The Executive Director of the Innovative Africa Foundation , Tina Mbachu, has urged stakeholders to provide more support for technology innovators on the continent, highlighting that a lack of capital and coaching remains a significant barrier to their success.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Product Day event held in Lagos on Wednesday, Mbachu emphasized that coaching and funding are critical missing links preventing tech innovators from reaching their full potential. She called for stronger investment in grassroots innovation and urged stakeholders to empower young entrepreneurs to develop context-driven solutions that can scale globally.
Mbachu explained that World Product Day is not just about celebrating products but also serves as a movement to drive meaningful change and spotlight young innovators solving real-world problems. “Our mission at Innovate Africa is simple yet powerful—support young Africans to identify challenges in their communities, create local solutions, and scale those solutions across the continent,” she stated.
She stressed that today’s hackathons and innovation initiatives are not merely about coding but about driving transformative change. “Today’s hackathon is not just about code; it’s about change,” she remarked.
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Mbachu highlighted the difficulties many early-stage founders face in transitioning ideas from concept to impact, often due to a lack of knowledge and tools. “A lot of founders have the idea, but they don’t have the tools. They don’t know how to test, validate, or even ask if they’re solving the right problem,” she said, pointing out a core gap in the innovation ecosystem.
She emphasized the importance of grounding innovation in local contexts. “If you’re building a solution for a farmer in Jos, you can’t think like someone in Toronto. You have to think locally. Understand the people. Understand the constraints. That’s real innovation,” she noted.
To foster greater impact, Innovate Africa is spearheading regional initiatives that bring together innovators, builders, and funders from across the continent. “Our Inspire Africa Conference , now in Kigali, is one of many ways we gather Africa’s innovators, product builders, and investors to build a truly Pan-African ecosystem,” Mbachu explained.
She added that global partnerships are essential to elevating the quality of African innovation. “Through our collaborations with global players like the Silicon Valley Product Group , we bring top-tier coaching directly to African product teams—training them to build locally but think globally,” she said.
On the selection process for foundation-backed programs, Mbachu emphasized that while strong ideas are important, the passion and resilience of the founder are equally crucial. “It’s not just about the idea. It’s about the founder. Are they passionate? Are they ready to endure the hard road ahead? That’s what we’re looking for,” she stated.
Also speaking at the event, the Head of Product at Moniepoint , Oluwole Adebiyi, encouraged product managers to look beyond their organizations and learn from how others are innovating. “Instead of staying in your bubble, you can see how other companies are evolving and learn from them. Products are hard to build. You need to figure out the pain you’re solving and start building from there,” he advised.
During the product demo session, team lead Anthonio Gabriel introduced his team’s innovation, Aveum Markets , which aims to reduce post-harvest losses in perishable goods across Nigeria. He emphasized that addressing such critical issues with scalable solutions lies at the heart of their work.
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