Across Africa, innovation is not in short supply. Every year, universities produce brilliant research,
bold ideas, and passionate young minds ready to solve the continent’s most pressing challenges.
Yet, there is a gap.
Only 5–8% of African startups originate from university incubators, and even fewer survive
beyond early stages. While ideas are abundant, pathways to transform them into scalable,
impactful ventures remain fragmented.
This is the challenge that the Afya Ventures Residence Program seeks to solve.
Reimagining the Role of Universities
● What if universities were not just centers of learning, but engines of venture creation?
● What if students didn’t just graduate with degrees, but with scalable solutions, tested in
real communities?
● What if innovation ecosystems were not isolated, but deeply interconnected across
institutions, industries, and governments?
The Afya Ventures Residence Program, under the Africa Health Collaborative (AHC), is built on
this vision. With the theme “From Campuses to Communities: Building a Cross-University Health
Innovation Ecosystem,” the program brings together universities, ecosystem enablers, and policy
actors to co-create a structured and sustainable innovation pipeline.
A New Model: Collaboration Over Competition
Traditionally, universities operate in silos. Each institution builds its own programs, often
duplicating efforts while missing opportunities for shared growth.
Afya Ventures flips this model. Through partnerships with institutions such as:
● Amref International University (AMIU)
● Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)
● Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC)
● Kabarak University
● University of Nairobi
The program creates a collaborative innovation network where strengths are shared, not siloed.
Engineering meets public health. Clinical expertise meets digital innovation. Entrepreneurship
meets real-world community needs.
Building a Sustainable Innovation Pipeline
At its core, AfyaVentures is a system designed to:
● Continuously identify and nurture high-potential innovators
● Embed innovation within university structures
● Equip faculty to lead and sustain venture-building ecosystems
● Create repeatable, annual pipelines of venture creation
This is how ecosystems are built through institutionalized capacity.
From Ideas to Impact: The Venture Residence Model
The program is structured as a four-phase venture journey, guiding innovators from idea to
market:
- Venture Recruitment & Problem Discovery
Grounding innovation in real community needs through research, insight generation, and
multidisciplinary collaboration. - Venture Formation & Validation
Equipping teams with the tools to build, test, and refine solutions, combining user validation with
business strategy. - Pilot Deployment & Traction Building
Taking solutions into real-world environments, communities, health facilities, and county
systems, to test adoption and impact. - Commercialization Readiness
Preparing ventures for scale through market strategy, regulatory alignment, and investor
engagement.
This is where many programs stop short, but Afya Ventures goes further, ensuring ideas don’t just
exist, but work, scale, and sustain impact.
Focusing on What Matters: Social Determinants of Health
The program prioritizes innovation across key Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), including:
● Maternal and child health
● Nutrition and food systems
● Climate and environmental health
● Digital health access
● Assistive technologies
● Urban health and mobility
● Community-based healthcare delivery
By anchoring innovation in these areas, Afya Ventures ensures that solutions are innovative, relevant, inclusive, and impactful.
Ecosystem Thinking: Beyond the University
True innovation does not happen in isolation. Afya Ventures bridges the gap between:
● Universities (talent and research)
● Industry (market access and product development)
● Government (policy alignment and scale)
● Communities (real-world validation and adoption)
This integrated approach ensures that innovations are designed with the end-user in mind and
supported by the systems needed to scale.
The Bigger Picture:
Africa’s greatest asset is its youth but talent alone is not enough.
We must build systems that:
● Support young innovators
● Enable experimentation and failure
● Provide access to mentorship, capital, and markets
● Translate ideas into enterprises
Afya Ventures is a step in that direction.
It is about moving from potential to pipeline, from ideas to implementation, and from campuses
to communities.
Because the future of health innovation in Africa will not be built in isolation but together.
The official call for applications for the young innovators is set to happen this May 2026 across the
various partner universities. More information on the applications will be shared.
