Innovation Spaces - Republic of Cameroon

There are a number of Innovation Spaces active around the country including: Centre for Entrepreneurship, Research & Innovation (CERI ) hosted by Catholic University Institute of Buea, ActivSpaces (Buea and Douala) and ZixtechHub (Limbe). Agro-Hub (Buea) is focused on agriculture. These Innovation Spaces are primarily focused on supporting pre-Incubation, Incubation and Acceleration. While CERI focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths disciplines, ActivSpaces is a tech hub focused on supporting web and mobile programmers, designers, researchers, and entrepreneurs. ZixtechHub proivdes co-working space and incubation services. A number of innovation spaces are no longer active including Cameroon Innovation Hub (Yaounde), which was originally set up in September 2013 as a virtual presence by maooni e.V, a German not-for-profit.

The CUIB Centre for Entrepreneurship, Research & Innovation (CERI) was established in June 2011 as the business and research arm of the Catholic University Institute of Buea founded in May 2010. The aim is that over time CERI will evolve into a Research Park, and supports training and development of entrepreneurs, leaders and innovators within the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. CERI is focused on fostering innovation and economic competitiveness through collaboration among national and international stakeholders from the education and research, public and private sectors.

ActivSpaces has established two co-working spaces in Doula and Buea in the West of Cameroon, focused on web and mobile developers, designers, researchers and entrepreneurs. There are a number of business models being applied, including a monthly fee for co-working space offered to freelancers and entrepreneurs, free co-working space for innovative tech start-ups, and revenue share for start-ups accepted in their six month Activation Bootcamp (which started in January 2015). ActivSpaces is a member of the AfriLabs Network. MTN partnered with Microsoft and ActivSpaces to launch a competition from July - October 2015 to identify software developers who can support local content development. The winners received a six month incubation period with ActivSpaces among other items. ActivSpaces has organised a number of events focused on Java and training for start-ups.

Agro-Hub was founded in 2009 based on a recognised gap of marketing and distribution infrastructure for agriculture. During 2015 it focused on inbound marketing for agriculture in Cameroon to provide content to person wishing to buy agricultural products or invest in agriculture in Cameroon. It works with smallscale farmers and buyers to support resilient and sustainable supply chains.

ZIXTECH Hub was set up in 2018 as a division within Zixtech Organisation in Limba. It provides co-working spaces, business support and proives a 6 month incubation program. It became a member of AfriLabs in September 2018.