South Africa’s CiTi expands to East Africa with Kigali Office
The Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi) of South Africa has created an East Africa office in Kigali, Rwanda, and announced a partnership with the Jasiri Talent Investor program and the Jasiri Accelerator of the Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy (AGGP).
CiTi’s base of operations for its expansion into East Africa will be Norrsken House Kigali. Norrsken East Africa is a subsidiary of the Norrsken Foundation, a nonprofit organization that shares CiTi’s inclusive impact vision for Africa in its conviction that entrepreneurs creating quickly scalable enterprises may contribute to resolving some of the world’s most pressing problems.
“We have entrepreneurial and skills development hubs in Cape Town, Khayelitsha and Johannesburg. We are privileged to now be able to open an office in Kigali, Rwanda. Our collaboration with the Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy’s Jasiri talent investor programme over the last three months has enabled us to deploy dedicated staff on the ground in Rwanda to support entrepreneurs in East Africa,” said Ian Merrington, CEO of CiTi.
Merrington believes that not only will CiTi be able to provide standard entrepreneurial development support, but also specialized sectors like the bioeconomy, ed-tech ecosystem, and the acceleration of digital skills, will be provided for, valued and have an impact. He expressed excitement at working with Norrsken House Kigali members and to be based in the heart of East Africa’s thriving entrepreneurial environment.
Due of their recent partnership with AAGP’s Jasiri Talent Investor program and Jasiri Accelerator, CiTi is now able to draw on AGGP Jasiri’s expertise in East Africa to help high potential individuals launch successful businesses with a positive social impact.
About CiTi
With 23 years of experience supporting African entrepreneurs, CiTi is Africa’s oldest digital incubator and a not-for-profit impact organization. Through its specialized entrepreneurial development program, the ed-tech accelerator Injini, and the biotech incubator BioCiTi Labs, CiTi has actively assisted entrepreneurs from 11 African nations during the past eight years alone.
CiTi’s interventions have been acknowledged to have supported South Africa’s charge to the top of the inaugural fDi Africa “Tech Ecosystems of the Future” ranking, achieving not only first place overall but first place for economic potential, start-up status and business friendliness. CiTi played a pivotal role in Cape Town being recognised as the Tech Capital of Africa, by Endeavor insight, by the City of Cape Town, Invest Cape Town and the Western Cape Government.
CiTi’s strategy, current and future interventions are thus shaped by these burning issues. Education and digital skills development are core tenets of CiTi’s current and future strategy. CapaCiTi, CiTi’s digital skills accelerator continues to scale up its interventions, off a platform of having created 3 500 work opportunities in the digital economy for South Africa’s youth in the next three years.
CapaCiTi perfected a learning model that imparts technical skills that candidates will need to do the job, soft skills that makes them workplace ready when they graduate, and the career critical skills that lead them to continued growth and professional development.