Jan. 5, 2015
'Co-Working' Takes Root in Tech-Savvy Africa
Entrepreneurs at Ouagalab
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network
(TricEdneyWire.com) - The internet entrepreneur you saw staring intently into his or her laptop at a coffee shop, library or in a quiet corner of the bus terminal is finally moving indoors.
The workplace has taken a step into the new century with a configuration called “co-working.” First spotted in San Francisco at the “Hat Factory” in 2005, it was a loft for creative types with a laptop just needing a table and chair, an outlet and a wireless connection.
From SF’s “Citizen Space,” co-working places are popping up worldwide, with over 700 locations in the United States alone. The number of co-working spaces and available seats have roughly doubled each year.
Co-working in Africa has also come of age. In Angola, KiandaHub is seeking funding to become central to the country’s growing startup ecosystem.
A technology and innovation hub, KiandaHub was founded in February of last year by Mauro Yange, Dizando Norton and Joel Epalanga, and currently has a team of seven.
“Our meetings were held at restaurants and some events and other activities in very humble venues, where we could not even breathe or think properly, but the willingness to make things happen was bigger than anything else,” Epalanga said.
Angola’s co-working initiative emerged from studies at South Africa’s RLabs at Cape Peninsula University Technology in Cape Town.
Next month, South Africa will host Coworking Africa Meet Up 2016, a full day conference at the Design Bank on Harrington St, Cape Town. Featured at the event will be “Garage” – a growing network with 3 established spaces in Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos. Each space has its own identity, creating an environment suited for building unique partnerships locally and internationally.
Currently, there are more than 250 active co-working spaces on the African continent and South Africa is leading the movement with 42 spaces and 23 tech hubs. However there is still a need for a more established community. Coworkers and space operators still face a variety of obstacles, ranging from lack of infrastructure to staggeringly high real estate prices and various other sociopolitical barriers.
Still, optimist Yaw Owusu, head of Gateway Innovations Ltd, and developer of Ghana Cyber City, predicts “an explosive growth” in co-working communities across Africa as youth population and income levels increase.
Tidiane Ball, founder of DoniLab, a co-working space in Bamako, Mali, adds: “In our African countries, young people have projects but have no environment conducive to develop. I was in the same situation. In 2009 I had the idea to create malisante.net which is a medical information site.
A student at the time, Ball lacked the funds to have a fixed Internet connection. Finally, in 2013 he set up DoniLab to help those in the same condition. “Co-working is just starting in Mali. The demand mainly comes from young unemployed graduates. This is explained by the fact that these young people have realized that they need to create their own business and work in synergy.
“Co-working spaces in Africa must work together to exist in the long term,” he said. “These collaborations can be: a technology exchange, exchange of knowledge and experiences.” Donilab currently partners with Ouagalab, a start-up based in Burkina Faso.