A Gathering Of Africa’s Tech Hubs: AfriLab Gathering At Re:publica Berlin

The definite highlight of attending Re:publica was the gathering of African Tech Hubs taking place there, organised by AfriLabs.  Having recently appointed a new Director Tayo Akinyemi, their role is to strengthen collaboration between Africa’s tech hubs, creating a Pan-African movement and creating mutual benefit by working collectively.  

All interested Stakeholders including hub founders, managers and funders met for 2 days before the conference. There were hub representatives from right across the continent, including Activ Spaces, iHub, NaiLabs, Hive Colab, Habaka, KINU, ICE Cairo and Addis, Wennovation, Banta Labs, iLab, RLabs, Co-Creation Hub and Bongo Hive.  I’m sure these meetings will be written up in further detail elsewhere, but it was inspiring to see such tremendous enthusiasm and fantastic ideas coming out from the group who discussed how to share knowledge and collaborate, shared information about hub sustainability and business models and explored ways in which to build the AfriLabs ecosystem.  An excellent new governance structure is also being devised which will involve a rotating board and three steering committees, ensuring that inclusivity and openness is the name of the game.