The news came like a thief in the night waking all up with a thunderous shock but this kind of shock is unavoidably exciting. It was reported that Nigeria ranked as the highest beneficiary of technology Investments in 2019, we gulped over 300million dollars worth of Investment funds “uprooting” Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. These countries mentioned above were like “fathers” to us as at 2015, they were marshalling the winds of digital economy and they were getting enviable attention and investments. The case of Nigeria “sipping” 50% of $643million that was showered on Africa is worth hosting a “La carte”. Nigeria received 49.5% Investments, followed by Kenya 32.0%, Egypt 5.9% , South Africa 5.0% , Ghana 3.4% and Uganda 1.7%. It is a “slap in the butt” for Rwanda for not topping the list despite the massive publicity in tech, the country has a growing future in tech though and nobody should conclude that Nigeria got such massive attention in 2019 because of her POPULATION, Ethiopia is the second most populous African nation but can’t even dare us for a fight, i am saying it is worth throwing a party once again.
Interestingly, a total of $1.3 billion invested in Africa tech companies in 2019 compared to just $200 million invested in 2015, hope you can see the rising attention for Africa. Former Minister of communications, Adebayo Shittu made it known in 2018 that out of a total of $32 billion dollars that had been invested in Nigeria’s tech sector in the last 15 years, half of the sum is from China. In 2019, Opay and Palmpay attracted over $210 million most especially from Chinese investors.
Obviously, these Investments are very juicy and unavoidably encouraging but the fundamental question is “how ready is Ibadan city to carve a niche for itself in the less competitive Innovation and digital economy in West Africa specifically?”. Ibadan first got the “hug” of reputable tech Innovation with the entry of Estonia owned Taxify in 2018 due to some “boosted image” of the state and progressively we witnessed the arrival of the “rich guest” called OPAY which painted the whole city yellow with obvious revolutionary intentions in payment solutions, transportation, retail services, credit schemes, QR payment etc, we had the rugged “experimentation” of Alakowe bus in 2018 too and there were tendencies that the only indigenous African ride-hailing company called “SAFEBODA” chose Ibadan as one of it’s destinations, escaping the roughness of Lagos.
Undoubtedly, Lagos has been the biggest beneficiaries of the most of tech Investments being the commercial capital and the second most populous but that “old champion” called Lagos can be “beaten and outsmarted” by Ibadan. The Wise elders will say “when an eye gets patient enough, it will comfortably see the nose”. Yes! Lagos is intimidating commercially, it has the highest numbers of formal and informal tech hubs, it has Yaba(small sillicon valley visited by Mark Zuckerberg), it has “computer village” at Ikeja where geniuses have meetings informally and sipping the highest juice in terms of Investments. Can Ibadan beat such giant?.
Frankly, this is how we can fight the battle and not just beat Lagos but outshine the whole of West Africa in digital TECHNOLOGY. According to a popular tech website called “Tech city”, top 6 tech hubs were recognized in Ibadan and they are; Wenovation hub started in 2011 by a tech Wizard, Lpi Innovation hub, Alf tech hub, Ibridgde hub, Eco hub and Steinserve hub. No matter their efforts, these hubs cannot intimidate the existing sophisticated ones in Lagos. Beyond these hubs, we also have informal tech hubs in “Dugbe, Challenge, Mokola and Iwo Road”. To make this battle more strategic, we just simply need a “Large incubation centre” to be called “Ibadan Innovation Park”. As big as Nigeria is and as attractive we are getting to tech investors, no city or state in Nigeria can boast of such initiative. Lagos despite it’s rich resources and profile don’t even have such, what we have are just “splitted hubs” with no concerted or organised front to share ideas, capture more Innovations and get any potential investor “wowed”, not even our Universities have been able to think of such initiative. Ibadan having a historical profile of being an academic city, very calm environment, favourable location and most recent host to few tech Innovations can take advantage of such infrastruture and Innovation gap. The Innovation park will be sponsored by the government in collaboration with ambitious Venture Capitalists and not tech companies, this park will be built in a serene environment with modern facilities including “Special hubs for hardware TECHNOLOGIES, Special hubs for Artificial intelligence and robotics, Special hubs for ethical hacking, Cyber security,etc coupled with contractual agreements with tech companies and Innovation hubs making use of the park by training youths whether with tertiary education background or not in these fields and recruiting them eventually.
Conclusively, exploiting the Innovation gap initiative will surely shoot out Oyo State as the biggest tech state in Nigeria, present Ibadan as a “smart city” as investors will first consider the city as a “ready made platform” to recruit and nurture, internet fraudsters will also be productively engaged and the state will definitely be richer and more innovative.
Mujib Dada-Qadri is a Lawyer and a policy analyst.
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