Nigeria’s technology hub based in Yaba area of Lagos State continues to gather serious momentum from foreign investors who have foreseen the wealth of talent birthed and groomed in Yaba incubation hubs.
Earlier this year, Disrupt Africa released a report that revealed that Nigerian start-ups received over $49,404,000 direct investments. According to the report, African technology start-ups received direct investments to the tune of about $185,785,500. Of all the countries featured on the report, 24 percent of the start-ups are based in Nigeria.
Apart from venture capitalists and Fortune 500 global tech companies trooping in to explore and benefit from the immense talent in the hubs and start-up companies, influential tech business enthusiasts like Mark Zukerberg, founder Facebook, have expressed interest in Nigeria’s tech space, evidenced in his recent visit to the hub.
Tech experts say Zuckerberg’s visit is likely to clear doubts of foreign investors about Nigeria’s image and credibility issues, which negatively affected business investments in the country, and draw more attention and funding opportunities to Nigeria’s fledging tech start-up scene.
Sola Teniola, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), says Nigeria has unexploited talent in the tech space and it would be nice to see more attention and investment in the tech space.
“I have always advocated for the growth of technology and exportation of Nigeria’s talent. It would be nice for us to grow our own silicon valley in Yaba, enough to attract global audience,” he says.
Analysts have said that Nigeria is on course to become Africa’s largest tech hub by 2020. This is in view of the number of tech start-ups that have sprung up within the last three to four years. A number of tech start-ups have sprung up all over the country and especially in Yaba, the tech cluster since 2012.
However, analysts say the emerging tech start-up scene is still a long shot from being the ideal ecosystem for tech-driven entrepreneurship to flourish and so, the start-ups are in dire need of foreign recognition and investments to which Zuckerberg’s visit might be an opening window of opportunities.
A few months ago, Andela, a Nigerian start-up company, also based in Yaba, raised $24 million from Mark Zuckerburg. The software developer management company is home to some of the best coders in Africa, and is linking them to the global economy through its school.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, one of the founders of Andela, says the fund will go into more talent development. The country provides talents for top IT firms around the world including Microsoft, Udacity, Google, 2U.
Talking about the opportunities in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, Femi Longe, director at Co-Creation Hub (CChub) in Yaba, told BusinessDay that access to global markets was one of the biggest challenges in the ecosystem.
“Until a few years ago, if you use your PayPal account in Nigeria, it would automatically be blocked and you have to go back to the United States to get your account restored. But today, PayPal has made it possible to use the platform to send money from Nigeria, but we still cannot receive money because of our reputation.
“We need opportunities to come out and trade our solutions. Trade barriers have always existed and it would be a mistake for us in the digital age if we still have that because for the tech industry, Silicon Valley is still in many ways the global Mecca and a lot of local ventures in Nigeria are looking to partner with investors. We would love the opportunity to have free engagements without all the barriers,” Longe said.
Senator Edward J. Markey, the ranking Democratic Party member on the Africa and Global Health Policy Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who led a congressional delegation to Lagos, said: “People will come to Nigeria to invest in tech if they know that the tax laws, internet laws and all the essential laws are there to protect them.”
In response to comments on Nigeria not being safe enough for foreign investment, Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), says through the Commission’s twitter account that “we will tell investors that Nigeria is safe for business, our regulatory processes open and Return on Investments (ROI) is assured.”
Experts say the interest and entrance of the sixth richest man in the world, worth $53 billion, into Nigeria has shown the world that the tech ecosystem in the country is work exploring.
Mark Zuckerberg, who was also present at the Aso Villa Demo Day in Abuja, a presidential initiative aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and innovation through the use of new and emerging technologies, as well as the Yaba technology hub in Lagos, said it was inspiring to see what young Nigerians had done in terms of app development and use of technology.
He said his trip to Nigeria had blown him away in terms of the talents he saw across the country, noting that Nigerian youth would not just shape the country but would shape the whole world.
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