The dreams of being Africa’s start-up hub is driving the Rwandan government towards the implementation of a Startup Act, which it hopes will spur the development of the country’s tech-based services industry.
The aim is to establish a continent-leading startup ecosystem, and to legislate for this the Rwandan government has recruited the Innovation for Policy Foundation tagged i4Policy to draft a national Startup Act.
i4Policy has been central to the development of other start-up acts across Africa with a Tunisian act already in place and a Senegalese version set for implementation soon. According to Jon Stever of the Foundation, a Startup Act will soon go to parliament in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and related laws and decrees are being worked on or explored in almost 20 African countries.
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In Rwanda, i4Policy will follow its usual method of launching a Policy Hackathon, The Policy Hackathon is a proven format for engaging entrepreneurial ecosystems constructively in policy reform dialogue, which will bring together important local founders and investors to ensure the Rwanda Startup Act is informed by their experiences building and growing businesses.
It will be split into three sessions, with the first organised as a public webinar on Thursday, August 27 to introduce the Startup Act to inform the wider public about the reform initiative. The session will be live-streamed on the Ministry of ICT and Innovation Facebook page.
The second and third sessions (September 1 and 2) will target a cohort of 60 entrepreneurs, investors and service providers. Participants will be selected from amongst the attendees and registrants of the public webinar.
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Stever explained that the benefits of a Startup Act and how they were co-created and implemented. “I don’t think any country needs a Startup Act, but I think all governments could benefit from one,” he said.
“We should think of it as a dialogue between the government and the startups within the ecosystem. The nice thing about a Startup Act is that it is big enough to bring the whole ecosystem together, because everyone has an interest in putting these reforms in place.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry