The research by Briter Bridges and AfriLabs is some of the most detailed about the tech hub ecosystem, and explores how the hubs finance themselves, offer startups .
It found that 41% of these facilities are incubators,24% are nnovation hubs, 14% are accelerators and 39% offer coworking space.
Nigeria has the most hubs per country, with 90, followed by South Africa’s 78, Egypt’s 56 and Kenya’s 50 in the 34 countries it covered. The report – called “Building a conducive setting for innovators to thrive” – found the majority of the surveyed hubs received less than $100,000 in funding from various sources, while 62.2% of hubs have less than 10 paid employees.
Almost half of the existing hubs consist of non-profit organisations or donor-funded organisations, with 60% of all respondents receiving funding. Donors, corporate sponsors, philanthropic organisations, and NGOs are the most active funders.