Incubators, accelerators and technological hubs have proliferated in Africa over the past 5 years to support early-stage African entrepreneurs. But many of these organizations remain relatively new and isolated, with varying levels of professionalism and limited means and tools at their disposal.

“Without the necessary efficiency, effectiveness and scale, incubators’ efforts will not be reflected in their beneficiary entrepreneurs’ ability to overcome the binding constraints in the ecosystem and scale up; and their impact in terms of business growth, disruptive innovation and job creation will remain limited,” said Christian Jekinnou, coordinator of Afric’Innov at the launch of the recent Conference on Innovation: International and Global South (Rencontres de l’Innovation International & Sud).  “This is exactly why Afric’Innov was set up, aiming to professionalize these institutions supporting entrepreneurship, and why events such as the Conference on Innovation are crucial, enabling us to deploy our tools,” he added.

As part of its strategy to support growth entrepreneurship, the World Bank joined Afric’Innov’s steering committee as an observer member. This role will allow the Bank to analyze pilot schemes that support Africa’s incubators through training and interest-free loans, as well as by certifying mature incubators and conducting feasibility assessments to scale up projects.