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AI Salon: Building Bridges - Collaborations as Catalyst for Deep Tech in Africa [Lagos]
As Africa steps into the era of intelligent machines, one thing is clear: no single founder, researcher, government, or ecosystem can build the future alone. From fragmented efforts in different countries to talent pipelines that stop at the border, deep tech across Africa risks remaining shallow—unless we build better bridges.
In this expert session, we’ll sit down with Emeka Afigbo, a leading voice in product, partnerships, and ecosystem development across the continent, to explore the urgent need for collaborative models that go beyond hype and handshakes. Drawing on his experience at Google, Facebook, and in the African startup scene, we’ll ask:
• What does real collaboration in deep tech look like, and what does it require?
• How can African innovators avoid duplicating efforts and instead co-build platforms, infrastructure, and knowledge?
• What roles do diaspora, government, private capital, and community networks play in enabling scalable, sovereign tech ecosystems?
• How do we balance local context with cross-border coordination?
Whether you’re building AI, biotech, hardware, or next-gen infrastructure, this conversation will offer grounded insights and provocative questions on how we move from silos to systems—and from scarcity to strength—through collaboration.
As with every session in our series, we’re keeping it intentionally intimate and interactive. We invite technologists, policymakers, investors, academics, and builders to reflect on what it takes to build deep tech for Africa, by Africans, and with Africans, together.