educate and empower women who are determined to advance their tech careers with a community of over 3,000 women in technology across Africa. This year’s edition will be hosted on July 18th to 20th, 2019, at the Safaricom Michael Joseph Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

Stakeholders from the Ghanaian start-up ecosystem have come together for the first-ever Make-IT in Africa event in Ghana. The soft launch of Make-IT in Ghana brought together key local players for dialogue on the best ways to support tech entrepreneurship in Ghana, a presentation of highlights from Make-IT’s existing projects and an outlook of the initiative’s focus areas.

Make-IT in Africa and Mettā Nairobi brings you the 14th installment of the “Women-In” series where we will be hosting a star-studded panel consisting of women at the top of their game in the energy industry.
The main purpose of the series is to celebrate women in different sectors, their achievements, and their roles. Looking at the great strides that have been made over the years by women throughout the world, we want this platform to empower the next generation.

1. Merck/GIZ E-Health ecosystem meetup series

In 2019 Merck and GIZ will LAUNCH the Merck and GIZ Support Program. This contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goal by supporting tech start-ups in the fields of Healthcare, Lifesciences, Performance Materials and Innovation Fields such as Bio-sensing and Interfaces, and Liquid Biopsy Technologies.

Make-IT in Africa will organize a series ecosystem meetup, providing a space for thinkers, entrepreneurs, and professionals to workshop and discuss the thematic questions in the area of E-health in Nigeria. This meetups will be organised in partnership with Impact Hub Lagos.

The goal of the ecosystem meetup series is to create a community of actors (consisting of start-ups, investors, health care institutions, etc.) who are all involved in the growth and development of programs, activities and policies, that encourage or influence collaboration and meaningful partnerships between entrepreneurs, government agencies and companies seeking to promote innovation in Nigeria.

WE WILL KEEP YOU UP TO DATE WITH ALL THE LATEST NEWS

Make-IT in Africa, in collaboration with our implementing partner, Nailab, hosted a Women in Tech Bootcamp on 27th June 2019. The purpose of the Women in Tech Bootcamp was to build a pipeline for women’s participation in Technology Anchored Entrepreneur Programs (TAEPs).

Startup Accelerators in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem was a joint training initiative held across Israel by MASHAV – Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation – and The Golda Meir Mashav “Carmel” International Training Center, supported by Make-IT in Africa.

The entrepreneurship support training sessions were held in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem between June 18 and June 27, 2019, and 25 start-up enablers from Africa took part.

The #Africa4Future start-ups gathered in Europe between June 12-22, 2019, to celebrate the final phase of the #Africa4Future joint accelerator and to showcase their technologies and recent achievements in Berlin as part of the German-African Business Day and at the GIZ representation before the final closing and Demo Day at the Paris Air Show. The events marked the last time the teams came together as part of the 2019 #Africa4Future joint accelerator. To continue their collaboration the start-ups signed a letter of intent in Paris to form a Pan-African Aerospace Association to lobby for better framework conditions for drones in Africa.

The University of Nairobi convenes a number of stakeholders to organize and execute the annual Nairobi Innovation Week (NIW) to support and accelerate the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the region. The theme for this year was “Innovation and Kenya’s Big Four Agenda”. The main areas were food security and nutrition, enhancing manufacturing, universal health coverage, and affordable housing.

Working with partners, Make-IT was partnering with NIW to host a Startup Ecosystem Forum on June 11th, 2019, at Manu Chandaria Auditorium, University of Nairobi from 08:00 a.m. to 01:00 p.m. The forum was an opportunity for start-up ecosystem stakeholders to engage, network, and gather insights regarding the fast-developing ecosystem.

The Start-up Policy Hackathon, hosted by the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Cooperatives and supported by Make-IT in Africa, is a consultative and inclusive approach to policy development that will foster engagement with ecosystem stakeholders. The event was held at the Nairobi Safari Club Hotel on June 10th, 2019, from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.