Inspire Africa Conference 2024: Empowering Africa’s tech product leaders

The 2024 Inspire Africa Conference has just concluded at the prestigious Eko Convention Centre in Lagos.

The highly anticipated Conference took place 15th – 18th October 2024. Tagged the continent’s largest tech product event, this year’s theme “Product Is Hard,” reflected the challenges of building and leading in complex environments, especially within Africa’s fast-evolving tech landscape.

The Conference brought together almost 1,000 attendees from across the continent, including 100+ African tech founders and product leaders and 30+ global speakers and coaches for four days of immersive learning, hands-on training, and networking. The focus centered on how African companies can optimise product teams, hire top talent, and harness new technologies like artificial intelligence to solve difficult problems and drive business success.

“By 2030, Africa is projected to have the largest working population in the world. That’s a lot of people with the potential to work together towards a common goal driven by technological innovation,” says Christian Idiodi, founder of Innovate Africa Foundation, one of the organisations behind the Conference.

“The key for us is providing them with the skills and capital they need to thrive in the global market and that is what the Inspire Africa Conference seeks to do.“

While presenting his Keynote Address, Founder and Group CEO of headline sponsor Interswitch Group, Mitchell Elegbe said; “Initiatives such as the Inspire Africa Conference are crucial in developing the technology value chain and upskilling our workforce. We prioritise partnerships and platforms that enable individuals and communities to prosper across Africa. He added; “As an African-oriented organisation, we are committed to driving Africa’s development and understand the power of nurturing African-led innovation by providing African talent with opportunities of this nature”.

The four day event was indeed a transformative experience for Africa’s tech product community offering a unique blend of learning, training, networking and inspiration.

The first day of the conference was dedicated to exploring the essence of product and the trends and key concepts in tech with keynotes and panel discussions centered on product leadership, talent, building ecosystems, driving innovation and access to funding.

A highlight of Day 1 was a Keynote by Ebi Atawodi, Director of Product Management at YouTube about how to build great products when collaborating.

Other speakers included Mr Gbenga Omotosho, Commissioner for Information and Strategy (Representative of the Governor, Lagos State) & Victoria Fabunmi, Investment Lead, Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation.
A fireside chat with Kristin H. Wilson and Christian Idiodi from the recently launched Innovate Africa Fund was also part of the programme. The fund launched earlier this year with $2.5m and plans to support 20 startups in its first year.

The remaining 3 days focused on the teachings of the Silicon Valley Product Group, with masterclasses for product managers and leaders to hone in on the concepts that have enabled the best tech-powered product companies. Taking the lead here was ‘The Godfather of Product’, SVPG Partner Marty Cagan, alongside Christian Idiodi, Chidi Afulezi and Gabrielle Bufrem. In addition, Day 4 provided founders and entrepreneurs the opportunity to gain strategic insights, participate in practical problem-solving sessions, and benefit from invaluable networking experiences.

Next year is set to be even bigger, with the conference heading to Kigali, Rwanda for the first time on 13th – 16th October 2025.

Conference highlights:

The Inspire Africa Conference brings together local and international product and training leaders to drive impact in the African product community. It is organised by a few amazing companies (Silicon Valley Product Group, Product Leadership Accelerator, Innovate Africa Foundation, Innovate Africa Fund & Work Nigeria); all working to upskill African product experts. The event continues to be the only one of its kind on the African continent with robust product training opportunities and offers.

Visit inspireafricaconference.com for more details about the conference.

For more details of the companies behind the conference

visit: svpg.com

innovateafricafoundation.org

innovateafricafund.com worknigeria.com