Mark Zuckerberg’s recent visit to Nigeria raised a storm of excitement, hope and thought. Beyond the thrill of having a young tech billionaire and the 7th richest man in the world jogging Lagos streets, Zuckerberg’s visit momentarily put Nigeria’s technology ecosystem in the global limelight. And it is an exciting picture. Nigeria’s techpreneurs are defying the odds of limited educational opportunity and a harsh business environment to create and replicate world-class technological innovations. It took Zuckerberg’s visit coupled with the 24 million US Dollar investment earlier made by the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation in the start-up, Andela, to bring the full focus of Nigeria’s government’s on the promise and potential of its technology ecosystem.“Finally, we are validated,” is how a leading Nigerian techpreneur describes the increased recognition and financing following the visit.
A National Selfie
A part of the story of this visit that warrants closer attention, as though taking a ‘national selfie’, is the aspect of President Buhari and Vice President Osibanjo’s welcoming Zuckerberg as a symbol of youthful possibility and capacity to impact the world. One could argue that this idea of hope in youth as change makers is the more important investment Facebook’s youthful founder made on Nigerian soil, sowing seeds of hope among young coders at the Co-Creation Hub and Andela. This perspective is important in our largely gerontocratic and oligarchic society, where youth are bombarded by images of success based on ‘easy money.’ Against this backdrop, it is refreshing for Nigeria’s youth to see themselves as creators of wealth through productive enterprise and creators of technological innovations that could solve the day-to-day problems of living in this country from traffic snarls to food and energy poverty. Our leadership, across public and private sectors, has a role to play in ensuring that youth can get “lucky,” as Zuckerberg described himself,in the sense that their talent finds support in concrete opportunities. Indeed, engaging our youth in technology, agriculture and other productive enterprisesis in the ‘enlightened self-interest’ of the Nigerian elite. It is no longer news that the country is faced with rapid population growth matched only by high unemployment and is contending with economic recession, dwindling oil prices, businesses folding up or laying off staff etc. In light of these challenges, the significant role entrepreneurs – including small and medium enterprises – play in providing employment opportunities and creating widespread economic value cannot be underestimated.
‘Like’ technology – why?
Technology entrepreneurship is unique in a number of ways. First, it has high-potential for success (estimated 80% success rate). Second, the value propositions of technology businesses often go beyond technology dissemination to tackling specific social problems, developing intellectual property and sustainable competitive advantage. With growing reliance on technology and the internet, it’s quite glaring that the potential market of an established technology start-up would be massive. So whether it’s a revolutionary breakthrough in technology or an advancement or evolution of an existing one, the technological entrepreneurial process has shown itself capable of contributing to national economies through wealth creation, employment generation and knowledge transfer. On the 2016 Global Innovation Index (GII) for example, countries like Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Finland secured the top 5 spots (Nigeria ranked 114th). It is no surprise that top-ranking countries not only understand the power of technology in revolutionizing and fast-tracking human and economic development but invest systematically in technology and innovation
Nigeria’s growing technology entrepreneurship space requires policy support to strengthen institutional linkages and break the firewalls preventing most Nigerian techpreneurs from achieving their potential. Promising initiatives have emerged to support youth enterprise in technology and other sectors. The Yaba area of Lagos has now developed to become Nigeria’s own Silicon Valley –‘Yabacon Valley’ – the hub for many technology start-ups. Notable pioneers include Co-Creation Hub – a private venture initiative, managed by young Nigerians, Andela, the Institute for Venture Design, Savannah Fund Accelerator, iDEA Hub, SPARK, LeadPath Nigeria, Tony Elumelu Foundation’s TEEP,LEAP Africa among others. More recently, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), and Y-Combinator have turned their focus to the technology business space in Nigeria. Lagos Business School (LBS) recently hosted Y-Combinator, the global accelerator, to explore opportunities around educational institutions supporting the incubation of enterprises in the same way institutions like Stanford and Isreal’sTechnion support growing technology businesses. There are also green shoots of youth-led initiatives like the Federal Government Girls’ Secondary School Abaji’s Digital Girls Club.
Firewalls
At present, techpreneurs struggle in isolation. This stifled growth of the technology ecosystem in Nigeria can be ascribed to a number of factors. On the one hand, Nigeria has not exactly presented the ideal enabling environment for techpreneurs to thrive. There are cricial gaps in talent, infrastructure and financing for these entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the majority of investors in the country are more prepared to fund already tested, established ventures looking to scale up, such ones that already show rapid growth potential. A large number of young entrepreneurs who are seeking to test and develop their new ideas are left to facethe challengesof early enterprise, including creating their own infrastructure, marketing and distribution channels. The result – most technology enterprises die before they get on their feet.
What needs to be done?
To effectively break these firewalls, government is responsible for what Steve Jobs calls “connecting the dots” in terms of creating a favourable environment for enterprise to flourish. For example, in Germany, as a deliberate matter of policy, the government encourages the development of entrepreneurial innovation through technology parks, such as the one in Berlin-Adlershof. These parks provide an ecosystem fortechpreneurs to grow and the spatial proximity to learn from one another and develop their ideas into businesses. Walking through the park recently I was amazed by the broad range of business support entrepreneurs could access there – technical development, financing, marketing, workspace as well as public relations. The local government also provides the entrepreneurs cheap and accessible public transport to facilitate movement. In the same way good familiesenable children to thrive,these entrepreneurs receive the necessary foundations to help them succeed.
As noted by Mariana Mazzucato, R.M Phillips Professor in the Economics of Innovation at the University of Sussex, many of the revolutionary technologies that have leap-frogged the development of companies like Apple and Google were funded by the U.S Government. Apple did not only benefit from government-funded research activities. It also received its early stage finance from the U.S. government. Venture capitalists entered only after government funding had propelled the company through the critical proof of concept. This highlights the key role government plays in accelerating technology entrepreneurship by providing assistance and bearing the risks of start-ups. Already, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has proposed to set up a National Innovation Fund to provide seed funding to Nigeria’s techpreneurs. The agency also plans to provide them with office space from where they could start their businesses. These policy statements inspire confidence that soon the issue of financing and infrastructural support would be systematically addressed.
It is time to do more. It is time to unleash the energy and potential existing in the Nigerian technology ecosystem through the collaborative and practical engagement of the public and private sectors. It is time our national elite embrace more readily the possibility in its own youth, and create the necessary conditions for Nigeria’s own Mark Zuckerbergs to emerge. What we want to see, one deliberate step at a time, is our government in the picture with its own youth, beaming with pride for their achievements.
Ijeoma Nwagwu
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