Contributor: UNDP Ghana
Ghana is ready to host a Pan-African AgriTech Innovation Hub of the brand new and daring innovation initiative, timbuktoo, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This was introduced in the course of the full of life timXAccra occasion held on the Labadi Beach Hotel. The timbuktoo initiative goals to mobilize and make investments one billion {dollars} of private and non-private capital over ten years, with the purpose of sparking the startup revolution in Africa.
“What UNDP is trying to do with timbuktoo is good for Africa. We need to create jobs and entrepreneurs are the key source of job creation. It is time for us to leverage digitalization into innovation and job creation”, famous Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana.
It is envisaged that eight private-sector pushed pan-African timbuktoo hubs will probably be established throughout Africa, every targeted on a distinct precedence sector and every housing a Venture Builder and a Venture Fund. The thrilling imaginative and prescient behind timbuktoo is that every pan-African hub will entice prime startup abilities from throughout the continent, with the purpose of nurturing and rising “One Africa Market and beyond” startups, that obtain best-in-class assist, partnerships, and native and international funding.
“timbuktoo is an innovative private-driven approach to getting Africa’s innovation ecosystem right and is a massive, bold, and unique undertaking to solve the current gap in early-stage risk capital, to better integrate African innovation players from universities to corporates to investors, and to enable startups to seize the African market opportunity. We are excited to open a timbuktoo hub in Accra, recognizing the vibrance and positive trends that are emerging from Ghana’s startup ecosystem. The future is bright as we harness Africa’s enormous youth talent to transform the continent into a knowledge and innovation global powerhouse,” famous Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin, timbuktoo Project Head and Chief Innovation Officer of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa.
The bold imaginative and prescient set by timbuktoo is to provoke Africa’s tech and tech-enabled startups, aiming to obtain over 1,000 startups reaching important scale and having affect on over 100 million livelihoods in addition to environmental impacts. This in flip, is to generate a ten-fold return, amounting to over ten billion {dollars}, when it comes to wealth and worth creation for Africa’s economies.
UNDP Africa launched this initiative in 2021 and the challenge goals to interact a lot of personal and public sector companions to set up eight timbuktoo Hubs in acknowledged main startup ecosystems, probably in Accra, Nairobi, Cape Town, Lagos, Dakar, Kigali, Casablanca, and Cairo, amongst others. Each Hub will probably be operated privately and can give attention to a single business vertical together with Fintech, Agritech, Healthtech, Greentech, Creatives, Tradetech and Logistics, Smart Cities and Mobility, and Tourismtech. The construction of the huge endeavor features a Parent Fund of catalytic grant capital, in partnership with impact-minded catalytic companions, that will finance the community of Hubs and likewise a Headquarters. The Parent Fund would additionally inject a minority share in every of the Hub Venture Funds, that are commercially oriented, within the type of ensures or first-loss capital.
“timbuktoo is a new approach for UNDP in line with our vision of a future-smart Africa that transcends old development paradigms. We are proud to work hand in hand with the private sector to embrace a bold new reality in which the future is driven by technology and innovation. Only exceptional achievements made by ambitious and talented young people supported by a vibrant ecosystem will move the needle in Africa and enable us to truly achieve our SDG targets”, said Dr Angela Lusigi, UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana.
Since its inception, the timbuktoo initiative has moved quickly on a number of fronts. In addition to useful resource mobilization and fascinating host governments for the setup of eight timbuktoo pan-African Hubs in main startup ecosystems, timbuktoo has additionally spearheaded the institution of University Innovation Pods (UniPods), at nationwide stage in ten Lower-Income Countries in Africa (Benin, Guinea Conakry, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda), with the target of encouraging college students in universities to interact in innovation and design pondering. The UniPods will change into operational by finish of 2022, and thus timbuktoo’s attain will lengthen to eighteen African international locations by 2023 when the timbuktoo hubs are envisaged to change into operational.
The timXAccra interactive occasion, held in partnership with Innohub and the Ghana Hubs Network, engaged over 100 ecosystem actors together with authorities officers, diplomats and improvement companions, and several other startup ecosystem gamers in strong discussions on timbuktoo and the Ghanaian startup ecosystem expertise. The occasion signaled UNDP’s strengthened dedication to partaking and dealing with the personal sector.
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