Co-founder & CEO of @Cc_HUB. Fueled by my quest for a more competitive Nigeria through knowledge application. Participant - THNK. Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership
Mapping Lagos Innovation Assets
The Lagos State Governor through a recently inaugurated Innovation Advisory Council is poised to promote science, technology and innovation as core policy areas that not only hold the key to the state’s future, but could also make it one of the continent’s innovation leaders.
I am delighted at the possible value CcHUB is looking to contribute to this vision through the Lagos Innovation Hotspots Mapping Initiative. The project aims to assemble a detailed picture of the location of high growth and innovative businesses in Lagos in order to enable policy makers to engage in thoughtful analysis of emerging geographical assets. In a nutshell, we want the council to take a thorough approach in their bid to promote “deliberate economic development around Lagos State’s areas of competitive advantage”.
Check out the platform here http://lagosinnovation.com/. We have mapped 168 businesses in 12 clusters including hospitality, technology start-ups, financial services, creatives visual arts, fashion, telecoms, Nollywood, creative printing, health services, creatives – photography and creatives – marketing communications.
Beyond engaging stakeholders in identifying the clusters, we are in talks with Mocality to build a unique crawler to identify clustering patterns in their impressive database of businesses in the state. The other cool bit is that we are also crowd-sourcing information on clusters from the general public…see the video below on how to map a cluster:
I’ll post updates on this project here on my blog as i happen to be the technical lead but you can also follow the project’s blog here: http://blog.lagosinnovation.com/
Infographics: Yaba Barracks Aid – Crowdfunding
The journey of CcHUB’s crowdfunding effort aimed at fixing the wrecked roof of the Yaba Barracks. The first known e-crowdfunding initiative in Nigeria. Enjoy!
Power of Information Conference (15th September, 2011 – London)
My presentation at the Power of Information: New Technologies for Philanthropy and Development conference. This conference was co-hosted by the Indigo Trust, Omidyar Network and Institute for Philanthropy. In this video, i explain how the Hub is fostering innovation and enterprise in Nigeria.
Techloy vs. Google
@techloy
I don’t particularly subscribe to your conspiracy theory that Google is in the game to knock out local developers as i have been privileged to meet the target audience of their GNBO at a Pan African University conference. They are largely microenterprises and small businesses that won’t pay decent fees (if any at all) to developers to get a website done.
To the contrary, i think Google’s move would actually help spur growth in the uptake as more small businesses will gain knowledge and support to make the move. Remember Google won’t give real customised support to these businesses as they will largely be riding on templates…hence some of the businesses will actually grow to require more sophisticated platforms which only local developers can provide.
Google’s intervention i see more as a market development investment which the larger ecosystem can benefit from. I wonder which other stakeholders out there will consider this investment worthwhile. There is no doubt Google will also benefit from this…more Nigerian businesses online implies growth in the size of their potential market for ads, quality of search results and much more. In the end however, a competitive local tech ecosystem will benefit all and sundry.
I can imagine the basis for your outcry but i don’t really believe its a threat. Let’s be conscious of what we can learn from the presence of these players in the market to raise our game. Other countries are tactically building their markets while leveraging resources and expertise the big players bring.
We need more Harambe spirit behind the message we send out there as this is the only way we can garner proper knowledge partnerships needed to strengthen our offerings as a market.
‘Bosun Tijani
Nigeria’s First Open Innovation Hub is Here (CcHUB)!!!
CcHUB is being designed as a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyse creative social tech ventures take place. With 10mbps connection, a mobile application testing lab, dialogue café, a demo unit, thought shower corners and comfortable co-working space, the HUB is positioned to accelerate technology innovation and application for social good in Nigeria.
The hub will function at the heart of Nigeria’s technology innovation ecosystem as a place to:
- facilitate creative thinking and collaborative problem solving
- encourage technology innovation for improved social accountability in Nigeria
- incubate novel tech ideas that promotes good governance/provision of public services
- encourage shared accountability between technologist & innovators
- serve as a living lab for prototyping and testing socially minded tech tools
- build new skills and competencies
- connect, share, create and find expertise
As described by Sarah Lacy, “CcHUB is a cushy nest for social change which welcomes more than just coders, but teachers, doctors, or anyone from any background that has a dramatic idea of how to make life in Nigeria better. A new co-working space to be opened later this year will operate like an open living lab for social change.”
Interested in making history with us? …get in touch to learn how you can support CcHUB in harnessing the power of technology for prosperity in Nigeria.