Sunday, March 22, 2020. Lagos Nigeria.  Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), Africa’s foremost technology innovation centre in partnership with Lagos State Science Research And Innovation Council (LASRIC) have today announced a joint partnership to support COVID-19 related projects in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. This partnership is coming on the back of CcHUB’s recent call to the startup community across Africa to procure solutions to lessen the impact of the disease.

The immediate focus of Lagos state in curbing the spread of this pandemic is to alleviate issues such as contact tracking, last-mile communication, the supply chain for delivery of essential medication, food and healthcare materials.

CcHUB through its multidisciplinary team of product designers and engineers in CcHUB Design Lab in Kigali, Rwanda will provide funding and research to support the participants to explore the application of Human-centered Design (HCD) to proffer innovative solutions to flatten the curve of the spread of the deadly virus. For project focused on Lagos, Nigeria, LASRIC will also fund novel solutions on COVID-19 by providing grant funding of $1000 to 6 applicants.

Since the announcement of the call for submissions, hundreds of responses have been sent in from various parts of Africa. Upon review of the applications received, CcHUB will announce via Twitter the first set of startups moving on to receive support for execution on Sunday, March 22nd 2020.

In addition to the grant funding, LASRIC will review the most promising solution with the intention of investing $12,000 in a convertible note with an equity claim in possible future funding rounds. The terms of this follow-on investment will be decided on a case-by-case basis. 

For startups based in Lagos and working on a prototype or have a solution in ideation, with the capability to develop the solution with available resources from CcHUB and LASRIC, please fill out this form here and the startup support team at CcHUB will be in touch.