Nigeria’s Co-creation Hub (CcHub) today launched the CcHub Design Lab in Kigali, Rwanda, providing a space for product designers, engineers, scientists and stakeholders to explore the application of emerging technologies to solve Africa’s public health, education, governance and private sector challenges.
CcHub announced the opening of the state-of-the-art lab at the first day of the annual Africa Tech Summit Kigali – co-located with the Africa Startup Summit – which kicked off in Kigali today.
The new lab continues CcHub’s mandate of accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity in Africa; and marks the first expansion of the organisation outside of its home country of Nigeria.
The lab will be headed up by a multi-disciplinary team of designers and engineers, with the key focus areas to be public health – in particular digital epidemiology; education, focused on improving students’ interests, participation and learning outcomes in STEM education; and governance – looking at the role of technology in helping the government promote participatory governance, transparency and more effective public services.
“We’ve been building tech businesses alongside African entrepreneurs for almost a decade and in that time, we’ve identified a common challenge that businesses face when it comes to sustainable growth – design and innovation. With the CcHUB Design lab, we will be collaborating with organisations that may not have the capacity to design, build and innovate as quick as leaner startups would. The lab will also build on CcHUB’s extensive global and pan-African network of partners, research institutes and governmental organisations to execute practical design projects that will solve some of our social and business challenges at scale,” said ‘Bosun Tijani, CcHUB co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO).
With the launch of the Design Lab, CcHub said it plans to invest approximately US$11 million in Rwanda.
“CcHUB’s expansion into Kigali, marked with the launch of the Design Lab today, is an exciting landmark for Rwanda’s burgeoning tech community. Rwanda is keen on collaborating with world-class partners to establish ourselves as a leading destination that nurtures innovation-driven enterprises. We see technology as an integral gateway and means of developing society – an ethos and mission shared by CcHUB. As we strive to become a knowledge-based economy, we will continue to build long-lasting, strategic partnerships that celebrate excellence, forge ahead with progress and that are, essentially, a force for good that will impact thousands of people across the continent,” said Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation for Rwanda.
