Twelve African startups have been selected to join the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) Justice Accelerator, receiving US$5,750 in grant funding and ongoing business development support.
HiiL’s Justice Accelerator is designed to help innovators working on scalable, sustainable solutions to access to justice problems.
Participants receive grant funding, with additional funding and business service support available throughout the year. They also join the intensive Justice Entrepreneur School and Innovating Justice Forum, set to take place in The Hague in early 2019.
A total of 17 entrepreneurs were selected to join this cohort of the accelerator, with 12 of the cohort based in Africa.
Uganda is the best-represented country, with four innovations selected for the programme: Yunga; Tunga – Nkola App; Justice Bot; and Zzimba Games. South Africa’s Baobab and Epoq Legal also made the cut; as did BTrack and Wakili Mkononi, both from Kenya.
Nigeria’s FarmWorkerzApp; Rwanda’s Viamo; Benin’s HeLawyer; and Sierra Leone’s CrimeSync complete the list of African picks.
The startups were selected through the Innovating Justice Challenge; a process involving regional pitching finals in seven locations around the world.
“This year is our largest ever cohort and we’re delighted to have participants from countries where HiiL hasn’t operated previously,” says Ellen Tacoma, director of the Justice Accelerator.
This cohort covers a wide variety of services for assisting with criminal procedures, legal services, property rights and business contracting issues.
“We’re looking forward to working with such a range of different ideas and experiences. One of the most important parts of the programme is learning from others as we all work towards the goal of access to justice for all,” Tacoma says.
