SocialGood Nigeria, a network of innovators and entrepreneurs, has partnered the Swedish government to launch a series of Pop Up Incubators across Nigeria in a bid to support local startups with training and mentorship.
SocialGood Nigeria was launched in October last year, with the aim of leveraging the explosive power of digital technology to collaborate for social good across the country.
The organisation believes “there are people across social and geopolitical strata with ingenious solutions for Nigeria’s seemingly daunting problems”, and hopes its online and physical platforms will provide a space for discussions, problem-solving calculations, ideations and incubations to drive global innovation at a local scale.
With funding from the Embassy of Sweden, SocialGood Nigeria is launching PopUp Incubators in Abuja, Jos, Lagos, Owerri, Uyo and Kano between now and April.
Esther Agbarakwe, co-founder of SocialGood Nigeria, told Disrupt Africa the programme was designed as a monthly capacity development programme for all techies and entrepreneurs to learn strategy tips from different global Swedish businesses.
“The SocialGood Nigeria PopUp Incubator Project is designed to establish a platform, where entrepreneurs, professionals et al can engage in sharing knowledge and tips for business or idea growth thereby creating an effective management framework for its implementation,” Agbarakwe said.
She said the project intends to be hybrid in delivery nature dependent on the venue of the Pop Up Incubator.
“In order to see the impact, the project will be reliable on the existing relationship built by partners to carry out pop up sessions in different parts of Nigeria preferably close to a university,” she said.
Swedish business representatives will speak to participants via Skype and Google Hangout to share how they were able to build their businesses, with these virtual speakers supported by physical speakers, who will lead the discussion and manage the Q&A session.
“The SocialGood Nigeria PopUp Incubator Project seeks to impact young and middle age Nigerians on the need to set up credible businesses that are social good focused and with great ethics,” Agbarakwe said.
Other expected outcomes include the exchange of knowledge and experience between Nigerian and Swedish entrepreneurs on social entrepreneurship, CSR, women’s rights resources and participation, education from other cultures on how to run successful projects, the building of new ideas that can impact Nigeria and Africa as whole, and the increase in likelihood of a more structured business relationship between Nigeria and Sweden.
