Monday, February 17, 2020. Lagos Nigeria. Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), the leading technology innovation centre in Africa in partnership with British Council and Beatfreeks Collective have today announced the launch of New Narratives Pilot, a co-creation lab pilot designed to prototype solutions that help stimulate more plural and diverse narratives to solve the problem of singular, outdated narratives between Africa and the UK. 

This partnership will bring 40 digitally savvy young professionals from both places together to develop prototypes to address this challenge. The pilot aims to support young people to generate and disseminate a new and refreshing narrative of both places in order to foster new and stronger collaborations that will achieve new, Africa/UK understanding that unlocks new connections and contribute to the mutual benefit of both locations.

Scheduled to take place between February and April 2020, the first stage of the programme will see 40 young people comprising 30 Africans and 10 Brits participate in two residential labs in Kigali and Birmingham to develop exciting, new ideas that contribute to new narratives between Africa and the UK.

In a series of design thinking capacity development sessions, the CcHUB Design Lab through its multidisciplinary team of product designers and engineers will support the participants to explore the application of Human-centered Design (HCD) to create fresh, diverse and innovative solutions for richer narratives.

The pilot, a first of its kind is part of a 5-year programme sponsored by the British Council and delivered by both partners is projected to strengthen Africa – UK relationship and birth a more mutual cultural, social and economic benefit.

Moses Anibaba, Regional Director, Sub Saharan Africa region of British Council adds, “Africa’s rapidly growing youth population is the most significant factor for the future of the continent; their relationship with the UK has huge ramifications for our shared prosperity and security. New Narratives aims to contribute to ensuring that this future relationship is based on more up-to-date, correct and complete narratives generated through new connections and strong engagement between young people in both places.”

‘Bosun Tijani, CcHUB’s Co-founder and CEO, says, “The New Narrative Programme comes at an exciting time for the continent when young people across Africa are extremely intentional about the relationship between African countries and the rest of the world. With the immense opportunity that modern-day technological platforms bring, building these connections through a people to people approach provides not only a unique opportunity to co-create shared prosperity but also take collective ownership for our stories.”