Digital Africa: Ater the Competition, the Label!

The vast world of African startuppers already knew Digital Africa, the competition supported by AFD, which gives an award every year to the ten winners with innovative solutions for Africa’s development. It is about to discover the label and platform with the same name.

Virtuous circle 

Digital Africa, an open and inclusive approach, fully in line with the spirit of the Commons, is extending its scope of action. The objective of the label: support African entrepreneurial dynamics, drive innovation by digital technologies and promote the emergence of entrepreneurs who have an impact on the continent.  

AFD and its partners want to use this new hub to pool African initiatives and ecosystems of innovation. The aim is also to give entrepreneurs access to resources and business opportunities, while putting them in touch with the circles of digital technologies and innovation outside Africa. 

Digital networking platform

To support these issues, Digital Africa is going to implement a digital networking platform for entrepreneurs and ecosystems in the Autumn of 2018. The resources shared by the actors of this platform will be made available to all, in the spirit of the Commons. A preliminary light-weight version of the platform will be presented at the VivaTech fair.

A non-profit Digital Africa association will be launched to promote and coordinate this approach. It will be led by a consortium of international organizations and associations, such as AFD, Jokkolabs, Bond’Innov, CFI, AfriLabs and GEN Afrique (non-exhaustive list). 

The competition, always

The Digital Africa competition is of course still up and running. For the third year, this event, which aims to identify and support the best talents in digital innovation in Africa, will give awards to winners based on an imposed theme. For 2018, it is about promoting gender equality in Africa. Applications can be submitted from 10 September to 19 October. Candidates: get your arguments well-honed!