The International Brokerage Event consisted of a two-day activity, with a primary event in Italy, and parallel events at the four DIH consortium member space, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana. It took place on 2nd – 3rd November 2022, gathering more than 160 participants, including investors, startup entrepreneurs, DIH teams, and African-European diaspora communities, among others, support network participants. 

The first day of the Brokerage Event focused on discussing the current trends and good practices in African innovation with a focus on Agritech, ICT4D, Edtech, and Fintech verticals. Each theme was addressed through a panel discussion of 4-5 speakers, followed by individual presentations by each speaker and each moderator. In all the panels, 26 speakers and 5 moderators participated in the 5 countries giving their expertise and their insights in the 4 key areas of the event: Agritech, Edtech, Fintech and Technology. 

The second day was a series of worldcafe-style discussions addressing major topics related to the work of AfriConEU, with presentations from each facilitator following the conversations: Business and investment opportunities in the African market; Digitalisation, jobs for the 21st century and employment opportunities, Scouting digital entrepreneurs and startups in the African market, and Towards a common digital market and a connected startup ecosystems. Fifteen facilitators enabled the conversation among participants during the world cafe sessions.

Participants also got the chance to network with a group of colleagues from varied backgrounds with the goal of forming alliances that would result in new initiatives and opportunities. Through a networking platform made available to attendees during the event, which included over 100 meetings booked, this was accomplished both on-site and online.

With the organization of four design thinking bootcamps to be held in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda with the goal of bringing together stakeholders and experts from the digital ecosystem from Europe and Africa and facilitating knowledge and experience sharing towards the development of common projects, the connections made during the AfriConEU International Brokerage Event will be further supported to continue and evolve.

You can find more info about the event: