August 2024 – Lagos, Nigeria – Itana, a pioneering digital free zone accelerating Africa's digital economy, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Accelerate Africa, an accelerator program dedicated to supporting early-stage African entrepreneurs. This collaboration aims to provide emerging businesses with the tools, networks, and hands-on support needed to scale and solve critical challenges across the continent.

Through this partnership, Itana will enhance Accelerate Africa's impact by offering participating companies direct support in registering their businesses within the Itana Zone. This registration will enable these startups to leverage the unique benefits of Itana's digital infrastructure, regulatory support, and community resources, giving them a competitive edge in the market in which they operate.

Accelerate Africa's 8-week program aims to accelerate those founders solving real challenges with global solutions, to get to $1m in revenue within 12-18 months of completing the program. It features 1:1 advisory support from group partners who have built businesses in Africa, fireside chats with industry titans and those who have walked their paths before, as well as a series of workshops with a focus on core areas early-stage founders often struggle with including storytelling, team development, go to market, product development, and fundraising. The program concludes with a demo day where a network of angels and investors participate in funding these companies on their growth journey.  By combining resources, the two organizations will help selected entrepreneurs build scalable businesses that can operate across Africa and globally.

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Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a key funding partner for Itana, will provide crucial financial backing for the program, ensuring these entrepreneurs have the necessary resources to achieve their growth goals. AFC's involvement further strengthens the collaboration's potential to drive transformative change across Africa's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

"Our partnership with Accelerate Africa marks a significant milestone in Itana's mission to empower African entrepreneurs," said Luqman Edu (CEO, Itana). "By providing these startups with direct access to Itana's platform and resources, we're helping them gain a competitive advantage and scale their businesses more effectively."

Itana recently launched the Itana App (app.itana.africa) which digitises the business registration and operation process in the Itana Free Zone making it more seamless for companies to access the benefits of the jurisdiction.

The second cohort of startups (AA2) selected for this partnership will begin their program on September 30th for 8 weeks with a demo day on November 23rd in Nairobi, Kenya. Applications are now open (www.acceler8.africa). 

About Itana
Itana is a novel digital zone enabling global and pan-African technology and service-oriented businesses to operate seamlessly across Africa. Offering a one-stop platform for setting up operations in Nigeria, Itana provides competitive incentives in taxation, immigration, banking, and regulation. It also features a Digital Residency community, a curated marketplace for trusted vendors, and the upcoming Itana District—a campus in Lagos, set to become a model for the future of African cities

About Accelerate Africa
Accelerate Africa is a pre-seed / seed stage accelerator program that runs multiple cohorts per year for up to 10 startups, from across the continent to get support in areas such as storytelling, team development, go-to-market, product development, and fundraising. We get founders on the path to $1m in revenue within 12-18 months of completing the program. Our goal is to become the top program for African entrepreneurs looking for support and the pre-eminent accelerator for investors to attend and invest

Media Contact:
Coco Liu 
Chief Operating Officer, Itana 
coco@itana.africa

V. Chinyere Inya
Chief Operating Officer, Accelerate Africa
hello@acceler8.africa

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