The AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2021 marked a monumental milestone for the network as we celebrated our 10th Anniversary. The Gathering themed “AfriLabs at 10: A Decade of Empowering and Inspiring Innovation across Africa” was held in Abuja, Nigeria from the 27th to 29th of October, 2021 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja. It aimed at spotlighting the growth and evolution of the African Innovation Ecosystem.

The Gathering hosted over 300 ecosystem enablers from all over the African continent and also various exciting panel sessions, workshops led by GIZ-AU, GIZ Make-IT, EU-Africa Digilogic, Mozilla, the University Of Basel, and member Hubs of the AfriLabs network.

The event also featured the launch of Catalytic Africa which is a matching fund led by the African Business Angels Network (ABAN) and AfriLabs that aims to strengthen African startups, and innovation hubs while delivering impact results to institutional funders.

The AfriLabs Annual Gathering also saw the launch of the AfriLabs and Briter Bridges report titled “Bolstering innovators in Africa – Innovation hubs’ catalytic role as ecosystem support organizations” the report identified at least 1031 active innovation hubs across Africa as of October 2021, using a combination of primary and secondary data collection methods.

Unbeatable highlights from the AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2021 include:

The AfriLabs 10th Anniversary Gala was hosted by the Vice President of Nigeria at the statehouse with the theme “The African Heritage” on the 27th of October 2021. Our community showed up and showed off the splendor of our African Heritage. During the Gala, AfriLabs awarded 12 hubs 15,000 euros each to implement capacity-building projects ranging from Business Growth and Development, Product Evolution and Development to Investment Readiness and Fundraising for their communities under the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme. This grant is funded by Agence Française de Dévelopement through the Digital Africa Seed Fund.

Dinner and Cocktail events hosted by the following hubs and organizations: Creative Arts and Visual Imagery Centre (CAVIC), Aiivon Hub, Ventures Platform, Wennovation Hub, and our partner Briter Bridges on the 28th of October 2021.

The third day of the Gathering (29th October 2021) was a tour of the Abuja technology and innovation ecosystem which featured members of our community such as Ventures Platform, The Cans, Seedbuilders, Enspire Incubator, and WootLab Innovations. Additionally, Nile university hosted an event themed “Innovative Entrepreneurship and Employability” (on the same day).