Tony Elumelu Foundation, Co-Creation Hub in Partnership to Give Social Technology Entrepreneurs Boost

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), an institution dedicated to the promotion and celebration of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship across Africa, is partnering with Co-Creation Hub Nigeria (CcHub), Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space dedicated to catalysing creative social technology ventures, in an effort to encourage innovative ideas that could help transform the social technology space in Nigeria.

Through the partnership, TEF will contribute to the growth and development of Nigeria’s emerging tech industry from the “Silicon Lagoon” by providing managed seed funding to 20 technological ideas/ventures targeted at typical social challenges faced by the average Nigerian. The fund will support the novel use of technology in several key areas of the economy including healthcare, education, agriculture, governance, inclusive technology, small business development, and finance. By focusing on the early stages of high-impact, results-oriented ideas/ventures, the seed funding will support experimentation and prototype development in order to accelerate the adoption of the solutions. Each technology venture will then have the potential to become a self-sustaining profitable social enterprise.

On its part, the Lagos-based CcHub will act as an incubator designed to accelerate the successful development of the funded social technology ventures through an array of business support resources and services developed and orchestrated by the hub’s management. In addition, the group will lead co-creation initiatives and facilitate multiple stakeholders to work together to create novel technologically-driven solutions for the myriad of social challenges that Nigerians face.

Dr. Wiebe Boer, CEO of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, said: “The partnership is part of our broader effort to develop an integrated venture pipeline development process in Nigeria. The Co-Creation Hub is doing work that is at the sweet spot of who we are as a Foundation –equipping emerging entrepreneurs with a passion for transformative social and economic wealth creation in Nigeria in particular, and Africa in general. TEF is pleased to support something on this level which has not previously been formally done in Nigeria.”

He added: “It is my belief that our collaboration with CcHub will help provide job creation opportunities across a broader geography than CcHub currently operates, and ultimately improve the impact investing space in Nigeria.”

Source: WorldStage (link opens in a new window)

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Technology
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social enterprise