To assist African universities in fostering student-led innovations, CcHub and GIZ launched

Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) has announced a new co-funded initiative to support innovation within African universities, in partnership with the Make-IT in Africa project run by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The UNI: INNOVATORS Startups-in-Residence Programme is a brand-new initiative that will see CcHub support 30 student-led startups in Nigeria, Namibia, and Kenya in an effort to strengthen and speed up the participation of academic institutions in the developing innovation ecosystem throughout Africa.

The chosen startup teams will take part in a design sprint to develop prototypes for green technology and smart city solutions in specific industries, including agriculture, energy, circular economy, water, and healthcare, and to improve their research-based innovations.

Following a pitch demonstration, 18 of these student-led teams that succeed will engage in a knowledge exchange with top researchers in their fields and have the chance to travel to Germany for hands-on sessions that will strengthen their prototypes. Then, as needed, they will work with industry partners to build and deploy their MVPs through the use of funding and advisory services.

In order to highlight the crucial role that higher education institutions play in the larger innovation ecosystem on the continent, the program will culminate in a two-day summit in Nairobi, Kenya, where startups will present to an international audience of investors and stakeholders.

“The expectation is that we can support the many research-led innovations that Masters students, Ph.D. students, and even undergraduate students are building in our universities to solve some of the most critical and deepest challenges we have on our continent,” CcHub said.

CcHub will work with six higher education institutions in the three chosen countries.

“In Nigeria, we will work with the University of Ibadan and the University of Lagos. In Namibia, we will work with the University of Namibia and the Namibia University of Science and Technology. In Kenya, we will work with Riara University and the University of Nairobi,” it said.