A non-profit organisation that provides education technology content, tools and resources for talent development, TechQuest STEM Academy has sealed agreements with ICEALEX, an Egypt-based innovation hub, to develop digital talents and market ready innovative businesses across Africa.
The partnership takes advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Announcing the collaboration, Director at TechQuest, Dr. Itoro Emembolu, said: “The partnership will focus on supporting startups and tech talent across both countries in the areas of market readiness, market access, corporate innovation models under a twinning concept. This collaboration will see proven innovation and technology concepts adapted for West and North Africa with multi country beneficiaries.”
The Founder of ICEALEX, Ahmed Bastawy, ICEALEX, said the partnership discussion began during the AfriLabs annual gathering earlier this year at Lusaka, Zambia. He believes the partnership will help upskill a lot of talents to build business and technology capacity for Nigerians and Egyptians and boost intra-African trade.
He highlighted some of the advantages of this collaboration, which include reduction in unemployment through capacity building and entrepreneur support along the entire value chain.
According to him, the partnership will also promote digital assets among the citizens in Nigeria, especially the youths as the country vigorously pursue digital economy and building impact ventures.
Founder of TechQuest STEM Academy, Charles Emembolu, said both organisations would also be partnering on the Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) concepts. The DIH model is a robustly designed one-stop-shop that offers innovation and digitalisation support services to MSMEs and startups especially in the smart cities specialisation with a focus on sustainable Agriculture, Smart Mobility and Healthcare. He said there were many of these digital innovation hubs in the world today, of which ICEALEX secured a slot for Africa.
The partnership will promote business growth that strikes a balance between market preparedness and investment emphasis to provide talent development and support to Egypt and Nigeria, two of Africa’s largest economies and populations.
