Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
A Nigerian technological company, Wennovation Hub, has announced its expansion into the Afro-Caribbean corridor.
The firm, which was Nigeria’s pioneer innovation accelerator, said the Wehub-Barbados would be the hub’s first location outside Africa and was part of its “Global Scale” strategy.
In a statement issued yesterday by the Executive Partner of LoftyInc Group, Michael Oluwagbemi noted that the Caribbean economy amidst other countries in the Americas was favourable to startups because major regulatory adjustments had been implemented to attract increased trade and business activity into the global tourism hotbed.
He 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.
Oluwagbemi stressed that the We-hub Barbados would aim to continue its impact by implementing founder catalyst programs and providing startup support services such as Market Entry and Consulting Services for African and Caribbean Startups looking to expand operations across the Atlantic.
He added that the Hub would also provide Training and Investment Readiness Programs 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.
Oluwagbemi said it would also partner with corporate institutions in the co-creation and execution of bespoke programs in social impact sectors.
He 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.
“With globalisation gradually breaking barriers and speeding up economic integration, we believe now is the right time to scale our efforts globally to deliver value and champion the interconnectivity of markets and economies and this is the first step in that direction”.
Also, the Managing Director of Antrilis, Andrew Payne said his company was open to enabling and collaborating with mission-focused organisations like Wennovation and the LoftyInc group.
According to him, we look forward to unlocking the economic benefits powered by collaborations such as this”.
