LAGOS: THE NEXT SILICON VALLEY
Many cities, including Lagos, are looking to replicate Silicon Valley's magic formula and become the tech start-up hub of the future. Lagos remains the underdog, for now.
Cities across the globe are looking for the ingredients and perfect recipe to create their own Silicon Valley, even choosing spin-off names such as Silicon Wadi in Tel Aviv, Israel; Santiago's Chilecon Valley; as well as Germany's Silicon Allee in Berlin and Silicon Saxony in Dresden. Add to the list Yabacon Valley in Lagos, Nigeria.
Recent attention from Facebook and Google has put Nigeria on Africa's start-up map. Yabacon Valley, named after the Yaba neighborhood in the country's economic and cultural capital, has worked to establish itself as Nigeria's start-up hub. Thanks to start-up Co-Creation Hub, Yabacon Valley has incubated the country's biggest start-ups.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg visited Lagos in 2016, and over a year later in November 2017, the CEO announced Facebook's first tech hub in Africa will be located in Lagos. Facebook's pending presence in Nigeria follows Google CEO Sundar Pichai's announcement to establish its first Launchpad space outside the US in none other than Lagos, Nigeria.
The attention from top tech CEOs mirrors the interest from investors. In 2016, Nigeria attracted more start-up funding than any other African country. According to data from Partech Ventures, Nigeria was the only African country to raise more than USD100 million, with a total USD109.37 million raised; South Africa and Kenya pulled in USD96.75 million and USD92.7 million, respectively.
In other accolades for the continent's most populated and fastest growing city, Lagos is also Africa's most valuable start-up ecosystem as measured by Startup Genome's Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2017. Valued at USD2 billion, Lagos dwarfs Cape Town's USD172-million valuation, despite Cape Town's higher number of active tech start-ups.
Lagos' strengths lie in its engineering talent, which is cheaper and has a high-level of English proficiency. Also, according to Startup Genome's 2017 report, globally, Lagos' ecosystem has the ninth-highest rate of founders with an undergraduate degree. One of Yaba's many advantages as a neighborhood is its proximity to the University of Lagos and Yaba College of Technology.
And as Africa's fastest growing city, many attribute Lagos' rise as a start-up and tech magnet to its swelling mobile use and Internet connectivity. It is no coincidence that Nigeria is both Facebook's biggest market in Africa and a location in which Google Maps service numbers doubled in the past year.
Nonetheless, Lagos still has a long way to go on the global stage. In the first half of 2017, many questioned Lagos' viability as start-up tech hub, worried that its hype was disproportionate to the reality. The average early-stage funding for a Lagos start-up is USD77,800, only one-third the global average.
Andela and Konga, arguably Nigeria's most successful start-up, moved to another Lagos neighborhood. Flutterwave, Nigeria's fintech poster child, actually operates out of San Francisco with a Nigerian team in Lekki, not Yaba. This is largely because infrastructure in Yaba is lacking, and other areas of the city offer better and/or cheaper advantages.
The World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with Business Insider, ranked the top-22 cities in the world for tech. The regions of North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific boasted six cities each, and the US and Europe dominated the top 10. MENA and Africa each managed to get one city on the list with Silicon Wadi (Tel Aviv) and Cape Town.
The “next Silicon Valley" remains up for debate, and the debate does not even include an African city as an option—yet. Facebook's Zuckerberg, Google's Pichai, and investors all see something in Lagos; and, with increasing funding and attention, Yabacon Valley may one day rival Silicon Valley or the next Silicon Valley to become the next “next Silicon Valley."
LAGOS: THE NEXT SILICON VALLEY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Interview
Yewande Sadiku, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC)
TBY talks to Yewande Sadiku, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), on combining the benefits of the private and public sectors, creating a broad range of skill sets, and improving the ease of doing business.
read articleInterview
Muda Yusuf, Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)
TBY talks to Muda Yusuf, Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), on the importance of public policy advocacy, creating an enabling environment for investors, and supporting capacity building for small businesses.
read articleInterview
Mohamad Darwish, Co-Founder & CEO, IHS Nigeria
TBY talks to Mohamad Darwish, Co-Founder & IHS Nigeria CEO, on switching to innovative green hybrid energy solutions, protecting consumers without deterring investors, and getting the private sector to help tackle the biggest challenges.
read articleReview
The Delta Skelter
A recent uptick in the price of Brent crude to more than USD60 for the first time in two years was a widely welcome development, but threats of renewed attacks on the country's oil infrastructure by the Niger Delta Avengers threaten to undermine these gains before they can be enjoyed.
read articleInterview
Chief Tunde J. Afolabi, Chairman & CEO, Amni International Petroleum Development Company,
TBY talks to Chief Tunde J. Afolabi, Chairman & CEO of Amni International Petroleum Development Company, on its current efforts to attract investment, the importance of monetizing gas, and partnerships within the sector.
read articleInterview
Tayo-Adiatu Adeyemi, Managing Director, Tulcan Energy Resources Limited
TBY talks to Tayo-Adiatu Adeyemi, Managing Director of Tulcan Energy Resources Limited, on the evolution of the company's operations, the need to develop a robust downstream sector, and the opportunities in the sector.
read articleInterview
Ado Oseragbaje, Vice President Sub Saharan Africa, Baker Hughes
TBY talks to Ado Oseragbaje, Vice President Sub Saharan Africa of Baker Hughes, a GE company, on the problems with inefficiencies across supply chains, using technology to minimize inconveniences, and making offshore profitable again.
read articleInterview
Amy Jadesimi, Managing Director, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL)
TBY talks to Amy Jadesimi, Managing Director of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), on the key sectors based in the free zone, using sustainable options for power, and the company's fully integrated support model.
read articleInterview
Babatunde Raji Fashola, Minister , Power, Works, and Housing
TBY talks to Babatunde Raji Fashola, Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, on the ongoing initiatives to increase power generation and distribution across the country and the need for distribution companies to provide reliable power.
read articleFocus: Diaspora Cities
No Place Like Home
With one of the largest diasporas in the world, Nigeria is trying to charm its citizens overseas to invest into the country's property market through the Nigerians in Diaspora Housing Programme, through which “diaspora cities” will be created across the country.
read articleFocus: Outbound Medical Tourism
The Business of (Health) Caring
Nigeria's healthcare sector is suffering from significant brain drain due to workers' unfavorable conditions, while failure to invest in medical facilities is encouraging patients to seek treatments abroad with significant economic consequences.
read article
