Policy flipflops kill government initiative for tech hubs

The death of government supported technology incubation hubs in Nigeria after only a few years of operation has shown gross policy inconsistency in successive administrations in the country experts say.
A technology/innovation hub is an incubation space where start-ups using technology for innovative businesses are groomed, mentored and given options available for funding opportunities to grow the tech ecosystem.

Rapid transition to a digital economy has created a rise in start-ups, which are leveraging technology to offer innovative products and services to a wider array of consumers.
These startups are groomed and often times birthed through accelerator programs but have been somewhat subdued in Nigeria, as private hubs struggle with funding and government initiated programs die as a result of neglect and abandonment by succeeding leadership.
Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA) an incubation hub which provided the much needed funding, work space, necessary developmental programs, mentoring and market access to start ups and aspiring ‘techpreneurs’, set up in 2013 at the prompting of Omobola Johnson, the then Minister of Information Technology, with the support of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is currently non-existent, BusinessDay learnt.
The Government supported iDEA hub, was launched in Lagos and Calabar in Cross River State, to provide incubation, acceleration and mentorship services to technology startups but rather than thrive as expected, due to the increased interest in the technology ecosystem, the hubs became unsustainable and finally shut down due to lack of funding and government neglect, stakeholders have said.
Adedotun Suleiman, Chairman Idea hub, told BusinessDay that; “Omobola Johnson, the first Minister of Information Technology in Nigeria formed a program to set up six incubation hubs across the country and we managed to set up two, one in Lagos and one in Calabar. As I speak to you, the one in Calabar died almost two years ago because the State Government that made all the commitments to support that initiative did not uphold its promises.
“Now, the one in Lagos sadly closed shop last week Wednesday, because even though it was a government initiative and they promised to support when we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an agency of government, they only came up with funding for one year and that was it. This is the same government that would come out and tell you all the fantastic things about IT and how technology is the future,” Suleiman said.
News of the collapse of these incubation hubs came as a surprise to many IT stakeholders, as Vincent Olatunji, Director General of NITDA, had last year confirmed that the agency was doing all it could to make sure that Nigeria builds and maintains incubation centers for the growth of its tech community.
Speaking during his visit to Sidmach Tecnologies in 2016, Olatunji said; “We visited the Silicon Valley in India and we saw what the startups were doing there and would like to replicate that in Nigeria.
“We discovered that most global brands today started as startups from incubation centers and we are trying to replicate that in Nigeria,” Olatunji said.
Industry watchers say it is a sad reality that the Nigerian government has proven that initiatives developed by the government cannot be sustained.
However, a number of privately run local and global technology accelerator programs are succeeding in Nigeria. These include LeadPath Nigeria, a technology start-up accelerator, which began operations in Nigeria, with a $1.5 million fund. The technology accelerator at the launch, engaged key stakeholders in the Lagos technology ecosystem, including other deep pocket investors, entrepreneurs and developers.
Co-creation Hub “CcHUB, founded by Bosun Tijani, benefitted from the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and boosted its incubation program with the launch of a $500,000 seed investment fund.
“We should not wait for government. In fact, we should always be one or two steps ahead of the government, and government should learn from the experts in the field. We stakeholders should put back money into Research and Development (R&D) so that these hubs don’t die,” Kyari Bukar, Chairman, Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) said, while speaking recently at an event organised by the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON).
The Ministry of Communications Technology had secured $3.5 million seed capital from National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) as part of its TechLaunchPad initiative, aimed at creating, before the end of 2013, ten successful software businesses that will focus on providing industry solutions for critical sectors of the economy.
Bukar said; “When Omobola Johnson called me to be the Chairman of TechLaunchPad, an initiative to restart the software industry in Nigeria, by creating startups that could go into incubation hubs for a sustained period of about ten years, we planned to have over 300 companies that were into coding, but that initiative has fizzled out.
According to Bukar, stakeholders can sustain incubation centers and acceleration hubs without the interference of government.
Industry watchers say this is not impossible, as Nigeria’s technology hub based in Yaba area of Lagos has continued to gather serious momentum from foreign investors who have foreseen the wealth of talent birthed and groomed in Yaba incubation hubs.
Last year, Disrupt Africa released a report which revealed that Nigerian startups received over US$49.4 million direct investments. According to the report, African technology startups received direct investments to the tune of about US$185.78 million. Of all the countries featured on the report, 24 percent of the startups are based in Nigeria.
Apart from venture capitalists and fortune 500 global technology companies trooping in to explore and benefit from the immense talent in the hubs and startup companies, influential tech business enthusiasts like Mark Zukerberg, founder of the global brand, Facebook have expressed interest in Nigeria’s technology space, evidenced in his visit to the hub.