Innovation hub attracts start-ups and universities

About a 20-minute drive from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, there’s a barren road that leads to a construction site amid cornfields and banana trees. There, across a stretch of red earth, a hundred workers finish constructing the first building of the Kigali Innovation City. By mid-2017, the site is slated to be home to an offshoot of Carnegie Mellon University, the first African campus for the American higher education institution, writes Chloé Hecketsweiler for World Crunch.

It’s one of the many signs that Rwanda is emerging as a hub for new campuses, start-ups and innovation. The country, which hopes to convince investors and multinational companies that it can be their African “laboratory”, recently hosted the 26th annual World Economic Forum on Africa with a focus on digital transformation.

Rwanda had three days from the conference to fend off competition from Kenya and South Africa – the two countries on the continent that receive the majority of investments in new technology. Giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Uber attended the event, not wanting to lose a rare opportunity to meet local start-ups.
Full report on the World Crunch site