CTIC to host the Innovation Forum at Connecting West Africa

CTIC Dakar is pleased to be a partner of Connecting West Africa and to highlight young Senegalese innovative start-ups. The Innovation Forum is a crossroads of exchanges and sharing of experiences for the West African technology scene. The session will consist of an interactive panel discussion moderated by CTIC’s  General Manager Regina Mbodj, with contributions from entrepreneurs and operators. It will be followed by the ‘Idea Generator’, a series of roundtables to discuss different aspects of the tech innovation various aspects of innovation in tech and digital services.

CTIC Dakar was launched in April 2011 from a public-private partnership of ICT Incubator Foundation of Senegal and the Organization of ICT professionals with the desire to grow technology SMEs in Senegal and make it the West African hub headed by the Private sector. CTIC Management board notably include government bodies, local IT entrepreneurs and telecom operator Orange.

In Senegal , as in other African countries, such an incubator upstart may not claim to support the growth of ICT SMEs without working also for structuring an enabling environment for ICT , innovation and business. In this sense, CTIC has organized or co-organized in 2013 over 20 events, meetings or workshops. In addition to connecting entrepreneurs, these events achieve three specific objectives: to detect talent, to promote access to markets, and to facilitate access to finance.

CTIC offers two programmes

• Incubation on a 3 years period, which concerned businesses already in operation and achieving a minimum income. The program gives them a business development service that allows them to quickly  increase their turnover and develop innovative services with high value
• Acceleration, a 6-month program designed for project developers; the goal is to find their business model and gain their first customer. The sessions also focus on the project manager to help them consolidate and develop others skills.

At this time, CTIC Dakar has coached nearly 58 companies , over 1,000 entrepreneurs but also promote the export of our expertise in others countries. The incubator currently counts 29 enterprises in the different programmes (acceleration programme : 6 - FDSUT 8 - Osiwa 6 – incubation programme : 9). 

Connecting West Africa will be taking place this 9-10th June in Dakar, Senegal - for more information and to register, visit: http://westafrica.comworldseries.com/