HUMANS OF KUBATANA MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2022
AFR I LABS
AFRILABS BENSON MUTAHI GITHAIGA COMMUNITY MANAGER AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY MEDIA INNOVATION CENTRE KENYA AFRILABS HUMANS OF
WHAT IS YOUR HUB’S MOTIVATION? Our hub exists to ensure that African journalism has a bright future. We are creating the future of African journalism and media. We literally incubate and accelerate media startups at the moment. So, that is our biggest motivation. HOW IS YOUR HUB ACHIEVING ITS GOAL? We offer training throughout the year that aim at improving the quality of journalism. We mentor and coach. We provide grants to our startups, $20,000 per startup for a period of one year and they get their idea from ideation to an actual minimum viable product. We also have equipment that cater to audio visual needs. WHAT ROLE HAS AFRILABS PLAYED IN YOUR HUB’S JOURNEY? The academy has been instrumental. I enrolled for one of the classes that I felt a little bit insecure about and it has really given me a lot of confidence on the subject. The other thing is just the number of opportunities that we are exposed to. The Annual
Gathering has been super impactful for me. Just the number of people that I have met who are passionate about their areas of expertise and the worth of the knowledge in the room is incredible. Another thing it showed me is that because I am in media, I feel like a bit of a minority when it comes to other opportunities in the continent. That made me realize our hub has to have a bigger voice to speak at least about media. And hopefully the other small sectors will also pick up. There are lots of opportunities for collaboration, even with those other hubs that are into other sectors, because media is cross-cutting. Everybody needs media.
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