Global Courant
The portmanteau “Uni:nnovators” is a creative combination of “university” and “innovators”, reflecting the spirit of young minds pursuing technological progress and innovation in higher education institutions. This spirit was clearly reflected during the CcHub Uni:nnovators Startups in Residence Program Demo and Showcase Day, where a young innovator confidently told the jury: “We don’t have an answer to that yet. But we are willing to go back and take a good look at it.” In addition to showing the willingness to learn and experiment, which is indispensable for any innovator, this statement also revealed the passion that young innovators share for their projects.
“It is important to support and encourage fresh minds within the university. They may not have the impressive resume yet, but they do have the vision and passion that sets them apart. Programs like these inspire them to realize their dreams even at an early stage,” said Miracle Nnaji, a senior investment analyst at Health Cap Africa. This pan-African investment company focuses on early-stage health and fintech startups, who was one of the panelists.
The Uni:nnovators: Startups in Residence program is the brainchild of the Co-creation Hub (CcHub), a social innovation center and technology center. It is one of the leading technology hubs in Africa and has played a key role in developing and supporting the African technology ecosystem. In its 13-year history, the Hub has spawned more than 1,000 companies, with these companies raising more than $150 million, of which $10 million came from the Hub. “It’s the core of what we do,” says Ojoma Ochai, managing partner of CcHub Creative Economy. “Supporting innovators with skills, knowledge, networks and funds.”
That’s why the Hub recently entered into a dynamic co-financing partnership with GIZ Make-IT in Africa to jointly implement the transformative Uni:nnovators program in Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia. The program is designed to inspire innovation in tertiary institutions in Africa by providing a space for entrepreneurs, innovators and technologists to come together, collaborate and work on new ideas, through a variety of programs and services to support startups and technology companies support, such as mentorship, incubation and financing.
In July, the center called for applications from different universities. From 256 entries, thirty start-up teams were selected to benefit from capacity building sessions to improve their research-based innovations and build prototypes. Ten student-led startup teams from the University of Lagos and the University of Ibadan made it to the six-week design sprint, where mentors helped them strengthen their pitch and innovation ahead of the Demo Day, where each team would showcase their products to an audience pitch. line of judges. One team had research-based innovations to reduce maternal mortality among pregnant women. Another team was building a farming productivity turbo for rural farmers using IoT. “The world’s problems are too deep and too complex not to have a strong theoretical foundation in the work we do,” Ochai said in her keynote speech at Demo Day.
Nigerian universities have become a breeding ground for practical innovators. The University of Lagos alone has six innovation hubs in its area and several innovation/entrepreneurship boot camps under the school umbrella. In her keynote speech, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, said it is paramount that higher education institutions leverage the structures put in place by innovation centers like CcHub and not compete with them . “We recognize that if we want to remain relevant and valued as a learning arena, we must create space for people to discover themselves,” she said.
In 2020 a research group from the University of Oxford produced the AstraZeneca vaccine, a vaccine that has helped solve a global problem, the COVID-19 infection. Previously, the researchers had developed a harmless chimpanzee adenovirus vector that could deliver the genetic code of any target protein into human cells. This vector had been tested in clinical trials for other diseases before COVID-19 emerged. Likewise, some of the innovations that make up CcHub emerged from school bootcamps, courses, or research they worked on. “These types of programs help them understand that their bachelor’s thesis is not intended for the department. You can turn it into something that solves a real problem and has market potential,” Nnaji said.
While most innovators have a deep understanding of the science and technology behind their products, they may lack the business acumen to bring their ideas to market. “I expected certain gaps in knowledge,” Nnaji said. “Some of them had to stretch to get online and do quick research on how to get to an addressable market size. And without a proper understanding of the context, they throw up numbers. However, I don’t see it as a challenge, but as an opportunity,” he added.
Identifying knowledge gaps early on can help the posterity of the African ecosystem. A report from BCG2 says structural barriers such as a fragmented market and low consumer purchasing power can make Africa challenging for technology entrepreneurs and investors. “It can impact the time it takes to establish product performance, which in some cases impacts the ability to raise some needed financing,” Nnaji said.
The disparities in African technology financing are also a concern for Justice Emeka Nwachinyere, the founder of the agritech startup Kitovu Technologies, who was impressed by two of the agritech innovations. One of the innovations was a refrigerator that used a natural coolant to preserve food for up to 48 hours. “It solves a critical problem of high losses, which can reach up to 60% of the fruit and vegetable value chain,” said Nwachinyere. “If Nigeria is to escape the possibility of one day waking up and finding itself in the middle of a food crisis, we must invest in agricultural infrastructure development. However, the challenge remains whether these innovations will be able to find financing,” he added. While the African innovation space is vast and there are many opportunities to explore, fintech occupies most of the attention and funding. Interestingly, none of the ten teams at the Uni:nnovators showcase presented a fintech solution.
The future of African innovation
The CcHub team will then head to Namibia and Kenya where they will duplicate a similar sprint and twelve more student-led companies will be selected to participate in a knowledge exchange with leading researchers in their field in Germany for physical sessions to develop their prototypes help strengthen . The go-to-market strategy is to be able to communicate that universities and higher education institutions are now the constellation of knowledge creation and innovation. “There is no shortage of ideas and innovation on our continent. I believe that the critical problems we have on the continent can be solved with the ingenuity and creativity that you (the innovators) have,” said Jude Feranmi, told the innovators. “Whether you move on to the next phase of this program or not, the problem you are working on needs to be solved. And that’s the kind of spirit we want to encourage in the future.”
Six Nigerian teams have scaled up: Smart BiliWrapper (University of Lagos), TY Dami Energy (University of Lagos), Slim Re Biopsy (University of Ibadan), Pharmalink (University of Lagos), Medherence (University of Ibadan) and ConnectCare (University of Ibadan ). They earned $5,000 and received even more mentorship to support them in building and deploying their solutions to the market. One of the team leaders could hardly contain his joy. Emotions surged through the room. If there was ever a moment of doubt about the future of African innovation, this was not one of those moments.
