Continental free trade agreement opening doors for founders with ‘Let’s Build Africa’
With Let’s Build Africa, the startups that will be selected will participate in pitch events to refine their business models and receive feedback.
This year’s Africa Day witnessed lots more engagements in celebration of blackness. One such was the Co-creation Hub launching a path for startups to enter multiple markets wherever on the continent they may be.
Budding businesses who care to take advantage of the Let’s Build Africa initiative by CcHub can be onboarded when they find themselves fitting eligibility criteria, which include first being a startup that is registered in an African country, has at least one founder who is from the continent and the enterprise must already be at scale-up level.
Having checked these parameters, the next is for the eligible to make their intentions to be signed up to the programme through a registration form.
The way Co-creation Hub Managing Director Ojoma Ochai pictures the outcome, startups will be empowered with the tools and connections needed to thrive across Africa.
According to the manager, the hub thinks that by facilitating cross-border growth, we can significantly contribute to Africa’s economic integration and innovation landscape.
This initiative is the type of avenue that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has long wanted to achieve since it kicked off among 54 countries on 1 January 2021.
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Nigeria, being Africa’s largest economy a year before trade started was initially reluctant to get on board the AfCFTA, citing the possibility of not getting the best out of the treaty.
With high inflation occasioned by petrol subsidy removal, the country is projected to fall to the fourth position by the end of 2024, hence making it the needy one who must seek quick investments that can return it to the leading spot.
Introducing "𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝, 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚!" by CcHUB Africa – a program to empower African startups for intra-African cross-border growth.
Apply Here: https://t.co/DYtS07qUsH
— Co-Creation Hub (@Cc_HUB) May 25, 2024
Although the CcHub Let’s Build Africa programme isn’t restricted to Nigeria as there is room for the founders in countries like Kenya, Rwanda, and Namibia to become participants, the initiative is still home-grown and would add a multiplier effect to every participating country but especially Africa’s most populous nation.
With Let’s Build Africa, the startups that will be selected will participate in pitch events to refine their business models and receive feedback. They will also be involved in ecosystem tours that help to connect with a market in other countries besides Nigeria.
ALSO READ: Nigeria kicks off its Startup Act via a portal asking innovators and tech hubs to come in
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
