Wennovation Hub - Africa's High Impact Innovation Accelerator
- Business
- Employment
- Economic development
- Income generation
- Information & communication technology
- Technology
- Social enterprise
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Founding Story
Michael
Oluwagbemi
LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited, Operators of the Wennovation Hub
, LA, Ikeja
, LA, Ikeja
18-34
Male
1‐5 years
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Operating for 1‐5 years
Access to financing, Access to supply chains, Access to technology, Access to economic opportunity.
To date, Wennovation Hub has supported over 120 entrepreneurs in various forms through its WennoConsulting, Wennovation Platform, Wenno Space and Wennovation Camp programs. A soon to be launched WennoHunt Business Plan competition will scale this effort up, and our goal is to triple our impact in 2013. Eight high impact businesses that today employ more than 50 people have been incubated and seeded by the Wennovation Hub, while life changing solutions are delivered by technologies developed by our start-ups including one to tackle the challenges of piracy and distribution in the fledgling Nollywood industry.
Our projected impact in three years is to have impacted 1000 entrepreneurs, and adding at least 50 great companies to our portfolio of businesses in the course of doing business, generating 1,000 high paying jobs in the process and creating direct wealth and ownership for up to 150 people. In addition to this, we plan to develop fledgling initiatives like the West Africa Incubators Regional Network and Lagos Angel Network to impact even more entrepreneurs through the vision of our partnerships and solutions to concerns surrounding innovation and their funding in the ECOWAS (West Africa) region.Our immediate goal is to launch the WennoHunt Business Plan competition to scale up our program in the next year, and also to expand our space/staff to accommodate the increased demand.
Launch the WennoHunt Program
Recruit Additional 4 Universities and Launch Tour Events in each of the Participating Schools
Develop an online platform to screen business plans & manage the program
Implement Phase 1 of the Program- Award Cash Prizes for Top 3 Ideas in each College
Take 12 University Teams to Funding
Implement Phase 2 of the Program- Identify top 12 winning ideas and award incubation
Implement a fast-pace Business Incubation Program for the 12 teams
Take the 12 teams to funding at a series of Pitch Events to Local and International Funders
Wennovation Hub itself is a product of a partnership agreement between the operator (LoftyInc Allied Partners) and the backer (Africa Leadership Forum). ALF provides space and facilities for the hub, while LoftyInc provides the operating budget and staff. We have other partnerships with MIT-AITI, Google Africa, Monterrey Institute, Africa Wennovation Prize and Tony Elumelu Foundation among others. Many top flight universities have one form of partnership with us; these includes the University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, Convenant University and Babcock.
One category of support we may offer other initiatives is an opportunity to access the extremely difficult market that is Nigeria. Our experience will more than be helpful for other initiatives where needed.