Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

By Theresa FendNo Comments
‘Education is the most powerful tool that can be used to change the world’ — Nelson Mandela The Bridge the Gap training program is an ongoing initiative that was started by Kumasi Hive in partnership with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Innovation Factory and e- skills for Girls. The Bridge the Gap program addresses the issue of the gender gap in the technology space. The program trained 60 girls in web development and 3D printing in the first phase, which lasted for one month. We are currently implementing the second phase of the program: the business incubation and internship phase. In this cycle, 10 selected teams are being introduced to global perspectives on leadership and entrepreneurship, the world of business and design, issues that may arise in terms of user experience and how to resolve such problems. They have been provided with the tools and a makerspace where these teams are designing and building prototypes of their products. This week, we are focusing on one of the teams, Edukits,...
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African Digital Economy

African Digital Economy

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Ampion and Plutos Ventures launch new venture for Africa-focused start-ups Focus of the new venture – on site development of digital business models Call for Applications from founders and start-ups with an Africa focus start now! Nairobi & Berlin, 12.03.19 - Africa-focused Ampion and Berlin-based Plutos Ventures Holding today announced the founding of Ampion Ventures. The goal of the new project is to build scalable digital business models in selected African countries by providing seed capital and strategic expertise support. Plutos Venture provides continuous and open-ended funding to Ampion Ventures. Ampion Ventures is led by Fabian-Carlos Guhl, founder of the non-profit organization Ampion.org. Guhl has been working for years on the African continent with founders and early-stage start-ups. Through his very successful start-up bus, with which he has travelled through more than 16 African countries and coached and supported founders in the development of digital business models, Guhl has been able to build up a large network of founders and start-ups in different African countries. Together with Plutos, Ampion is now taking the next logical step to...
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Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018

Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018

By Zen EditorNo Comments
On January 26, Youssouf Simbo Diakite, founder and CEO at African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe (ADYFE) was awarded the Mali Entrepreneurship and Engagement Award in the category Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018 – Best Achievement. Watch the ortm.ml news itemDownload Watch Youssouf Simbo Diakite interviewDownload Read more at maliactu.net/mali-4eme-edition-de-la-nuit-de-lentrepreneuriat-promouvoir-la-creation-demploi/ (French). In December 2018, Youssouf and his team at ADYFE organized the high-level forum 'Accelerated Africa Conference 2018 – from Entrepreneur to CEO: Channeling the power of the Diaspora : ...
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#SenStartupAct and the Dakar Policy Hackathon

#SenStartupAct and the Dakar Policy Hackathon

By Zen EditorNo Comments
The Dakar Policy Hackathon brought together more than sixty key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Impact Dakar with the goal of developing a Start-Up Act. All stakeholders in the ecosystem have been mobilized to share different proposals to improve the business environment and equip themselves with startup-friendly legislation and regulations to support entrepreneurship and innovation and to respond to global challenges of the world. Read the event report (French). The opportunity for entrepreneurs, innovators and ecosystem enablers to contribute and gave input into policy formulation is a critical and progressive for policy makers and governments as major stakeholders are coming up with effective and inclusive policies that create enabling environment for business development and entrepreneurship. This is what i4Policy helps to deliver, enabling all and empowering all. ...
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How Ghana’s Maker-Movement is driving young innovators

How Ghana’s Maker-Movement is driving young innovators

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Last week, pan-African journalist Lee Kasumba stopped by Kumasi Hive for an interview with Jorge Appiah.  Excerpt What started out as a community of makers, innovators and entrepreneurs has quickly grown into the biggest Maker Movement in Ghana. Heading this movement is Kumasi Hive – a tech innovation hub that supports entrepreneurs in the process of rapidly prototyping their ideas, developing product solutions for critical challenges and, providing support. One of the challenge faced by 2% of Ghana’s high schools – was access to laboratories and the various resources required for practicing science. To address this particular challenge, one of the start-ups in Kumasi Hive’s network has developed an innovative product called the Science Lab in a Box – which is a low-cost mobile lab for students. […]   Read the whole story at 702.co.za/articles/304179/maker-movement-driving-innovation-in-ghana and watch Lee's full interview with Jorge Appiah: ...
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Human-centered formats and the SDGs

Human-centered formats and the SDGs

By Zen EditorNo Comments
In the past two years we have been developing human-centered formats for teaching the contents and especially the new transformative components of the SDGs to policy makers that work for or with the German Development Services. Hence we are training parters, policy consultants and politicians to stop designing perfect solutions for ill-defined problems and unknown recipients. The format is a summer school academy of one week where the participants get SDG related theoretical input and apply it to fictive challenges in order to learn by doing. The next step is to actually help these people implement the learnings in their country programs. For this purpose we would love to reach out to our network....but this will sure take a while... policy design sure is a challenge of embracing slowness and patience. This is just one part of our - now somehow more structured - activity. In April 2017 we set up the innovation consultancy and capacity building company marzavan.com. I remember...
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Wearable technology for empowerment

Wearable technology for empowerment

By Zen EditorNo Comments
GIG member Rebeca Duque Estrada is a co-founder of Olabi Makerspace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and gave a presentation on tech wearables at the TEDx IE Madrid this June. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Yg73GF6x0 Rebeca takes us through her own and amazing experience with tech wearables and its incredible capability of empowerment and communication. Rebeca Duque Estrada is a Brazilian architect and maker based in Berlin. She is project coordinator for Olabi Makerspace, where she has developed courses and methodologies that open access to technology through meaningful experiences, combining high-tech with craft techniques, wearables technology and bio-materials. Her latest project called Wearable as Manifest explores the potential of wearables as an element that goes beyond glowing and conveys a message....
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PitchDriveXYZ – Presenting the 14 top Start-ups from Africa

PitchDriveXYZ – Presenting the 14 top Start-ups from Africa

By Zen EditorNo Comments
PitchDrive by CcHUB, powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, will engage 14 of Africa’s top tech start-ups on a tour of tech hubs in Europe (London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Zurich and Paris) to pitch to investors, explore international opportunities and learn about frontier technology markets. Last year, it was estimated that African start-ups raised a record-breaking total of $366.8 million in investment, with the top 10 destinations being Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia and Uganda. Africa is in the midst of a technological renaissance and we present to you a unique opportunity to interact and network with 14 leading startups from the continent. The Open Pitch session will give the entrepreneurs the unique opportunity to interact, network and pitch to a room full of highly networked individuals and Africans in the Diaspora. We hope you will take out time to join this rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the best of Africa’s tech startups. After an introduction...
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