African Business Stories
African Business Stories is the go-to podcast for insights into the women shaping Africa’s business landscape. Africa is one of the world’s most promising frontiers for growth and innovation—and women are at the heart of this transformation.
Hosted by Akaego Okoye, this podcast spotlights female entrepreneurs who are breaking barriers, scaling businesses, and driving economic development across the continent. Through bold conversations, we explore funding, scaling strategies, digital transformation, and industry innovations—equipping you with insights, practical tools, and inspiration to navigate your own entrepreneurial journey.
When women win, economies thrive. These stories amplify success, challenge narratives, and create a blueprint for the next generation of female leaders in Africa and beyond.
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African Business Stories
Anna Ekeledo: Executive Director, Afrilabs - Building Africa's Innovation Ecosystem
Anna Ekeledo's journey is nothing short of inspiring. Born in Russia to Nigerian and Senegalese parents, Anna's path has been shaped by vibrant multicultural experiences in her formative years. From a childhood spent in Nigeria and Senegal, she carries a legacy of passion for business and development. Anna's role as the Executive Director of AfriLabs has her working tirelessly to support over a million entrepreneurs across Africa, aiming to create a lasting impact on the continent's innovation landscape. Her story is a testament to resilience and determination, offering listeners a glimpse into the life of a woman dedicated to elevating African entrepreneurship.
Listeners will be captivated by Anna's diverse career journey, filled with roles in real estate, business development, and consulting with organizations like the World Bank. Through strategic partnerships and innovative programs, Anna and her team at AfriLabs have expanded their network to over 400 hubs across 53 African countries. Her work involves collaborating with governments, corporates, and other stakeholders to address various challenges, such as education technology and maternal health, by leveraging local innovation. Anna shares the highs and lows of navigating funding hurdles and leadership challenges, providing valuable insights into the complexities of leading in a culturally rich environment.
Anna's vision for AfriLabs continues to grow, with aspirations for global expansion and stronger ties with the African diaspora. Despite facing biases and obstacles, her focus remains on empowering women entrepreneurs and formalizing multi-stakeholder partnerships. Anna's ambition is not just about recognition but about contributing significantly to the African economy, targeting a trillion-dollar impact through digital initiatives. Her journey has established AfriLabs as a cornerstone of innovation in Africa, and her unwavering commitment promises to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs across the globe.
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Hi there and welcome to another episode of African Business Stories. Africa is the only region in the world where more women than men choose to be entrepreneurs. What this says to me is that the story of business in Africa is the story of the African business woman. So we are on a journey of discovery to find these women and tell their stories. So we're on a journey of discovery to find these women and tell their stories. On the show, we will hear from female innovators and entrepreneurs building and running businesses in Africa. They will share the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journey and lessons learned along the way. Some of these women you may know, and many you may not, but I assure you that all their stories are inspiring in their own right. My hope is that these stories will inspire you to reach for your dreams and leave a legacy for generations to come. It makes such a big difference to us if you can rate, review and share our episodes. You can do this mainly on Apple Podcasts, and you can find us on all podcast platforms If you're in Africa. Spotify is now available, so check us out there and don't forget to rate, review and share.
Speaker 1:Today, I chat with Anna Akeledo, the Executive Director of AfriLabs, a network of over 400 incubation hubs supporting entrepreneurs across Africa. They are present in over 200 cities in 53 African countries and serve a collective network of over 1 million entrepreneurs, innovators, creatives and developers Born in Russia to Nigerian and Senegalese parents. We talked about her journey to AfriLabs, the incredible success she has achieved in under 10 years and some of the impactful initiatives they run in support of African entrepreneurs. Anna is a focused and ambitious leader and I am personally inspired by her story. Let's get into it, hi, anna. Welcome to African Business Stories. Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:I was super excited to be here.
Speaker 1:So I usually tell my guests that I start from the very beginning, just to get a wholesome view of our guests, and so I'm going to take it all the way back to the beginning. I understand that you were born in Russia.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:And moved back to Africa as a toddler. So I wonder how did your parents end up in Russia and what brought them back to the continent?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Well, my parents were students in Russia. My dad is Nigerian and my mom is from Senegal. In Russia, my dad is Nigerian and my mom is from Senegal and they met in Russia as students, so you know, as two African international students, and you know they say they met, fell in love, got married in Russia and had me there. Basically that's it. And then they decided to move back to Africa because they were very passionate about two things business and impact. My mom then was in the fashion industry and then my dad was in trade and agriculture and they both wanted to also contribute to development of the continent other than just the business part, which is why they moved back.
Speaker 1:So when you moved back, where did you move to? To Nigeria?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so moved to Nigeria, at first Lagos specifically, and then this was about three years old and then moved to Senegal, dakar, for a bit and I moved back to Nigeria about five, sort of been in Nigeria as a base for the most part since then.
Speaker 1:How many languages do you speak?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, this is a bit embarrassing, but I only speak english fluently.
Speaker 2:uh, when I was a child I'm serious, when I was a child I could speak only french. At some point, you know, which is when I moved to, you know, dakar, um, and those are my formative years. So by time I came back to nigeria, I got teased a lot, know, and I came back without my mom at first, because she had some business in Senegal to complete. And you know, I came back and I was teased a lot, you know, by cousins and school and all of that. So by the time my mom came, she was so focused on integrating me into the system, you know, and by then I was entering the first year of primary school, you know, and by then you should be fluent in language english. So, yeah, it's also dropped the french, so it's still there.
Speaker 2:I mean, when I go home, the other home in dakar, senegal, I, I, you know, I can have a conversation, I can move around in french, um, it's not just fluent, but I, it's the sort of thing that if I stay long enough, then I'll pick it For Russian. I know a few words, you know, if we host guests, I could say hello and time to eat. My parents always tend me to tell our Russian guests it's time to eat and all that and thank you, of course. Спасибо. That's important in any language, but I would say English is my primary language.
Speaker 1:I also read that you lived in Joss in Nigeria at some point. I've never been, but I've heard that it's a really beautiful city and I wonder what it was like for you living there and if there are any fond childhood memories you can share with us.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean Joss was amazing. You know, anybody who grew up in Joss at some point at least before the conflict fortunately had just similar beautiful stories. So one was, of course, the weather, the weather in Joss's office, nice and everything, but we just sort of had this freedom and safety growing up back then. You know, I was having a conversation recently with someone and just talking about how I used to ride my bicycle. I had this bicycle I got when I was eight years old I was twice my size, and I would ride the bicycle from my house, my friend's house, which was like kilometers apart and everything, bicycle from my house, my friend's house, which was like kilometers apart, and everything. And we'll hang out as kids and teenagehood and all that and attend house parties. So it was a very chilled, safe and friendly environment and, not being originally from Joss as well from Platte State, it was very tolerant and just open to everyone, this melting pot of culture.
Speaker 1:So when you were young, growing up, what did you aspire to be?
Speaker 2:Different things at different points. You know, At some point I wanted to be an actress. And that's because I was specifically inspired by adventure movies where they'll travel back in time to the days of, you know, the kings and queens and everything. So I want, I wanted to act movies like that. So it was very specific to adventure movies other than you know. Being an adventure actress, um, I think my early careers was a choice. In my early days about to enter uni, was wanting to be a psychologist.
Speaker 1:That is so interesting. So you go to university Covenant University in Nigeria and you study psychology. So what do you do with that degree and all that fascination when you're done?
Speaker 2:I didn't continue my education in them. I was very curious, you know, and I'll say as a young person I was sort of restless. So I knew that to have a proper career in psychology I would have had to, you know, go ahead with my master's and my PhD and all of that. And different countries have their different criteria. But anywhere in the world if you want to be top then you have to follow through to your PhD. And I knew I do not want just one career path and I wanted to be able to be diverse in my experiences and the like. So after that, instead of studying psychology, I went to business school, you know, and I studied international marketing management at Leeds, the University of Leeds Business School. I feel like that gave me a launchpad to be quite diverse in my career, which of course reflected in everything I did over a decade after For our listeners who aren't too familiar with Nigeria.
Speaker 1:So in Nigeria, you're required to do this national year of service after you finish university. You served at the NIPC, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission. So what was that experience like for you? It was interesting.
Speaker 2:I would say that's one of the years or engagements I had that sort of influenced the work I do now, you know, because at NIPC the mandate was basically to promote investments and drive investments into Nigeria right, so encourage foreign investors to bring in capital to set up their businesses and to develop different sectors. Interesting because I was specifically in the investment promotion department of the organization. So we used to organize all the trade shows where we would basically promote the different sectors that had opportunities to invest and everything, and then we would invite people all the time to come to trade shows and also participate in investment drives outside the country as well. It was really interesting and it was insightful because I saw in depth all the opportunities right in investing in the country, you know, whether you're talking about agriculture or mining, you know, or real estate or other forms of infrastructure and all that I mean.
Speaker 2:That was also the time that the government was making a really strong effort to make it easy and seamless to invest. So at that point, at that time around that time, in NIPC there was a setup of the one-stop shop I think it was OSIC one-stop investment shop or so where you could literally go to, you know a desk in a building or you know an office and have everything sorted. You know your entire registrations and all that as opposed to having to go to different agencies. So yeah, I think at that point seeing the investment opportunities but also seeing the political will of the government to drive investments into the country was quite encouraging and has sort of again formed the baseline of what I do now in terms of trying to drive investments into the African continent as well.
Speaker 1:So you went on to do a whole bunch of other different roles. Can you talk to us about some of the things that you did before we delve into AfriLabs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so after my NYC that's when I did my master's and I came back and worked in a real estate and mortgage advisory company, so that was working with my dad. And then after that I worked in this, you know, a Nigerian company, that basically handled the business development affairs of Ingenico. And Ingenico is this global French company, one of the largest in the world, that has financial products, payment products specifically, and then payment solutions, software solutions and the like. And then I moved to this organization, wild Fusion, which was a digital agency digital advertising, you know and marketing agency, which at that point was looking to set up a new business unit you know, basically an entire business, you know arm that was focused on training. So I was part of the founding team that set up the training center and then moved on to set up my agency focused on consulting, consulting for the space, basically. And that's how I somewhat transitioned to AfriLabs, because I implemented a couple of independent projects for the World Bank and other private foundations and then the AfriLabs opportunity popped up.
Speaker 1:So how did that opportunity pop up and why did you feel like this was the right opportunity for you?
Speaker 2:I mean, in the course of just learning more and networking and meeting people in the nonprofit and impact space, I came across an acquaintance you know this is a friend of my cousin's actually and you know he told me about this interesting innovation space that he was part of in Lagos. Then it was owned by the government and he told me about all the great things they do support entrepreneurs and the likes. But he also told me about some of the challenges, from fundraising to figuring out their business structure and the likes. And at that time the concept of innovation hubs are still relatively new on the continent and me being I mean, it just seemed like a perfect fit. On one hand, there was the business development part of it, there was the building from the inside and restructuring and all of those things I like to do, building out the team and all that. And then it was impact focused.
Speaker 2:So I had a conversation with him and his boss about coming on board as a consultant, but at that point they were not looking to engage at that level. But a couple of months later he called me and said hey, you know, there's this organization, afrilabs, impact focused. They support innovation hubs across the continent and you're looking for someone to come in and drive it and would I be interested as a job opening and everything. I was like sure I'll have a look at it. Uh, so went in and, um, yeah, what I saw was quite interesting had a couple of follow-on chats applied, sent in my ideas on everything that was achievable, you know, and then had a couple of conversations with the chair and then got recruited officially by the board then and yeah, that's how AfroLabs basically came about.
Speaker 1:So how? Where did you feel like it was the right opportunity?
Speaker 2:I just knew. I know that's not a very straight answer, but then I knew because I liked the challenge. At that point, afrilabs was at a place where it needed to build a proper organization. It was a virtual network. At that point, there were 40 members across 20 countries, but then there were systems and structures that needed to be built. There was no official secretariat that's like headquarters and it was basically run like a virtual model. You know, when there's funding, come together, do activities, events and all that. So, on one hand, I like the challenge, as I mentioned, I like building. I consider myself as a builder so I was like, okay, let's do this. I like the. I consider myself as a builder, so I was like, okay, let's do this. I like the impact focus. You know everything that AfriLabs stands for is impacting the African community, you know, and economy and people through innovation, tech, entrepreneurship and all that.
Speaker 1:Tell us a bit more about AfriLabs. What is AfriLabs? What does the organization do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so AFRI Labs is a network organization of innovation hubs, which are made up of incubators, accelerators, creative spaces that all support young innovators, entrepreneurs across Africa. Right, but in addition to the innovation hubs, we're also a multi-stakeholder network, you know, because we work with different stakeholders. So, looking at development organizations and multilaterals like the UN and the AU, and development finance institutions as well, both African and global. We work with government organizations to drive policy on the continent, investors as well, you know. Corporates, you know. So we work with large corporates like Intel and Meta and the like. So we basically work with a multi-stakeholder group to the end goal in everything we do is to support entrepreneurs, support young people, turn their ideas into innovative businesses that will impact different sectors. So, and just you know, looking at how we structure our work, we do a lot of capacity building. So support innovation helps to better support their communities, but also supporting the startups directly.
Speaker 2:We run programs that are focused on identifying solutions in different sectors, right, when we look at the challenges on the African continent. We look at the out-of-school kids, right, millions of children still out of school, and we're constantly asking ourselves how can we leverage on education technology solutions, for example, and infrastructure through our hub network on ground to provide accessible and affordable and quality education. You know. So we run programs around edtech, for example, identifying edtech solutions, and then, you know, funding them and the likes. When we talk about maternal health and you know other health practices, both good and not so good, you know, like MGM and the likes, again, we work with partners like the UN to see how we can support, you know, communities, leverage on innovations that exist. You know.
Speaker 2:So this happens across different sectors, whether we're talking about agriculture, climate, you know and the likes, but also a very strong gender focus. You know we believe in gender equality and the gaps, especially a very strong gender focus. You know we live in gender equality and the gaps, especially in our space. Whether we're talking about women raising, financing um, as of last year, less than four percent of women owned um startups raised. You know the total. You know investment that was made. Less than four percent were women co-founded businesses, so these are still women that had male co-founders and the likes. You know, and this cuts across board. Whether we're talking about, you know, access to debt, financial services, or you know certain opportunities and the likes and dealing with all the biases. So we have a very strong gender focus as well in the work that we do.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. So, in terms of growth, you've been at AfriLabs for eight years. The women I interview they're running and they're building businesses. You know, and sometimes you know you have entrepreneurs who have started this from the ground up and others pick up a vision and run with it. You've definitely picked up the AfriLabs vision and for the last eight years you've been running with it. So what kind of growth have you seen? I know you said one of them I picked up was that it was a virtual platform which has now become a full-blown organization. Just in terms of the hubs you support, what kind of growth have you seen in the work at AfriLabs over the last eight years?
Speaker 2:Yeah well, as you rightly said, over the last eight years. Yeah well, as you rightly said, the first is institutionalizing AfriLabs, right. And then, of course, the second is people. You know, and this is the second thing I'm proud of in terms of the growth of the community, we need strong people and strong leaders on the African continent to at every level. You know, whether you're talking about running a small business or running a state or a country or an organization and the likes. And these strong people need to be connected right for us to have real impact. And since you know, I came on board, I mentioned earlier that we're a network of 40 hubs across 20 countries. I mean, under my leadership, we've scaled to 53 African countries and over 200 cities, with a membership base of over 500 members and a collective network of over a million entrepreneurs, innovators, creative developers and the likes, you know. But also in terms of the impact of the programming, you know we've run programs and impacted lives the hundreds of millions of dollars, basically.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Congratulations on that. So, just delving a little bit deeper in terms of your partnerships, can you give us an example of how these partnerships work and the impact that founders and entrepreneurs on the continent derive from some of the partnerships that you have in place?
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll give two examples, two different types of partnerships. So one is an initiative which we call Catalytic, africa, and Catalytic is an initiative with the Africa Business Angel Network, aban. Now, aban is this network across africa, made up of angel investor networks, like local angel investor networks across africa, and basically what we did with them about three years ago, yeah, is um. We came together and um formed this joint initiative whereby we connect the entrepreneurs within our network to the angel investors within the ABA network, right, because, of course, one of the challenges entrepreneurs face is raising funds to build their businesses, especially at that early stage. And then we set up a catalytic fund whereby we invited non-development organizations to contribute to right as a grant pool. So we got our first pilot funding from AFD, the French Development Agency. We matched their investments with matching grants. This significantly helped the businesses because, as I mentioned, in that early stage it's incredibly hard to raise investments as a startup, especially as a tech startup, because it's high risk and the likes. And these grants helped to de-risk the startups because we found out that when investors learned that, as a result you know of this potential pool of funding going to entrepreneurs which can go into, you know, operations and all the things that they don't want their money to go into. They were more likely to invest, you know. So it also increased the investment. You know attractiveness of the startups and then we saw startups within our portfolio that did really well in terms of just growth. Right jobs were created. We had startups. I remember a cameroonian startup, for example, that had a logistic startup and just scaled, you know, significantly jobs created, revenue increased. You know, significantly jobs created, revenue increased, you know. And all that and of course, that economic impact and the likes. Yeah, others are through our.
Speaker 2:So this is an example of a direct program, but through our interventions to the hubs, capacity building and support with toolkits and the likes. And I'll give an example. You know we have our AfriLabs Academy, which is the first ever home management curriculum developed for hubs. You know we did it with Strathmore University in Kenya and it's certified like a proper academic type course short courses you could go online on our platform and take them and we've had hubs report back to say, you know, as a result of taking the courses, they've expanded the operations.
Speaker 2:And we've also provided funds like grants directly to the hubs. They've set up operations in rural areas too, you know, which is another thing I'm quite proud of, you know, because then when I came on board, innovation was and innovation homes were largely um set up in, you know, in the cities and urban areas and all of that you know. But as a result of some of these capacity building programs, the grants we've provided and the support and toolkits and all that people have set up in rural areas and places where people are just constantly being excluded and marginalized and the likes, but they've had these opportunities as a result of interventions and entrepreneurs have been able to scale. You know, and the importance of that is it's not just about taking opportunities or money to them, it's about empowering them where they are to solve for the local problems in those communities, because you can't migrate everyone out of the communities, right? So you're encouraging innovation to thrive, likes to be able to implement some of these interventions across, you know, the continent.
Speaker 1:Right, so these SMEs have to be connected to a hub to be able to get support from AfriLabs. Support from AFRI Labs yes and no.
Speaker 2:So for certain initiatives like Catalytic Africa, yes, you have to be connected to a hub, right? However, if we roll out a new program, we actually actively scout for entrepreneurs that fit the criteria. So we do a call for application. And I mean, the example is, in the last two years, we ran this climate-focused program with the African Development Bank and we did a fresh call for applications for entrepreneurs that had solutions focused on climate resilience.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, we had quite a number of entrepreneurs that were supported through that intervention over two years and through our network. They got, they got mentorship, they got business support, but they also got funding, right? You know, under that program specifically, each of the entrepreneurs selected smes, startups, and smes got over a hundred thousand dollars in different phases to grow their businesses. That's it basically on a case-by-case basis. And for programs, especially new programs we design with partners, entrepreneurs don't have to be connected, but eventually they end up getting that support from our network, you know, because, again, sustainability is key, right? So after the program ends, the hubs provide full-on support as well to the entrepreneurs, you know, and then we provide support to the hubs. So there's just this continuous loop of support and building the ecosystem.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic, Anna, and thank you for explaining that. You know it's good information for me and also for our listeners who are looking for support as they build on the continent. So, in terms of funding, how is AfriLabs? Because I see you're giving out grants, you're making resources available to people and I'm just wondering how do you, as an organization, get funded and what has been your experience with raising finance?
Speaker 2:Okay. So we get funding from different sources right, as I mentioned before, from development organizations, from multilaterals. We also execute projects. You know we execute research projects, for example in the past, execute projects. You know we execute research and projects. For example, in the past, we've, you know, connected research with the likes of Intel, meta, bill, mindy Gates and the likes, and these all generate revenue that go into our organization and also implement the work that we do, which is, first and foremost, right In terms of taking care of our internal operations and supporting towards our growth. We also charge a membership fee for our members. So, to be a member and take advantage of all the benefits and everything, there's a membership fee that is paid. We also bid for projects as well, you know. So we come together with other organizations and bid for projects as well and get revenue from that.
Speaker 2:How has it been? It's been interesting. At the start, it was incredibly hard. I can't even mince my words on that one, because when you're building and you're going after certain things funds specifically, first off people expect you to meet their criteria. You have to have this system, you have to have this. Do you have your accounting system in place? You have this, you know, and all of these things. And it was tough but it was also a motivating factor, you know, because for everything that was asked, do you have? I would go back and say, sure, we have it. You know, of course, even if it was things that we couldn't, you know, there's a category of things, right, there's you have, and this is something you can basically build in the next one, two, three weeks. Right, and you say sure, you know, I'll get back to you on that. You go build it, I'll come back and say, yes, we have it. You know that's right. And there are things where you just the timeline does not just permit you to have it, so you're like, painfully, another loss, but now we're going to have it, so that next time that opportunity comes into place, we build it. You know, and that's how we built, you know.
Speaker 2:And now we have structures and systems, as I mentioned, our you know global standards as well. Our team is diversified and you know all of that skills and also regional based, wise, multilingual and the likes. And then over time, it became somewhat easier. And then we had periods of the funding winter, you know which we are currently going through actually as an ecosystem. So startup funding has been the lowest for the longest time since you know, the start of the ecosystem side getting attention. Funders are also cutting their budgets for certain things like, you know, events and programming and all of that.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting, it's. It's been a. It's gotten easier over time and, of course, as a team grows. When I started, I started out with an intern, you know, and now I have a team of over 40 across Africa of really experienced, in fact, people more experienced than I am in their expertise. You know, which is a dream of every leader. You know you never want to be the smartest in the room. So I'm very proud of the fact that my team has grown and we have really good people leading initiatives and programming and fundraising and everything. So that's one of the reasons it's become easier. I give a lot of credit to the fantastic team I have.
Speaker 1:So you've talked about how some of the funding challenges you had initially when you started. I note you know I'm not being ageist, but I note that you were young. You were young when you took on this leadership role and I wonder if that posed any kind of challenge at all. It could have been a no brainer and it could have been fine, but I wonder, knowing our culture and what society is like on the continent, I wonder if that played any kind, if that was any kind of challenge to you in taking on this role so young so yes, and so, yes, it was a challenge at some point.
Speaker 2:On the other hand, I think it was also a blessing. I'm not sure if I'd have been this resilient, okay, at the age I am now, you know, and just dealing with some of the challenges and all that in terms of age, yes, I mean, I found myself in certain rooms where I was the youngest in the room, and then there's also the gender play, there's also the I mean, especially in development, and when you're in certain places, they also look at things like, which is also part of the age, right, you know, they look at, you know everyone's talking. They're like, oh, they've been doing this for 30 years, they've been doing this for you know how many years. This is a PhD person, this is a you know professor and all that, and I didn't have any of that. However, there's something about being young and vibrant that people are drawn to, and when they see a young person who is, who is bold about just taking on certain challenges and is passionate about what they're building, you know, whether they're building an organization or they're building their personal business and the likes there there's certain people that gravitate towards you, you know, and they say you know what. They want to help you out, they want to listen.
Speaker 2:There are people that would discard you. Yes, it's true, you know they'll be like ah, you know you're not, you know you're young, what do you know? And everything, um, and that's because of certain biases they they have, you know, they they grow up at a time, um, when they had a career, at a time when there was no way a young person being a position of leadership, so it just couldn't connect it. So, yes, but then I just tend to tended to be blind to those biases. You know, and I think, because I was focused, you know, and this is something I always tell people I, if you're obsessively focused on what you need to achieve, you would have less time and spend less time dealing with all the biases. That's excellent.
Speaker 1:So so you've achieved incredible success over the last eight years, you know, and kudos to you and your team. And I wonder Anna, what? What do you think the next five to 10 years looks like for for AfriLabs? Yes, so, um, I mean, I, what do you think the next five to 10 years looks like for AfriLabs?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I mean I'll put that in three buckets, right. So one is global scale. Over the past two years we've been very intentional about building global bridges between Africa and the rest of the world to better support entrepreneurs within our network. We've over the past year, for example, signed a partnership with the US State Department, specifically the Office of Global Partnerships, focused on supporting climate entrepreneurs but also other entrepreneurs looking to scale into the US market but also collaborate and connect with investors and the likes. We've signed with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Investment, again to provide the sort of soft landing and investment and resources to support startups to get scale. Other conversations we're having and currently building networks in India, other parts of Europe and the likes. We actually have a delegation being planned at the moment to France and the like. So that's it.
Speaker 2:We envision that we will be global, you know, in terms of direct linkages. I mean not just the virtual type, you know, but direct linkages. Eventually we will set up regional offices. But another reason why going global is important to us is a diaspora as well. You know we take our African diaspora very seriously in terms of recognizing that they are part of us, you know, when we look at you know Africa in terms of entrepreneurship, businesses, um are just working with different groups of you know, africans, um that live in other places, other than African continents, um, or Africans that have moved, whether it's first generation, second generation or, you know, hundreds of years ago, through their you know ancestors. We, we consider them as part of us, you know. So it's for. The work we do is for Africa and Africans, you know, irrespective of where they are so that's another reason why, um, you know that global expansion is important to us.
Speaker 2:Then, second of all, is um just deepening our multi-stakeholder membership. So, as I mentioned, we consider ourselves as a multi-stakeholder group, right, but over the next year, we're going to be formalizing what membership will look like in terms of different stakeholders. So an investor group that wants to be part of AfriLabs, or entrepreneur or development organization what does that look like, membership wise? And then, lastly, it's just deepening our impact across the different verticals. You know I've mentioned that working across different sectors is important to us because of the social impact. So, when we look at the numbers, if we're going to really be ambitious, the next five to 10 years, as a result of our work and our community which we're building, we want to directly and indirectly contribute up to a trillion dollars to the African economy through the digital economy. So that's it basically, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:That is fantastic. So this has been an incredible conversation, very, very insightful, but we're going to have to wrap up. In terms of wrapping up, I'd like to ask my guests two questions. One is a reflection and one is advice. For you personally is a reflection and one is advice. For you personally, as Anna. What is one thing, or maybe two things that you've done over the last couple of years that you are proud of, that you feel has been the most impactful, or maybe one of the most impactful things that you've done in building this organization and having this kind of reach across the continent?
Speaker 2:Building the organization to this point and establishing it as a proper institution, recognizable, and I mean I don't say this lightly because I see similar type organizations that started out as an initiative, you know, and there's that struggle to just move from an initiative or a community to this point. And then our reach, one of the things my team and I are always proud of. You know, we have the largest network after the African union. So I mean, that's that's it. But also, I think, finally, it's just the impact, because we could, we could be an institution and not impact, you know. So impacting lives, Right, I mean, I've heard, when I hear about the impact stories that come back to us as a result of the intervention, it just it touches my heart. Oh, yes, I should add, I'm doing this while growing a family with my two little babies. Yes, an amazing husband actually got married a few months after I started running AfriLabs, so I have a very amazing partner that's, you know, being supportive throughout this process. So I'm proud of that as well.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. So, in terms of advice, what advice would you give other women who are building businesses across the continent?
Speaker 2:So be resilient, even, you know, in the face of challenges, just keep on going. Don't take it personal. I know it's hard because as a woman, as a young person, you're just certain things that will come at you. But then again, like I mentioned earlier, just focus on what you're looking to achieve and then learn. You know, another thing that helped in my journey, and even with my team, is we constantly have, like we're constantly learning, reflecting. We reflect from successes, we reflect from failures and then we take those reflections back into building. You know, and it's so important as an entrepreneur, you know, or as a leader, like, know when to keep going, know when to strategy, know when to completely pivot, um, and all of that. Then balance, you know that's, that's very important.
Speaker 2:I mean, if there's certain things I would do over again is be more balanced, because I was quite intense at some point. You know, it's just like all work, work, work, work, work and everything. But one advice I would say is that the quality of the hours you put in is more important than the quantity of the hours. So focus on being strategic. When you do that, you, you build faster, you see things from a higher playing field, um, but most importantly, it frees up time from just being in the everyday grind to spending time with things that matter as well, you know, like family, friends, self-care and the like.
Speaker 2:Just make sure that you know that you're dedicating time to what's important as well thanks for that and I thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:This has been such a great conversation.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you and thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. If you're not already subscribed, please do so on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, and don't forget to leave us a review so we know how we're doing. I'm Akego Okoye and you have been listening to African Business Stories.