Conferences, events and seminars have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. This, however, hasn’t meant that event planners have been deterred. The show must go on as they say, and we have witnessed a number of events going virtual. This is no different for Afrolynk 2020.
What is Afrolynk?
There may be some of you who have already heard of Afrolynk but for those who haven’t. Afrolynk is an impact venture capital that supports and brings together entrepreneurs, startups, investors organisations in the Africa EU tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The conference is going to be virtually this year starting from the 25th of September in Berlin, Germany. To understand a lot more about Afrolynk 2020 we got in touch with Afrolynk’s Ecosystems Manager Kumbirai Chipadza to get more details about how this all came about.
“Afrolynk started as a way to give back to the African continent by affording opportunities to young entrepreneurs and tech Developers by Moses Acquah as he had benefitted from similar opportunity”
Kumbirai Chipadza, Afrolynk Ecosystems Manager
Afrolynk aims to bring together stakeholders and give them a first-hand account of what the African Ecosystem is like. The conference also aims to help African startups by:
- Showcasing concepts and innovations from African entrepreneurs and innovators
- Fostering business-to-business engagement
- Mentorship and expert sessions that can help startups to scale up and access markets
- To move Africa forward with the assistance of the EU and the African Diaspora
- Lastly to celebrate African startups making an impact on the continent
This year’s edition is Afrolynk’s fifth edition and I was curious as to what changes they have seen over that time and before.
“Africa has changed in just the 10-year period since 2010. It has become an attractive option for incubating and accelerating Startups as evidenced by the huge number of active Hubs and Accelerator programs from Cape to Cairo.
African startups are also more innovative due to the fact that Africa faces many day-to-day problems as compared to other continents and a lot still needs to be done in Health, Agriculture, Fintech, Digitalisation/eLearning, Logistics/Distribution”
Kumbirai Chipadza, Afrolynk Ecosystems Manager
The impact of COVID-19
Speaking of day to day problems. COVID-19 has highlighted the issues in Africa as well as bring up a number of new ones as well. Afrolynk 2020 is coming at a time where we need new and sometimes unconventional ideas in order to forge ahead.
The negative effects of COVID 19 can never be played down. It has been one of the worst years from a global health perspective and lots of uncertainty and globalization grounded. However, as entrepreneurs, because Africa is not self-sufficient we were put into a situation
whereby we had to produce internally and this can only have a positive long term effect.In adversity comes opportunities and innovators maximize on this.
Kumbirai Chipadza, Afrolynk Ecosystems Manager
Afrolynk 2020 speakers
Afrolynk 2020 will play host to a number of speakers. These include Tomi Davies from ABAN (Africa Business Angels Network), Dorothy Gordon from World Summit Awards, a representative from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Special Guest Speaker from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and My Growth Fund founder Vusi Thembekwayo.
Startup Week
Before the exhibitors start the event there will be a Startup week. There will be workshops, B2B engagement and networking during this period from 21st to the 25th of September. This week will also be a celebration of Afrolynk’s fifth anniversary.
There are 200 booths at Afrolynk 2020. I asked Kumbirai Chipadza which startups they were excited about and he had this to say:
“Our partners United Nations (International Trade Centre) have an exciting program they run which brings out innovative startups so without name dropping, we have an exciting group.”
How can you be a part of this?
You can follow Afrolynks on their social media platforms. There will be portions of the event that will be made available there. If you want to take part in the Afrolynk 2020 use the link below:
Afrolynk 2020 registration
Techzim will be covering the conference and will give you a look into Afrolynk 2020.
Stay tuned for more
