TECH BY HER ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME: MEST AND MAKE-IT IN AFRICA ANNOUNCE 2020 COHORT

The Make-IT Accelerator offers tech start-ups from East and West Africa a nine-month programme to help them strengthen their growth, cooperation and investment readiness.

#Africa4Future is a joint accelerator programme by Airbus BizLab and Make-IT in Africa that is designed to support upcoming tech entrepreneurs in the fields of agriculture and remote sensing. Ten Pan-African start-ups will be selected to participate in the 3-month programme.

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.

The Investment Guide Africa is implemented by the Tech-Entrepreneurship Initiative Make-IT in Africa, a GIZ project commited to facilitating access to finance, skills and markets for African start-ups.

The programme focuses on tech start-ups that increase access to health services across all social groups and reduce health inequalities within and between countries. The appropriate use of technology will advance this agenda by enhancing sustainability and reducing poverty.

The Best of OEM curriculum has total of 55 topics spread across eight modules and range from short courses and videos that will help entrepreneurs build better, healthier businesses. All the content selected incorporates both theoretical and practical learning thorough examples, exercises, case studies or experience sharing to help the learner better understand concepts and apply them to their own business.

Mentoring is one key success factor for young entrepreneurs. Access to a network of experienced partners can guide the way to investment and business experience, and offer the support required to strengthen a founder’s leadership skills. Hence, together with experts from Make-IT in Africa partners, including our implementing partner VC4A (Venture Capital 4 Africa), we provide mentor boot camps for business mentors and mentees in Lagos and Nairobi.

In the publication series ‘Digital Innovation Made in Africa’, Make-IT in Africa showcases selected innovations and entrepreneurs that have unique potential to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN).

The course is designed for managers of accelerators and other entrepreneurial support programmes, managers of communities, as well as those working in governmental institutions and SME support agencies, private sector support systems for entrepreneurs and NGOs dealing with small business support and development.