Make-IT in Africa, together with IRESEN and Viridian, gathered twelve West African tech hubs in Dakar, Senegal, from 6th to 10th March 2023 in a Bootcamp. The overarching topic: transitioning the hubs into Greentech spaces. The bootcamp is a major-track of a 1+ year program aiming to strengthen techs hubs to become go-to-places for Greentech in their countries and build a collaborative community of Greentech in West Africa.
Twelve Tech Hubs from West Africa got the opportunity to be selected in a 1+ year program of building their capacities to transition into Greentech. Make-IT in Africa together with IRESEN and Viridian have designed the HUGG – Hubs GoGreentech Program. It consists of a one-week intensive bootcamp followed by tailored and on-demand activities through the year. The goal: strengthening the hubs to become the go-to-place for Greentech in their countries.
The bootcamp took place from 6th to 10th March 2023, at CTIC in Dakar, Senegal, and gathered 24 participants from twelve hubs from ten West African countries. Among the hubs we have: CTIC Dakar and Yeesal AgriHub from Senegal, Hadina RIMTIC from Mauritania, Jatropha Hub from Guinea, Incub’Ivoir from Ivory Coast, DoniLab from Mali, Burkina Business Incubator from Burkina Faso, Energy Generation from Togo, Seme City
from Benin, ActivSpaces and Zixtech Hub from Cameroon, and CIPMEN
from Niger.
Participants of the Hubs Go Greentech Bootcamp, in Dakar, Senegal, in March 2023. © GIZ/Instant2Vie Studio
The bootcamp provided capacities around five thematic areas: Marketing & Positioning of the hubs, Greentech trends & Financing, Hub Governance & Monitoring and Evaluation, Building your community, and Hub Strategy & Action Plan. In addition to panel discussion with donor organizations from FAO, ENABEL, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), World Bank andThe World Food Programme provided insights into financing opportunities.
As the first track of the HUGG – Hubs GoGreentech Program, the bootcamp build a solid base for a sustainability track which is constituted of action plan track, mentoring & on-demand coaching, peer-group learning, and workshops. The hubs showed pretty much interest and great motivation to engage in GreenTech and position their hubs to support GreenTech startup tackling Climate challenges in Africa.
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About the author: Alex Calvin Gbetie is an advisor from our Make-IT in Africa team, based in Ghana.
