What Civic Hive does

CivicHive is a Nigerian nonprofit organization founded in 2017 and headquartered in Yaba, Lagos, that operates as an incubator and capacity-building platform for civic technology across West Africa. Its core offerings consist of the CivicTech Fellowship (a structured incubation program that has supported 36 civic fellows and 20 media fellows, producing 26 launched organizations), a co-working facility for civic-tech and nonprofit operators, Rural Labs engagement programs in Nigerian states, the annual Active Citizens Awards, and the regional West Africa CivicTech Conference launched in 2025.

The organization also develops and maintains a portfolio of civic data tools, including the Nigeria Election Portal, LiveResults Map, Interactive Map, and a Ghana Election Portal operated in partnership with BudgIT. These platforms provide election results visualization, voter education projections, and civic data mapping, functioning as the organization's proprietary technology surface alongside its program stack.

CivicHive is funded primarily through grants and donations from major philanthropic and development partners including the Gates Foundation, Oxfam, Ford Foundation, Luminate, and UK Aid, with a lean team of seven employees. Its go-to-market is community-led and event-driven: it recruits fellowship cohorts through application cycles (935 applications from 14 countries for the 2026 cohort), convenes the regional conference to expand its network, and develops new geographic markets such as the 2026 Francophone cohort delivered via partnerships with BudgIT Senegal, AfricTivistes, and Tuwindi. Conference participation and fellowship enrollment are free, with sustainability dependent on foundation funding rather than commercial pricing.

Name

Civic Hive

Legal name

Civichive

Website

https://civichive.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CivicHive is a Lagos-based nonprofit, founded in 2017, that incubates West African civic-technology founders through fellowships, co-working, annual conferences, and election-data platforms, funded by major philanthropic foundations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Technology Programs and Tools

NAICS

Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Civic and Social Organizations (81341)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Inclusion & Civic Tech (Connectivity, GovTech for Social Good) (BPAGALAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy (BPAGAFAJ), Youth Leadership, Civic Education & Service-Learning Nonprofits (BPAGADAI)

Keywords

• Civic technology
• Election data portals
• Civic fellowship programs
• Democratic governance
• Civic engagement

Headquarters

HQ city

Lagos

HQ country

Nigeria

HQ region

Africa

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and Grants: CivicHive operates as a non-profit organization funded primarily through donations and grants from foundations and development partners supporting civic tech and democratic governance initiatives.
2. Co-working Space Services: The organization provides co-working space facilities for civic tech organizations, non-profits, and changemakers, fostering collaboration with other non-profits, donors, multilateral organizations, and private sector partners.
3. Event and Conference Revenue: The annual West Africa CivicTech Conference and related events serve as platforms for partnerships and organizational sustainability, with registration and sponsorship models.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Civic Hive is a nonprofit civic technology organization that supports young African changemakers through fellowship programs, co-working infrastructure, and the annual West Africa CivicTech Conference. It develops and maintains civic data tools including the Nigeria Election Portal, LiveResults Map, Interactive Map, and Ghana Election Portal to provide election data, results visualization, and voter education. The organization also delivers Rural Labs grassroots engagement, capacity-building support to civil society organizations, and research on civic technology progress across West Africa.

Product overview

Civic Hive operates as a civic technology organization focused on empowering changemakers in Nigeria and West Africa. The organization offers a suite of election-focused tools including the Nigeria Election Portal, LiveResults Map, Interactive Map, and Ghana Election Portal (in partnership with BudgIT). These digital platforms provide election data, results visualization, and voter education. Beyond technology products, Civic Hive runs programs including the CivicTech Fellowship (an incubation programme for civic innovators), the Fellowship (for civic tech leaders), Co-working Spaces, and Rural Labs. The organization also hosts the annual West Africa CivicTech Conference and recognizes civic excellence through the Active Citizens Awards. The overall portfolio functions as a platform approach combining digital tools with capacity building, community engagement, and advocacy programs to strengthen democratic governance and citizen participation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• West Africa CivicTech Conference: Annual regional conference bringing together civic innovators, policymakers, technologists, civil society leaders, and citizens to explore technology's role in fostering transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement across West Africa.
• Civic Hive Fellowship
• Active Citizens Award
• West Africa CivicTech Network

Products and services

• Nigeria Election Portal Online portal providing election-related data and information for Nigerian elections, serving citizens, journalists, and civic organizations seeking transparent election data.
• LiveResults Map Interactive election results visualization tool for Nigeria's presidential elections that presents past results and allows users to create projections for upcoming elections, supporting voter education.
• Interactive Map Interactive mapping tool for civic data visualization and election-related geographic information, serving citizens, researchers, and civic organizations across Nigeria.
• Ghana Election Portal Election portal for Ghana, developed in partnership with BudgIT, providing election information and results to citizens, journalists, and civic organizations in Ghana.
• CivicTech Fellowship Flagship incubation programme supporting young African innovators and civic tech founders to develop and scale technology solutions that strengthen institutional efficiency, transparency and accountability, and civic participation across West Africa. The 2026 cohort accepted 15 fellows selected from 935 applications across 14 countries.
• Co-working Spaces Physical co-working space at Civic Hive's Yaba, Lagos headquarters that fosters collaboration and partnership building for civic tech organizations, non-profits, donors, multilateral organizations, and private sector partners working on civic engagement.
• Rural Labs Grassroots education and engagement initiative reaching citizens and community-based organizations across Nigerian states to promote inclusiveness in governance and amplify local civic voices.
• West Africa CivicTech Conference Annual regional gathering of civic innovators, policymakers, technologists, civil society leaders, development partners, and citizens leveraging technology to strengthen democratic governance across West Africa. Offered free to physical and virtual participants.

Quantifiable outcome

• 26 civic tech organizations launched since 2017
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BudgIT SenegalcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Partnership with BudgIT Senegal enables the inclusion of a dedicated Francophone cohort in the 2026 CivicTech Fellowship, with bilingual materials and French-speaking facilitators.
• AfricTivistescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Pan-African organization based in Dakar, Senegal partnering with CivicHive for the Francophone fellowship cohort and cross-border collaboration across West Africa.
• TuwindicoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Civic technology organization partnering for the first Francophone cohort of the CivicTech Fellowship, enabling cross-border collaboration between English and French-speaking West African innovators.
• Ominira Initiative for Economic AdvancementminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Partner organization hosting the Freedom Advocacy Workshop that CivicHive staff participated in, focusing on coalition-building and stakeholder engagement.
• BudgITcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBudgIT and CivicHive share close organizational ties, with BudgIT founders Oluseun Onigbinde and Joseph Agunbiade serving as mentors in the CivicHive fellowship program. BudgIT provides strategic guidance and one-on-one lab sessions with fellows for brainstorming and scaling solutions. BudgIT Senegal has partnered specifically for the Francophone cohort of the fellowship.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Ushahidi: Kenya-founded civic-tech platform used globally for election monitoring, accountability and crisis response. Comparable as a more established civic-tech operator that has built reusable civic-data infrastructure and tools for citizen engagement across Africa and beyond.
• National Democratic Institute (NDI): US-headquartered international democracy-support organization operating in Nigeria and across West Africa. Comparable as a larger, established player working on civic participation, election integrity, and accountability, with overlapping donor relationships.
• mySociety: UK-headquartered civic-tech organization that builds widely used transparency and civic-engagement tools (e.g., They Work For You, FixMyStreet). Comparable as a more mature, well-funded civic-tech operator building reusable democratic-governance technology, though focused on the UK/global north.

Direct peers

• Pollicy: Uganda-based civic-tech organization working on data-driven governance, civic participation and digital rights across Africa. Comparable as an Africa-headquartered civic-tech peer focused on transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement, though with a stronger digital-rights orientation.
• OrderPaper Nigeria: Nigerian civic-tech organization focused on legislative transparency, tracking lawmaker performance, and civic engagement. Comparable as a Nigerian civic-tech nonprofit pursuing institutional efficiency and accountability through technology.
• Code for Africa: Pan-African civic-tech and data-journalism network operating across more than 20 African countries. Comparable as a peer because it incubates civic-tech ventures, runs fellowship-style programs, and maintains election and accountability data tools — though at significantly greater geographic scale than CivicHive.
• BudgIT: Nigeria-based civic-tech organization focused on government budget transparency and fiscal accountability. Closest comparable peer: shares founders/mentors with CivicHive, co-developed the Ghana Election Portal, and operates in the same Nigerian civic-tech funding ecosystem.
• Connected Development (CODE): Nigeria-based civic organization using technology to advance transparency, accountability and grassroots community follow-up on public projects. Comparable on civic-tech capacity-building, advocacy, and community engagement in Nigeria/West Africa.
• AfricTivistes: Pan-African civic-tech organization promoting democracy and digital rights, headquartered in Dakar. Comparable because it is an active CivicHive partner, operates a Francophone West African civic-tech footprint, and runs advocacy, training, and digital-rights programming.
• Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria: Nigerian civic-tech and civic-participation organization known for election-related voter-education tools (e.g., ReVoDa) and accountability programming. Highly comparable given shared election-data tooling, civic-engagement focus, and Nigerian operating base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/civichive
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/civic-hive

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Civic Hive