Impact Hub Accra launches tomorrow, with the Ghanaian launch part of an ongoing series of rollouts across the continent.
Disrupt Africa reported last month an Impact Hub launched in the Rwandan capital Kigali, while further launches will take place in Mali and Sudan in the coming months.
First launched in London in 2005, the Impact Hub concept has become a global movement, with 82 hubs across the world with over 11,000 members.
The organisation has been on an expansion push of late, launching its Africa Seed Programme, a six-month incubator designed to support entrepreneurs in opening Impact Hubs across Africa. It also launched Resilience Africa, which aims to launch hubs and incubation programmes in a number of African countries.
The pre-existing Hub Accra was one of the hubs selected to become part of the group after two years of operating independently.
“We renew our dedication to empowering innovators of all kinds to address the challenges of the 21st century, and we do so now in collaboration with the network’s 82 hubs of 11,000 change-makers on five continents. Join us and our partners for an evening of drinks, food, collaboration, and celebration,” the hub said.
The launch event takes place tomorrow, with details of future launch events still awaiting confirmation.
The original Impact Hub in Africa how, however, temporarily closed. Disrupt Africa reported Impact Hub had shut its Johannesburg based co-working space after five years of operation, saying that the facilities are no longer “good enough”.
The organisation said over the past months it has received overwhelming feedback from members and partners that the facilities are not good enough to support the teams working there, prompting a period of “introspection”.
“Having taken into account feedback from members and partners over the past few months and after deep introspection it became apparent that Impact Hub Johannesburg must once again set targets for the next stage of innovation and impact. In short, Johannesburg deserves a world class Impact Hub and in its current form and location it is simply not good enough to do so,” the Impact Hub founders said.
“The emergence of the business development and social innovation sectors have forced Impact Hub Johannesburg to focus internally to understand the value that it plays not only in the City of Johannesburg but also in South Africa as a whole,” the founders said.
Impact Hub said a team is now working behind the scenes to reinvent the organisation, and design a new Hub that the organisation’s partners, and Johannesburg more widely, can be “proud of associating with”.
