BERLIN, (The Southern African Times) – Conferences, events and seminars have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. This, however, hasn’t meant that event planners have been deterred. The show must go on as they say, and we have witnessed a number of events going virtual. This is no different for Afrolynk 2020.
What is Afrolynk?
There may be some of you who have already heard of Afrolynk but for those who haven’t. Afrolynk is an impact venture capital that supports and brings together entrepreneurs, startups, investors organisations in the Africa EU tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The conference is going to be virtual this year starting from the 25th of September in Berlin, Germany. To understand a lot more about Afrolynk 2020 we got in touch with Afrolynk’s Ecosystems Manager Kumbirai Chipadza to get more details about how this all came about.
He said “Afrolynk started as a way to give back to the African continent by affording opportunities to young entrepreneurs and tech Developers by Moses Acquah as he had benefitted from similar opportunity”.
The impact of COVID-19
Speaking of the day to day problems. COVID-19 has highlighted the issues in Africa as well as brought up a number of new challenges as well. Afrolynk 2020 is coming at a time where we need new and sometimes unconventional ideas in order to forge ahead.
The negative effects of COVID-19 can never be played down. It has been one of the worst years from a global health perspective and a lot of uncertainty and globalization grounded.
However, this necessitates the need for an entrepreneurship led strategy that enables Africa to cultivate its own ability to produce and being a part of the global supply chain. When Kumbirai was asked about the importance of startups in a post COVID-19 Africa he responded,” African startups are also more innovative due to the fact that Africa faces many day-to-day problems as compared to other continents and a lot still needs to be done in in a wide range of industries such as Fintech, Healthcare, Logistics and smart agriculture.”
Afrolynk 2020 speakers
Afrolynk 2020 will play host to a number of speakers. These include Tomi Davies from ABAN (Africa Business Angels Network), Dorothy Gordon from World Summit Awards, a representative from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Special Guest Speaker from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and My Growth Fund founder Vusi Thembekwayo.
Startup Week
Before the exhibitors starts the event there will be a Startup week. There will be workshops, B2B engagement and networking during this period from 21st to the 25th of September. This week will also be a celebration of Afrolynk’s fifth anniversary.
There are 200 booths at Afrolynk 2020. I asked Kumbirai Chipadza which startups they were excited about and he had this to say:
“Our partners United Nations (International Trade Centre) have an exciting program they run which brings out innovative startups so without name dropping, we have an exciting group.”
Afrolynk 2020 will play host to a number of speakers. These include Tomi Davies from ABAN (Africa Business Angels Network), Dorothy Gordon from World Summit Awards, a representative from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Special Guest Speaker from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and My Growth Fund founder Vusi Thembekwayo.
