The African Diaspora has seen some of Africa's top talent leave the continent and go abroad. To tap into this talent and provide these scatterlings of Africa with a way to network and remain engaged with the continent, 2017 Tutu Fellow 'Bosun Tijani launched the CcHub Diaspora Challenge. The international project offers up to $250 thousand to be made available to African diaspora businesses that provide solutions to social challenges on the continent.
CcHub, which is short for Co-Creation Hub, held the launch at Facebook's offices in London in May. More than 300 people attended to hear the keynote address by Tijani, a co-founder of CcHub. The launch was the start of a UK-wide search for early-stage ventures focused in three areas: financial technology, energy, or education. Two ventures from each of those three areas will receive nine months incubation from CcHub and $15,000 in seed funding. Ventures able to demonstrate sustainability and innovation will obtain a further quarter of a million dollars from a partner, Growth Capital.
Tijani said he hoped the initiative would build stronger connections between the UK and Africa, especially given that more than 300 thousand highly qualified Africans live in the diaspora. CcHub is a vibrant community of more than 15 thousand techies, entrepreneurs and others, and in its five years, has incubated and provided support to more than 50 early stage ventures. In August of 2016, CcHub was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's first visit when he travelled to Lagos, Nigeria.
You can read more about the Diaspora Challenge at The Voice.
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