The Nest Innovation Park, Nigeria, has partnered with German UnternemerTUM to provide support for Nigerian founders.The support will include providing training for Nigeria’s youthful population and the surge of small and medium-scale enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs.

Co-founder of The Nest Innovation Park, Oluwajoba Oloba, said the hub and UnternemerTUM would drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa through the Africa Meets Bavaria programme.

He said this is a two-year Bavarian State Chancellery-backed project connecting Bavaria with Africa to foster place-based innovation and entrepreneurial collaboration. He said it empowers young African tech talents to innovate locally while enabling Bavarian companies to tap into emerging African markets.

The project, according to him, aimed to address some of the most pressing global challenges, including sustainability, mobility transformation, and climate change, saying by working on local solutions to these challenges, participants contribute to the sustainable development and economic growth of their home countries.

“This project is done in partnership with UnternemarTum, which has been announced by Financial Times as Europe’s leading start-up hub for 2024-2025.  The initiative brings together leading innovation hubs across Africa, including The Nest Innovation Technology Park (Nigeria), MEST Africa (Ghana), Impact Hub Kigali (Rwanda) and iHub Nairobi (Kenya),” he stated.

According to him, the hubs, alongside UnternehmerTUM, are building a new wave of African entrepreneurs, promoting talent, and providing a launchpad for ground-breaking businesses.

“Nigeria is full of brilliant entrepreneurs. What’s often missing is access – the right structures, the right networks, and the right resources. This partnership is about breaking those barriers and ensuring our entrepreneurs are positioned to succeed globally. We are excited about this as this partnership unlocks a co-creation and cross-pollination engagement between our university labs in Nigeria and UnternehmerTUM.”
 
“This is very much in line with the objective of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Innovation and a critical element of the Nigeria Startup Act,” Oloba stated.