Co-creation HUB (CcHUB), Nigeria’s first innovation centre and technology hub, deployed $4.18 million in grants and subgrants to startups building products across Africa in 2025, according to its latest impact report.
The hub said it supported 3,312 ventures across 49 African countries and imbued new skills in more than 25,000 people to enhance their productivity. The report also highlights its focus on three sectors where it believes technology and entrepreneurship can drive large-scale impact, including education, health, and the creative industries.
“Africa prospers when education outcomes improve, when people can access quality healthcare, and when livelihoods become more resilient,” said Ojoma Ochai, Managing Director (MD) of CcHUB. “That is why CcHUB exists, and why our current strategy is focused on three focus sectors.”
African startups raised $3.42 billion in 2025, with investors becoming more selective and backing fewer companies with stronger traction. Within that environment, CcHUB argues that startups need infrastructure such as institutional partnerships and access to markets, along with capital to survive long enough to attract investment. Its approach focuses on preparing startups to reach that attractive stage by strengthening the ecosystem around them.
In education, CcHUB’s programs focused on improving classroom learning and supporting startups building digital learning tools. In 2025, the innovation hub supported the launch of 15 new edtech products and accelerated 27 edtech startups across Nigeria and Kenya through its edtech fellowship programme.
“Our goal in education is to use technology to improve learning outcomes by strengthening instruction, practice, and assessment, and by helping innovators build tools that improve those outcomes,” Ochai said.
CcHUB’s healthcare initiatives focused on strengthening digital infrastructure and supporting startups working within public health systems. An example is its artificial intelligence and digital public infrastructure health program, supported by the Gates Foundation, which brought nine health startups into sandbox environments where they could build and test solutions using real health system infrastructure. Within nine months, the program produced six interoperable digital health products.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s creative sector, which accounts for 8.2% of all jobs in the region, is expected to produce up to 10% of global creative goods exports, valued at around $200 billion in 2030. CcHUB says its programs attempt to contribute to this growth and help creatives find audiences and recognition by providing training and mentorship.
According to its report, CcHUB accelerated 16 cohorts across fashion, film, music, design, media, and the arts in its creative economy programs, which allowed 640 women to launch and scale ventures in 2025.
Building the infrastructure for innovation
CcHUB positions itself as one that builds the institutional relationships that allow new technologies to be adopted at scale, which includes working with governments, universities, and other ecosystem organisations to create pathways for startups.
According to Ochai, early-stage founders often struggle because of funding gaps and a lack of access to distribution networks and partners who can help their products reach real users.
“Founders need capital, but they also need product refinement, market access, institutional credibility, and distribution pathways,” she said. “At the core of our work is building the conditions that make all five work together.”
In sectors such as healthcare, the organisation has increasingly worked with governments, including the Kwara State Ministry of Health and the Primary Health Care Development Agency, to help startups test and deploy solutions within public systems.
However, such collaborations can be difficult to sustain, particularly for early-stage startups navigating government procurement processes and long policy cycles. In those situations, ecosystem organisations often act as intermediaries, helping both the government agencies and startups navigate the process and absorb some of the coordination challenges that neither party can easily manage alone.
CcHUB said it has also expanded its work with universities and research institutions to help bridge the disconnect between academic research and commercial products. In 2025, it worked with 70 institutions across Nigeria, Kenya, and Namibia, supporting student-led innovations and helping researchers connect with investors and industry partners.
The aim, according to Ochai, is to ensure that university research can evolve into usable products and startups rather than remaining confined to academic publications.
Startup outcomes
In its impact report, the success of CcHUB’s approach to building infrastructure is shown in the performance of the startups within its ecosystem. The hub said that in 2025, every dollar it deployed attracted roughly five dollars in external investment.
“When the infrastructure works, you see it in what the startups do,” Ochai said, pointing to companies that have expanded their operations or secured additional investment after passing through its programs.
It cited Chpter, a social commerce platform that passed through CcHUB’s accelerator program and later secured partnerships with Safaricom, ABSA Bank, and Co-operative Bank, and expanded to 11 African countries through a deal with Flutterwave.
For CcHUB, these outcomes translate to how ecosystem support can help startups grow and deliver economic impact. While the organisation directly trained more than 25,000 individuals in 2025, ventures in its portfolio collectively reached 1.89 million people during the same period. CcHUB describes that difference as the compounding effects of ecosystem building.
