UNDP Allocates $1 Billion To African Startup Hubs, Including Casablanca

Rabat – The Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) recently launched its Timbuktoo initiative that aims to boost African entrepreneurship and startup ecosystems for regional development.

The $1 billion initiative was launched in Lagos, Nigeria on August 17, and will be funded by public and private capital over ten years. UNDP Africa noted earlier in a statement that the organization is engaging with a network of private and public actors to establish eight Timbuktoo hubs in Casablanca, Cairo, Accra Nairobi, Cape Town, Lagos, Dakar, and Kigali. The hubs are set to become operational in 2023.

Quoting the organizers, South African newspaper Business Day wrote that each hub is set to focus on a priority sector such as agritech, fintech, healthtech, tradetech, and tourism-related tech. Meanwhile, each hub is expected to host both a “venture builder” and a venture fund.

The Timbuktoo initiative was first announced in 2021 with the objective of expanding its operations into 18 countries by 2024 as well as promoting innovation among African students.

Under this framework, UNDP has worked on launching University Innovation Pods (UniPods) by the end of 2022 in low-income countries such as Mali, Togo, Benin, Malawi, Lesotho, Guinea, and Chad.

The UNDP’s African initiative coincides with a boom in the African startup ecosystem, with fintech startups attracting most regional and international funding.

Despite the lack of capital and quality education, while enduring fragmented markets, and weak infrastructure, the African startup ecosystem has seen a surge in the number of startups and the volume of deals they have concluded.

African startups notably raised $2 billion in the first half of 2022, marking a 192% year-on-year growth. The funding resulted from 387 deals, up by 31% from the first half of 2021. Meanwhile, the fintech sector dominated 68% of the African startup funding in H1 2022.

E-commerce startups followed in the second position for the second consecutive year with 81 concluded deals. Transport and logistics startups came third ahead of healthtech startups.