Over the years you will notice there have been various complaints about Nigeria’s tech community not being active. In fact it’s possible to write a book about why we don’t have a community or why our technology industry is far asleep. You know, like have always said; most of the platform other countries have, that helped them a great deal to kick start their technology advancement we don’t have them in Nigeria.
So trying to compare Nigeria with other countries will just be a shadowed look of what really is! We believe that things that we don’t have cannot fall from heaven or we expect government to just wake up someday and build them all! Yea! They can wake up but that could take the next 15years or more! For us, we don’t believe we have to wait that long to make it happen! The time is now!
So the idea is; if it does not exist, build it! We don’t have to complain our generation away while scrapping the opportunity to make our shoulders wide enough for others coming after us to ride on! Enough of the rhetoric, let’s discuss Tech Hub Nigeria!
So, what is tech hub Nigeria about?
If you have heard of tech hubs located in various countries; Techhub UK, Silicon Valley, iHub in Kenya, Silicon Cape in South Africa and in many other countries!
Tech hubs facilitates access to technology infrastructure (computer, internet, power) that helps geeks build technology solutions, network with other technologist, office space to meet with investors, startups, mentoring programmes, and resource centre. That is what tech hubs are set up to achieve!
How shall it work?
Most of us pushing stuff in Nigeria met online, mostly on Nairaland and Facebook! And so far, we have been able to know ourselves better, do business and build stuff! So we intend to leverage on that platform to build from online to offline! The last Barcamp Nigeria was super successful, as we got beyond expected participants and the enthusiasm level was so high that it needs to be sustained and advanced!
Online Tech Hub
We have created an online forum to continue conversation started at Barcamp Nigeria, also to allow any budding technopreneurs link up with others and help answer their questions. We are committed to building the online community to a massive resource centre that will foster networking and collaboration to build technology businesses. We understand that there is no viable online community for Nigerians, so we are building it! We also know that it will take time, and we are ready to accelerate that time!
Offline Tech Hub
We are raising money from our pockets and from partner companies to build a physical tech hub that will be able to take at least 100 geeks at a time. This will allow techies who are constantly battling with power problem, internet subscription and computers to get started, and build stuff they have dreamed of. The hub will also provide facilities that will help them build business around their tech ideas and mentoring from best tech brains Nigeria have! In five to six months time, the tech hub should be ready by God’s grace and it will be located in Lagos (the economic hub of Nigeria)!
I see a Nigeria where we will not only be relevant by our population but by the productivity of our technology industry towards advancement of our citizens and for the good of the world!
Complain time is over; it’s time to build, so let’s get to work!
I would encourage crowd-funding, as I myself might be able to contribute a penny or so, and find great use for it for outsourcing projects etc. Do you have a biz plan to support this techhub?
How would this fund itself after the injection of the capital? I am asking because if you fund a system that is not based on a well researched market backed with great feasible ideas and entrepreneurs end up building things like twitter clone, facebook clone or aother forum etc, that wouldn’t generate relevant revenue. This would be another blackhole project.
You realise Tech Hub is not a “generic” name? It’s the BRAND NAME of a business in the UK which they have decided to use. It’s got NOTHING to do with Tech Hub. It’s like calling yourself Pepsi Hub. It’s stealing someone else’s brand name. It would be a shame if they had to change it later because of legal action, and a REAL shame for Nigerian startups. Just call it Tech House Nigeria or something.
John, is the UK organization called “Tech Hub Nigeria” and doing business in Nigeria? If not, don’t get so worked up, as tech hub is a little too common a term to think there is trademark infringement.
hey am impressed. There is nothing as nice as this.
I have realized that this is not something that is only happening in Nigeria but countries like Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Tunisia are following the suite.
They have realized the power of the internet.