Wennovation Hub, the Nigeria’s pioneer innovation accelerator has announced its expansion into the Afro-Caribbean corridor.
The Wehub-Barbados will be the hub’s first location outside Africa and is part of its “Global Scale” strategy.
Andrew Payne, Managing Director of Antrilis, the local site for the hub spoke at the signing of the collaboration agreement between the two groups on Friday and re-emphasized his support for the project stating that “Antirlis is open to enabling and collaborating with mission-focused organisations like Wennovation and the LoftyInc group.
“We look forward to unlocking the economic benefits powered by collaborations such as this,” he said.
Also, Michael Oluwagbemi, Executive Partner of the LoftyInc Group, said, “We are on a bold mission to creatively invest in ideas, empower entrepreneurs, and enable digital innovation for emerging economies and we have done this over the last 11 years.”
According to a statement, the Caribbean economy amidst other countries in the Americas is favorable to startups as major regulatory adjustments have been implemented to attract increased trade and business activity into the global tourism hotbed.
It said, some of these reforms that have made it easier to start a business in the region include business registrations, enforcing contracts, and paying taxes.
“The We-hub Barbados will aim to continue its impact by implementing founder catalyst programmes and providing startup support services such as Market Entry and Consulting Services for African and Caribbean Startups looking to expand operations across the Atlantic.
“The Hub will also provide Training and Investment Readiness Programmes to Barbados-based start-ups, businesses, and governments in a bid to assist the development of their tech ecosystems in ways that would improve the cross-business opportunities for Caribbean startups entering the African market and lead an innovation-driven post-covid recovery, “the statement added.