This report summarises discussions with staff from seven technology innovation hubs operating in five countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. It explores financial sustainability and how the hubs are overcoming key challenges that they encounter.

1. CAPTURING
LEARNING FROM
TECH INNOVATION
HUBS ACROSS
AFRICA: 2017
This report summarises discussions with staff from seven technology
innovation hubs operating in five countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. It
explores financial sustainability and how the hubs are overcoming key
challenges that they encounter.
The Indigo Trust,
Loren Treisman,
PhD

2. Contents
Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................2
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................2
Financial Sustainability........................................................................................................................3
Membership Fees............................................................................................................................3
Space Hire .......................................................................................................................................4
Training and Events.........................................................................................................................4
Talent Hire.......................................................................................................................................5
Consultancy.....................................................................................................................................5
Research..........................................................................................................................................6
Tackling Challenges.............................................................................................................................6
Lack of Understanding of the Role Technology Can Play................................................................6
Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Staff....................................................................................7
Lack of Skills within a Community...................................................................................................7
Members Defaulting on Payments .................................................................................................8
Power Outages and Internet Access...............................................................................................8
Internet Cuts ...................................................................................................................................8
Competing with Larger Players.......................................................................................................9
Low Adoption of Products ..............................................................................................................9
Links with Rural Communities.......................................................................................................10
Graduating Start-ups.....................................................................................................................10
Relocating .....................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................11
Call Participants and Contributors....................................................................................................12

3. Executive Summary
Technology innovation hubs have been recognised for their potential to spark innovation, stimulate
economic growth and tackle societal challenges in novel ways. However, much of the hype has been
tempered and many hubs are struggling to become financially sustainable while grappling with
complex challenges in diverse ecosystems.
We asked hub staff in seven hubs across five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide an overview
of how they are addressing some of these challenges and generating revenue.
While most hubs have diverse revenue streams, to a large extent, they still depend on donor
income. This enables them to pursue social goals such as upskilling their communities, supporting
social innovation, running less profitable programmes like coding schools and women in tech
initiatives and offering discounted rates for training and events.
Many hubs are starting to generate income through tiered membership fees, space hire, talent hire,
training, events, research and consultancy. Consultancy also generates income for community
members, which enables them to work on entrepreneurial ventures for longer.
Despite operating in extremely diverse ecosystems, hubs often experience similar challenges. These
include society at large lacking an understanding of how technology can help to address their
challenges, recruiting and retaining good staff, expensive and unreliable electricity and internet,
start-ups struggling to compete with larger players, low adoption of products created by their
members and difficulties in linking with rural communities and understanding their needs.
It's difficult to summarise how all the above challenges can be addressed. However, adopting user
centred design methodologies or similar approaches which consult end users of products at all
stages of development can help to increase the adoption of products, ensure that solutions
developed align with the needs of users and give a competitive edge over larger players.
It’s also necessary to invest in initially unprofitable activities such as building a strong community,
which buys into your mission and values, establishment of strong partnerships and outreach
initiatives to ensure that society at large understands the role that technology can play in addressing
their challenges and to ensure that the communities that hubs support have the necessary skills to
develop successful businesses and social projects and to take on work opportunities made available
to them.
Introduction
The Indigo Trust has been supporting a burgeoning movement of technology innovation hubs in sub-
Saharan Africa for six years. To date, we’ve supported 21 spaces across the continent. We believe
that hubs are a crucial part of the technology innovation ecosystem in a given country.

4. These hubs vary dramatically according to their objectives and country context but all help to build,
galvanise and upskill tech communities in-country. They run a range of activities including training,
events, networking opportunities and mentorship and create a collaborative environment which
supports both social innovation and the establishment of commercial start-ups.
We are strong believers in the provision of core funding, as it can enable hubs to respond to real needs
and opportunities and to grow more organically, stimulating creativity and innovation. We have
created a fund to streamline the process through which technology innovation hubs can access core
funding so that their teams can focus on delivering value to the communities which they support. You
can learn more about this initiative here.
We also work with a range of partners to provide programmatic support to hubs including Queen’s
Young Leaders Programme, run by The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust in partnership
with Comic Relief and The Royal Commonwealth Society, Open Society Initiative for West Africa, the
British Council and the Dutch Good Growth Fund.
As we’ve been working with technology innovation hubs across the continent for several years, we’ve
gained a wealth of experience about the factors that can help them succeed as well as having learnt
through some of their failures.
In 2015, we published a report which explored how technology innovation hubs across sub-Saharan
Africa are working towards achieving sustainability, building partnerships with civil society and the
private sector, tackling social challenges, measuring impact and building their communities. The
report also shared advice for funders in this space. The report and an accompanying article in the
Huffington Post can be found here.
This year, we spoke to senior staff from some of the tech innovation hubs that we support across the
continent to explore more deeply how they are working towards achieving financial sustainability and
addressing some of the key challenges which they face on the ground. This report attempts to
summarise those conversations.
Financial Sustainability
One of the biggest challenges that many technology innovation hubs across sub-Saharan Africa face
is generating sufficient income to sustain their operations. Almost all of them tackle this through a
range of income generating streams. However, like us, they recognise that revenue generation
often has to be accompanied by donor income, particularly if hubs are keen to support less
profitable endeavours including upskilling their communities, social innovation, outreach in
schools/universities and women in tech programmes.
Below, we explore some of the ways in which hubs have successfully generated income.
Membership Fees
Most hubs have a tiered membership fee package including options which provide permanent office
space, access to shared office space or virtual support.

5. HapaSpace (Kumasi, Ghana) raised around £13,000 through membership fees in 2016. Members pay
monthly or quarterly. The monthly package costs approximately £30/month and as well as access to
the space it includes reduced rates for printing and photocopying, back-up power and discounts for
hiring event spaces.
They are competing with a nearby internet café which has faster internet. However, they believe
that people are attracted by their low costs, additional offerings and feeling part of a community
where members can leverage skills and network with people.
Hive Colab (Kampala, Uganda) rents an office space for between $200-$300 (approximately £150-
£225) per month and desks for $50-$150 (approximately £38-£115) per month. However, a
proliferation of hubs in Uganda is forcing them reduce their prices to what they believe may be
unsustainable levels.
They are exploring a new type of membership, which is proving popular for start-ups who don’t want
to be based in a hub, yet want access to its facilities. They charge $400 (approximately £300)
annually and members in this tier have access to their board room (monthly), events and their
developers. They’re also able to host events at a subsidised rate.
Space Hire
Many hubs also generate income from hiring out various rooms within their facility including offices,
event spaces and board rooms.
HapaSpace hires out its rooms for approximately £65 (larger room) and £30 (smaller room). It
provides all the facilities clients need including power, chairs, tables, microphones and internet.
People can also hire desk space. A team of four would pay around £125 per month, of which around
£30 is profit for the hub.
Hive Colab has divided their hub (300 square metres) into 7 offices plus a board room and co-
working space, which is also used for events. They made approximately £10,000 last year through
renting out office spaces.
While space hire has been a successful source of revenue for some hubs, others like Sensi Tech Hub
in Sierra Leone are limited in the amount of space they’re able to rent out without jeopardising core
activities.
Training and Events
Some hubs charge for some of the trainings that they provide such as advanced coding skills, usually
at discounted rates. Sensi Tech Hub has generated income from lower-tech training (design,
photoshop, basic ICT etc) and is trying to provide this support to businesses and NGOs.

6. In some ecosystems, hubs struggle to get community members to pay for training, such as in Addis
Ababa. However, xHub Addis manages to leverage their relationship with the leadership
organisation which supports them (Centre for African Leadership Studies) to work with external
agencies and provide them with tech training.
In other ecosystems, it can be hard to identify trainers. For example, in Sierra Leone, Sensi Tech Hub
has clients approach them seeking basic training on things like ICT literacy and Adobe Photoshop but
they sometimes struggle to identify appropriate people to deliver such courses.
Many hubs host a range of events, some of which are free for community members while others
have a small charge. HapaSpace raised around £6,000 from events in 2016.
Talent Hire
xHub Addis (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is running a talent hire programme. They negotiate contracts for
members with private businesses. Their members work in the company for one or two days a week
and spend the rest of their time working on their own projects. xHub Addis does all the legwork,
matchmaking and negotiation. xHub Addis pays the consultant a salary for their role and charges
15% for arranging the consultancy. They believe this approach also lowers the drop-out rate for
entrepreneurs by encouraging them to continue working on their start-ups, as they need income to
do so.
Community members support businesses on activities like building websites, supporting their IT
networks and app development.
Consultancy
Many hubs generate a large portion of their income through consultancy.
Iceaddis (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) has a programme where community members dedicate part of their
time to undertaking projects which they have identified. This might be external consultancy projects
or projects emerging from within the hub. As well as generating income for Iceaddis, this offers
members an alternative way to earn an income.
As an example, Iceaddis held a hackathon for a US based NGO interested in creating teaching apps
for children. They’ve now produced 12 apps for the NGO.
xHub Addis managed to generate over £14,000 from consultancy in 2016. Their members developed
an Enterprise Resource Planning tool for a local company called Qualable which provides a labelling
service to manufacturers. They achieved this at a far lower price than competitors and as a result,
showcased the potential of young technologists to undertake complex projects. Their community is
also supporting a social enterprise called Bemella Coffee and the development of a Health app in
collaboration with St. Paul Millennium Hospital.

7. ActivSpaces (Buea and Douala, Cameroon) leverage their brand to bring together those with
technical skills to service the public and institutions. They’ve acquired some contracts with
companies in the Netherlands. ActivSpaces receive 20% of the income from a project, with the
remainder going directly to the developers involved.
There are challenges involved in this approach, particularly in less developed ecosystems. For
example, Sensi Tech Hub (Freetown, Sierra Leone) is regularly approached by development
organisations who wish to consult with them on technical projects but often the skill set of their
community members is insufficient to match their needs. They’ve found that in some cases they’ve
had to outsource in order to complete a job effectively. They suggested collaborating with other
hubs in the region where their community members have more advanced developer skills.
Despite these challenges, Sensi Tech Hub has generated some income through consultancy services
like app development, building websites and SMS solutions. A recent example is developing an SMS
platform to help monitor elections on behalf of NGOs.
Research
ActivSpaces is considering opening a research centre in their offices. Government and other
organisations have expressed an interest in understanding the technology and entrepreneurial
ecosystems in Cameroon and at the time of our conversations, they were bidding for this research.
iHub (Nairobi, Kenya) has successfully generated revenue through its research department and Co-
Creation Hub (Lagos, Nigeria) has also generated income through research including the mapping of
innovation clusters.
Tackling Challenges
We asked hub staff to share some of their key challenges and gave staff from other hubs a chance to
suggest potential solutions, based upon their experiences. This section of the report aims to
summarise the key points from these discussions.
Lack of Understanding of the Role Technology Can Play
In many ecosystems, hubs have found that society at large don’t understand the role that
technology can play in addressing their challenges. Many assume that information technology is for
“educated people” and both the private sector and civil society struggle to understand how
technology can help to make their work more efficient or impactful.

8. Therefore, many hubs spend significant amounts of time on outreach, events and meetings which
help to showcase technology’s potential. Unfortunately, this is time consuming and resource
intensive. Results can also be unpredictable.
Coders often come from a science background and have limited understanding of human behaviour
and social sciences. Teddy Tadesse of xHub Addis highlighted the importance of their community
speaking to people outside the “tech bubble” in order to really understand and address their needs.
Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Staff
In some ecosystems it can be hard to recruit staff with adequate skills at an affordable price. Hub
Directors are keen to pay staff more but often lack the budget to do so. Sometimes hubs have been
forced to let go of staff who are underperforming, which can cause friction and result in grievances
being raised.
In-house training can really help. However, some hubs also spend significant resources training up
staff or community members and find that they then leave the space when new opportunities arise.
Albert Opoku of hapaSpace highlighted the importance of good knowledge management systems
given the high turnover rate of staff.
Building a strong culture can also support staff recruitment and retention. Through offering
something to community members that is of interest to them professionally and personally, it helps
members to feel part of the community and they’re likely to want to contribute. It’s worth ensuring
that community members buy into your vision and paying volunteers that make significant
contributions. It’s useful to have a forum which gives all community members a chance to share
their ideas and feel valued.
Yemi Tadesse of Iceaddis explained how she started off as a grant writer and now manages the hub
alongside two colleagues. The management team aims to bring in community members as
employers if they show initiative.
Lack of Skills within a Community
In some ecosystems, technical skills are quite low, making it hard to provide appropriate services to
potential clients. It can also mean that hubs need to invest a significant amount of time and
resources into upskilling their communities before successful start-ups and social projects can be
developed. This sometimes conflicts with donor’s expectations.
Potential suggestions included:
• Donors need to provide core funding over the long term and be realistic in their
expectations, understanding that it can take time before successful products are developed
• Collaboration with other hubs to pool resources

9. • Building up the skill set of community members over time through training, events and
mentorship
Members Defaulting on Payments
Several hubs cited a key challenge being members defaulting on payments. They are reluctant to
force members to leave as a consequence, as they recognise that start-ups are often struggling
financially and this goes against their social mission. Suggestions to minimise this included:
• Having a pre-paid model so start-ups can only come if they’ve paid. Some hubs feel
uncomfortable with this approach.
• Sometimes decisions can be made on a case by case basis. For example, candid
conversations with members can reveal whether start-ups are struggling despite their best
efforts or if they are not listening to advice or lack focus.
• Hive Colab has a system whereby if you’re occupying an office or cubicle but don’t pay,
you’re asked to give it up and move into the co-working space
• Limits can be placed on how long people can stay in the space without paying
• Sometimes people will volunteer their time in lieu of payment
Power Outages and Internet Access
There have been challenges around power supply for many hubs. In Ghana, frequent power outages
have forced hapaSpace to run on generators and batteries far more than they’d expected, which has
affected their budget. In Ethiopia, Iceaddis was limited in the hours that it could run generators by
their landlord, which meant that they couldn’t provide backup when the electricity failed. Power
outages have also been a problem in Sierra Leone.
Some hubs are considering a move to solar-power but the cost of panels is inhibitive. Sensi Tech Hub
has reduced its opening hours so that it can provide more reliable power between 9am and 5pm.
They’ve also aimed to reduce energy consumption by using fans and coolers instead of air
conditioning and only switching on refrigerators for parts of the day.
Providing fast, affordable internet is also really challenging. Costs can be obscenely high and even
the best services remain unreliable. As an example, in Sierra Leone, a 5Mb line can cost $400
(around £300) per month and used to cost over $1000 (around £750). If many people utilise the
internet at once, this puts further strain on this service.
In some countries, government regulation may be able to bring down prices. Morris Marah of Sensi
Tech Hub believes that a liberalisation of the networks would help to bring prices down.
Internet Cuts
The government in some countries has turned off the internet all together.

10. ActivSpaces had many problems with internet blackouts in Buea, situated in an anglophone region of
Cameroon. This forced their community to migrate into areas which had the internet and resulted in
some potential funding leads pulling out.
Iceaddis in Ethiopia experienced similar problems. They used old-style mail, travelled physically to
make sure that events were known about and used word-of-mouth to raise awareness of their
programmes. Nonetheless, this had a really negative impact on them.
The importance of making the hub a community, rather than just somewhere to use the internet
was highlighted to maintain engagement at times like this. However, the importance of the internet
can’t be underestimated either.
Competing with Larger Players
Some hubs expressed concern that people don’t always trust start-ups and want to work with more
well known, bigger players. Start-ups can also struggle to compete with big software developing
companies which have larger teams. It can require a lot of outreach, education and marketing for
people to understand what start-ups can achieve.
Providing cheaper solutions than competitors and having a few successful products which showcase
the quality of the work of start-ups can go a long way.
Low Adoption of Products
Several hubs including ActivSpaces have had trouble getting users to adopt the technology products
that the start-ups they’re supporting are creating.
Potential solutions recommended included:
• Conducting adequate research into the local ecosystem and users before developing
products e.g. the types of technology people use, the challenges they most wish to address.
User centred design methodologies or similar approaches which engage users at all stages of
development and implementation e.g. iterative/agile approaches can help to overcome such
challenges.
• Building solutions based on an identified need from e.g. civil society or the private sector, in
partnership with them
• Adequate promotion and marketing. For example, hapaSpace hold show and tell events at
the hub and send messages out to their networks through WhatsApp. People start to install
apps just to try them out and then they gain new users through word of mouth. They have
identified key “influencers” in the city who can share the news about new technologies that
are being developed by their communities and post information in other forums.
• Adapting already existing solutions as opposed to building from scratch can also help. For
example, hapaSpace incubated a microfinance start-up which struggled to gain clients.

11. When they adapted a widely regarded opensource software (Mifos X), they started to get
clients. They even managed to integrate MTN Mobile Money into Mifos X.
Links with Rural Communities
Sometimes it can be difficult to reach communities outside the main cities. This is where most of the
market resides. Research has found that people in cities often don’t have experience of rural
communities and therefore struggle to build solutions that are appropriate to their needs.
Potential Solutions Include:
• Partnering with civil society organisations or other groups with access to potential end users
like farmers groups can really help. iCow, an SMS based agricultural platform for small
holder farmers attributes a large part of its success to their deep knowledge and
understanding of the needs of the farmers they serve.
• Adopt user centred methodologies. Such an approach enabled technologists from the
Iceaddis community to partner with beekeepers to develop Yenemar, a micro-investment
platform which creates urban-rural linkages and connects beekeepers with capital for high
quality honey production.
• Some hubs are starting to develop physical spaces outside large cities or to provide virtual
support to rural or peri-urban communities
It can also be hard to finance rural projects, where income is low. However, it should be recognised
that the size of the potential market is huge so it may be possible to generate profits by charging
very small amounts to a large amount of people. iCow generates income through charging premium
rates for their SMS service. Rural farmers are willing to pay as use of the platform increases their
income through increasing the milk yields of their cattle and reducing disease outbreaks.
Development organisations or governments may also be willing to pay for services which reach the
most marginalised. Hubs could partner with such organisations.
Graduating Start-ups
Some hubs, including xHub Addis reported that it can be hard to move successful start-ups on from
the hub. It’s a challenge for start-ups to register as businesses and overheads are extremely
expensive once they need their own offices and facilities.
It was suggested that intermediate spaces like incubators could be created to support start-ups that
are ready to graduate from a hub but not quite ready to survive independently. Co-Creation Hub in
Nigeria has adopted this model, hosting co-working, pre-incubation and incubation services on
different floors.

12. Relocating
Hubs are sometimes forced to relocate due to rising rental costs in the city centre or other factors
such as a need for a larger space. There are challenges associated with moving hubs and some fear
this will destroy the community which they’ve established.
Some hubs have actually seen positive benefits when moving such as attracting new members and
providing a more appealing space. It’s important to consult members to get their opinions and
identify their priorities before making a decision.
When iSpace relocated, the less dedicated members, who mainly used the space to access the
internet mostly dropped away and only the dedicated community followed the hub to its new
location, which revitalised the community.
Iceaddis have seen an improvement every time they’ve moved. They reminded us of the importance
of offering something new and of value to your community e.g. quieter meeting rooms, reduced
rates, a better location etc.
Conclusion
Technology innovation hubs vary widely. They have different key goals and objectives, are working
in very different country contexts and support communities of varying sizes and skill sets.
Nonetheless, hubs often learn a great deal from each other and experience similar challenges
including unfavourable regulatory environments, difficulties accessing affordable, reliable electricity
and internet, society at large lacking understanding of the benefits of technology in addressing social
challenges and securing funding/generating income for both themselves and the start-ups and
projects that they support.
We hope that through convening hubs across sub-Saharan Africa, we can help to enable knowledge
exchange across the continent, resulting in more successful technology innovation spaces which
better serve their communities and society at large.

13. Report Contributors
Hub/Organisation City and country Website Name
ActivSpaces Douala/Buea,
Cameroon
http://activspaces.com/ Valery Colong
ActivSpaces Douala/Buea,
Cameroon
http://activspaces.com/ Steve Tchoumba
hapaSpace Kumasi, Ghana http://hapaspace.com/ Gideon Brefo
hapaSpace Kumasi, Ghana http://hapaspace.com/ Ben Nimako
hapaSpace Kumasi, Ghana http://hapaspace.com/ Albert Opoku
Hive Colab Kampala, Uganda http://hivecolab.org/ Barbara Birungi
Mutabazi
Iceaddis Addis Ababa, Ethiopia http://www.iceaddis.com/ Markos Lemma
Iceaddis Addis Ababa, Ethiopia http://www.iceaddis.com/ Yemi Tadesse
Indigo Trust London, UK https://indigotrust.org.uk/ Catherine Gathercole
Indigo Trust London, UK https://indigotrust.org.uk/ Loren Treisman
iSpace Accra, Ghana http://ispacegh.com/ Josiah Kwesi Eyison
Sensi Tech Hub Freetown, Sierra Leone http://sensi-sl.org/ Morris Marah
xHub Addis Addis Addis Ababa, Ethiopia http://www.xhubaddis.com/ Elias Gizachew
xHub Addis Addis Addis Ababa, Ethiopia http://www.xhubaddis.com/ Teddy Tadesse