Tech Hubs in Africa – An Innovative Solution to Foster Youth Entrepreneurship
We live in interesting times. Challenging, but interesting, nonetheless. Fortunately, as Africans, we’re used to challenges and finding innovative ways to overcome them by fostering youth entrepreneurship is just one way.
Education is one of these stumbling blocks holding us back from achieving our goals, so it’s not surprising that Africans have come up with a way to get around this problem too.
The Rise of Tech Hubs in Africa
Progress is often slow in our part of the world, but we know how to take limited resources and maximise them. Now, as internet infrastructure and technology improve, young teen entrepreneurs are using it to launch a new generation of digitally-savvy entrepreneurial businesses.
These platforms challenge the concept of traditional universities, causing a stir in Silicon Valley and shaking up investors and tech giants across the globe.
These tech hubs are sweeping through the continent, providing the uneducated youth with a chance to learn important STEM skills in a way that challenges the conventional university model.
By sidestepping the archaic institutional traditions of formal learning, these tech hubs create a base for potential entrepreneurs, by providing valuable resources to those at the bottom of the academic pile. In so doing, they’re fostering innovative solutions to spread new information while creating economic and social value.
By stimulating the teen entrepreneurs among us, these hubs are making use of Africa’s abundant innovative talents to improve circumstances for all – and they’re doing it with available technology.
How it Works
Tech hubs like Ghana’s MEST, Co-Creation Hub in Nigeria, and iHub in Kenya have a strong focus on transforming techpreneurs and start-ups who provide local solutions to local problems in Africa. These include the realms of health, agriculture, education, and renewable energy.
These hubs help support development in areas with limited resources, providing a place where promising entrepreneurs can access the things they need to grow their ideas. While the concept of having no electricity and water is a foreign one in developed countries, it’s a fact of life to people in these areas.
In this way, these hubs encourage youth entrepreneurship, attract funding, and help make a difference in local communities.
Most importantly, these hubs are causing a stir among governments and their technical partners to recognise the importance of entrepreneurship, especially among the youth. As a result, these initiatives have garnered support from international giants like Facebook Google, and Microsoft.
These co-ops are helping young Africans to get the job done, by harnessing the power of community to maximise few resources and achieve big results.
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