ACCELERATING AFRICA'S SMART CITIES

ACCELERATING AFRICA'S SMART CITIES: A RWANDAN GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE

AGM- Rwanda    The Smart Cities Innovation Programme (SCIP) is inviting tech start-ups operating in the Mobility, Housing, or Fintech to apply to the #SCIPAfrica accelerator and contribute to shaping the African Cities of tomorrow.

 

SCIP aims at supporting 30 high-potential start-ups from Africa divided into 3 tracks: Smart Mobility, Smart Housing, and Fintech for Affordability. The start-ups will benefit from individual mentoring, training as well as intensive networking and matchmaking with international business partners and investors, including Volkswagen, Siemens and the African Business Angels Network (ABAN). Start-ups will also be able to use Green City Kigali, Rwanda’s flagship smart city project, as a sandbox to test their solutions and enter the Rwandan market.

The SCIP is a 6-month remote accelerator running from June to December 2021. It will culminate with demo days organised in Kigali during the last week of September.

To qualify, the start-ups must have already launched their tech-enabled product or service on the African market and have customers. ‘They should also have a high growth and job creation potential, as well as a positive social and/or environmental impact. Finally, start-ups from Rwanda and/or with female members in management are preferred at equal qualification,’ SCIP said in the statement.

Applications must be submitted on www.scipafrica.com before the end of the Open Call on May 9. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit additional information about their start-up and participate in an interview.

The rate of urbanisation in Africa is the highest in the world. By 2030, 50 percent of Africans are predicted to be living in urban settings. According to the World Bank, this increasing urbanisation holds much potential for the continent, as it can result in economic growth and poverty reduction. At the same time, it holds the risk of aggravating inequality and urban poverty. Therefore, concrete action to direct Africa’s urban transformation in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals is needed. In collaboration with the Rwandan government, SCIP has been set up to support the growth of digital urban innovations in Rwanda and beyond.

SCIP is a joint project of the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation and the Tech-Entrepreneurship Initiative ‘Make-IT in Africa’. Both initiatives are implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The implementation of SCIP is supported by Luvent Consulting, MEST, and AfriLabs.

 

Link to the SCIP application here.

Contact : info@scipafrica.com .

The Smart Cities Innovation Programme is a joint project of the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation and the Tech-Entrepreneurship Initiative "Make-IT in Africa". Both initiatives are implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Luvent Consulting, AfriLabs and MEST on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

AGM

Source