Honoris United Universities and AfriLabs announce partnership to support entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa

Abuja, Nigeria, 29^th October, 2021 – Today, at the 10th anniversary AfriLabs Annual Gathering in Abuja, Honoris United Universities announced an inaugural partnership with the pan-African innovation network to support the provision of entrepreneurship and innovation across the continent.

With an established ecosystem of makerspaces, incubators and innovation centers across Africa, Honoris, the first and largest network of private higher education institutions in Africa, becomes part of the 300-strong network of hubs within the AfriLabs remit, the largest alliance of innovation and technology centers in the continent.

The announcement was made on the third and final day of the event during an ecosystem tour of AfriLabs partners, where leading Honoris institution Nile University of Nigeria welcomed over 100 delegates from the event for a full-day workshop and tour of facilities. As part of this, a panel discussion examined the ways in which entrepreneurship skills and mindsets are integral assets to Africa’s future workforce, supporting strategic pillars of Honoris’ employability mandate under its mission of Education for Impact.

Delegates from the AfriLabs network had the opportunity to hear from leading members of Nile University faculty, moderated by Dr Ahmed Adamu, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Nile, on how the institution embeds entrepreneurial skills and training into its programs. Key employability partners such as PwC also shared their insight alongside Nile alumna and mentors from the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

This year’s Annual Gathering focused on fostering interpersonal relationships between stakeholders and new partnerships that will contribute to the development of African economies with a focus on innovation. The flagship event provides a unique opportunity for hubs in the AfriLabs network and other stakeholders in the African tech ecosystem to convene, network, share knowledge and build partnerships.

AfriLabs exists to enable Africa to participate in the global knowledge and innovation marketplace thereby stimulating economic growth, through its capacity building, policy advocacy, research and events. Aligned in purpose, Honoris is focused on transforming higher education across the continent to educate the next generation of African leaders and entrepreneurs with industry-ready 21st century skills to meet the needs of demanding and increasingly digitized labor and start-up markets.

As part of the partnership, several immersive learning environments within Honoris institutions are being welcomed into the AfriLabs network, giving access to joint learning, events, collaboration, and knowledge exchange for Honoris students across the continent. This includes most recently the Collective Lab in Tunisia, as well as future additions of Start-up 2.0 at Nile University of Nigeria and REGENT’s Red-Hub in South Africa. In addition, Honoris boasts a pan-African network of 21st century learning environments across its institutions supporting students in multiple disciplines like health, business, engineering, IT, creative arts and design, law and education.

Honoris United Universities group CEO, Dr. Jonathan Louw, said, “We are committed to enhancing the employability of our students with a strong focus on entrepreneurship, partnerships, skills development and 21st century learning environments both physical and virtual. Leveraging the innovation DNA of both organizations, the collaboration with AfriLabs will enable us to broaden our commitment to providing Africa’s future leaders with an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset to compete in the global jobs market. We are looking forward to strengthening and developing this partnership further towards achieving our common interest of transformative impact in our communities.”