By Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Africanews
Published on 2024-01-18 15:25:16
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has introduced the “timbuktoo” initiative in cooperation with African countries at Davos. This initiative was unveiled during a special session at the 24th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum with the aim of becoming the world’s largest financing facility. The initiative seeks to unite catalytic and commercial capital to strengthen Africa’s startup ecosystem.
The presentation of the initiative was done by H.E. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, H.E. President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, the Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, HE Wamkele Mene, and UNDP Administrator Mr. Achim Steiner. The goal of the timbuktoo initiative is to ignite the African Startup Revolution by leveraging Africa’s youthful population and innovative talent.
This initiative is focused on addressing critical gaps in the African startup ecosystem by collaborating with governments, investors, corporates, and universities to promote innovation. H.E. Paul Kagame pledged an initial contribution of US$3 million to kickstart the timbuktoo Africa Innovation Fund hosted in Kigali, with a target of reaching a billion-dollar fund to create opportunities for Africa’s youth. H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo emphasized the importance of supportive structures to enable young Africans to create innovative businesses that contribute to job creation and sustainable economic growth.
Administrator Steiner highlighted timbuktoo as a new development model that focuses on startup-friendly legislation, global-class startup building, de-risking capital, and UniPods (University Innovation Pods) across Africa. Currently, Africa holds just 0.2 percent of the global startup value, with 89 percent of venture capital coming from foreign sources and 83 percent concentrated in four countries. The timbuktoo initiative aims to revolutionize Africa’s knowledge-driven economy, transforming ideas into pan-African enterprises and attracting both global and local investment.
With private venture capital investments in Africa growing six times faster than the global average, a youthful population, and an increasing number of tech startups, timbuktoo aims to mobilize US$1 billion to positively impact 100 million livelihoods and create 10 million new jobs. The initiative’s unique design blends commercial and catalytic capital to de-risk private investment, fostering a pan-African approach to supporting startups and strengthening the entire ecosystem.
