Despite the ongoing crises and long-standing structural issues, the African startup ecosystem is still thriving. However, it is not yet up to par with the ecosystems in other continents, Europe, and North America namely. The initiative is aimed at helping reach its full potential.
UNDP Africa launched, Wednesday (August 17), timXLAGOS, the Nigerian chapter of Timbuktoo, an initiative aimed at investing US$1 billion of private and public funds to “spur the startup revolution across Africa.”
According to a UNDP release, the aim of Timbuktoo is to “get a lot of private and public sector partners to help set up eight Timbuktoo Hubs in places that are known to have strong startup ecosystems, such as Accra, Nairobi, Cape Town, Lagos, Dakar, Kigali, Casablanca, and Cairo.”
Timbuktoo was initiated in 2021, to contribute to UNDP Africa’s mission to transform the continent by leveraging its population, “especially its ambitious and dynamic youth.” Through the US$1 billion initiative, UNDP plans to help some 1,000 African startups grow significantly over the coming decade.
“The Timbuktoo approach will be based on finding, nurturing, and building African solutions put forward by Africa's youth that directly address one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” UNDP Africa indicates.
To achieve that goal, the initiative will facilitate the construction of eight private-sector-driven Timbuktoo hubs across Africa. Each of them will focus on a key area -fintech, agritech, Healthtech, Greentech, Creatives, Tradetech and Logistics, Smart Cities and Mobility, or Tourismtech- and host a venture builder and a venture fund.
According to the UNDP release, “Timbuktoo has made significant progress since its inception.” It launched the development of University Innovation Pods (UniPods) in ten “lower-income countries” namely Benin, Chad, Guinea Conakry, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. The universities will encourage innovation and design thinking. That way, they will prompt the development of strong startup ecosystems in those countries, making them worthy to host Timbuktoo hubs. They are expected to become operational by end-2022, we learn.
For Eleni Gabre-Madhin, UNDP Africa Chief Innovation Officer, “Timbuktoo is a big, innovative, and unique initiative to overcome the present vacuum in early-stage risk capital, to better integrate African innovation stakeholders from universities to corporates to investors, and to enable startups to embrace the African market opportunity.”
Samira Njoya
