[Transcript] #12: Innovation Hubs (CcHub, iHub & others) - How African incubators, accelerators & co-working spaces are nurturing entrepreneurship and building the tech ecosystem
Transcript for podcast originally recorded on September 20, 2020
😉 Hello glorious Afrobility readers!
Back in September 2020, we explored the impact of CcHub and other innovation hubs across the African tech ecosystem…
2023-08-28 Update: CcHub is Africa’s largest innovation hub, the first major Nigerian private hub and a key contributor to Yaba becoming the central tech cluster in Lagos (equivalent to Silicon Valley in USA). Innovation hubs continue to play a critical role by providing resources and services including:
Access to talent, training & skill development:: Innovation hubs attract and retain top talent from a variety of disciplines, including engineering, computer science, business, and design. This talent pool is essential for the development of new technologies and the growth of tech businesses. Innovation hubs help talent develop new skills (usually tech skills) & expand their tech knowledge through training.
Access to capital: Innovation hubs connect startups and small businesses with investors, venture capitalists, and other sources of funding. This can help entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground and scale up.
Coworking space & infrastructure: Innovation hubs provide affordable coworking space for startups and small businesses. This can help entrepreneurs save money on rent and other overhead costs. This helps solve some infra challenges such as inadequate access to electricity and internet connectivity.
Mentorship and networking: Innovation hubs offer mentorship and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs and startups. This can help them connect with experienced professionals, learn from each other, and build relationships that can lead to new opportunities.
Government support: Many governments offer financial and other support to innovation hubs. This can help them attract talent, provide funding, and build infrastructure.
In a remarkable turn of events Bosun Tijani, the co-founder of CcHub, was appointed the Minister of “Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy” (basically the Minister of the Tech Sector) in the summer of 2023 which marks the first time a founder/technocrat is in such a high level government position.
I find politics abhorrent but maybe the best way to make it less disgusting is to go inside and change it? I’m not sure but I’ll be wishing Bosun the best of luck. I read a (thought-provoking?) post that said something like, “I can’t stand people who say they don’t care about politics. Everything is political!”
DFTBA!
Olumide Ogunsanwo
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Transcript starts here
[00:00:00] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Welcome to Afrobility, a conversation about African business and technology. Today, we're going to talk about Africa's largest innovation hubs and how they're nurturing entrepreneurship and building the African tech ecosystem. We'll focus on CCHub and iHub as reference points, then we'll look at different models of these hubs across the continent, and then finally, we'll end with our views on the future of innovation hubs across Africa.
BMAC, how are you doing?
[00:00:26] Bankole Makanju: I'm good. Life is good. How are you?
[00:00:29] Olumide Ogunsanwo: I feel great. I feel like every episode, I have a new nickname for you.
[00:00:32] Bankole Makanju: I'll take it. I had somebody message me and say, can't lose with Koos or Bank with Bankole. If you know me, you know that that's my dream. My dream is to make it to a Nigerian song.
So if you're out there listening and you sing, just put my name in it, like Burna Boy did. His check is in the mail.
[00:00:50] Olumide Ogunsanwo: I like it. You're going to be only doing fintech startups based on that.
[00:00:56] Bankole Makanju: Nice! So why are we doing this now?
[00:01:04] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Why did you pick this? First of all, I think the timing is actually great that we're doing it after the edtech episode. Because in a way Innovation hubs, aka innovation labs, innovation centers, whatever you want to call them, we'll be using the terms interchangeably. They're sort of all along the same spectrum.
You can empower people, expand their skills, expand their knowledge, and then have some impact on society. So it's sort of related to edtech, except I think it targets slightly older people and slightly people who want to do a little bit more entrepreneurial stuff versus edtech. It's just much more about learning skills.