MAHLATSE TOLAMO | OCTOBER 14, 2020
In 2018, President Macron launched the Digital Africa initiative as a platform to increase collaboration between African and French startup ecosystems. The French government will also focus on and support Africa’s Tech startups with various capacity building programmes.
On 2nd October 2020, the Digital Africa team met with French Minister of ICT, Cedric.O to present the Digital Africa strategy, which was warmly welcomed and supported by the Minister, who voiced praise and support for the crucial work being conducted by Digital Africa. The Board vice-President and interim President of Digital Africa, Kizito Okechukwu was also in Paris to present the new strategy to various stakeholders. He concluded his visit by meeting with Remy Rioux, the CEO of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), which is the custodian organisation of Digital Africa. Mr Rioux also firmly backed the Digital Africa initiative and looks forward to offering AFD’s full support to Africa’s startups via Digital Africa.
During the meeting, the CEO of Digital Africa, Stephan Eloise-Gras, was excited to announce that the Digital Africa funding capacity has been increased from €65m to €130m, which is great news for Africa’s ecosystem.
Digital Africa plans to launch its new strategy towards the end of the year and will work closely with various key partners in Africa’s ecosystem to ensure startups have the capacity to start, scale and become successful global brands.
