On October 1st, 2021, Outbox hosted the third and last session of a series of virtual roundtables around “Challenges & opportunities for EU-Africa Partnerships development”. The first session “Improving access to funding for African DIHs & early-stage start-ups”, focused on the obstacles when financing a start-up and the importance of the quality of the business idea. The second session “Knowledge exchange between DIHs in Africa and Europe” discussed the different challenges DIHs/start-ups have to face and how these can be used in favor of development. In this third and final session “How Might We Improve Access to markets for African and European startups?”, the discussion focused on the different challenges, opportunities, and barriers African and European DIHs have to undergo when accessing the market, based on the experience of the African DIHs in Europe and vice versa.

Within the session, the participants had the opportunity to listen to the testimony of two speakers, Jesee Murimi, Business Acceleration Expert at Truvalu, and Kenneth Naturinda, Program Manager at Business Lab Uganda, who shared their experiences in the field. After this, two breakout rooms were created for the participants to debate different topics related to the subject matter, such as the strengthening of skills and network, or the different policies to take into account regarding market access. Once the discussions were over, the participants returned to the plenary and exchanged their conclusions, leading to highly fruitful conversations.

With this discussion, the series of virtual roundtables “Challenges & opportunities for EU-Africa Partnerships development” is closed, resulting in a remarkably valuable exchange of information and establishing the first steps in order to bring African and European DIHs closer together. 

You can find more details about the event on our Twitter.