There has been a heated conversation around the (un)likelihood of a “Yabacon Valley” ensuing on Twitter for the past week. A handful of Nigerian techies and notably the likes of Mark Essien, Oluyomi Ojo, Oo Nwoye have argued that Yabacon Valley doesn’t exist because of a number of reasons.
Let’s be real about this Yaba Tech cluster – there is none. Let’s stop pretending, really. If we want to make it, let’s make it.
— Mark Essien (@markessien) April 18, 2017
What is the value of Yaba when VI and Lekki are for hangouts. Coffee, evening boose and out of office meetings. It’s a culture of people
— Oluyomi Ojo (@OluyomiOjo) April 18, 2017
Even in SF… That’s bigger than Yaba. You run into people. Your very own Nigerian and African people o.
YABACON.
— Oluyomi Ojo (@OluyomiOjo) April 18, 2017
It’s back to the space/zoning issue of Lagos and Yaba in particular. The only public space I see tech folks there is “front of CCHub”. https://t.co/w7eKvRnYuq
— Oo Nwoye (@OoTheNigerian) April 20, 2017
While all this banter went on on Twitter and inspired more arguments and fact checking, uncertainty still hung in the air about Yaba attaining the status of San Franciso’s Silicon Valley. Reminded me a lot of an article I wrote on Nollywood as either Surulere or 1/3 Pound road, Aba versus Hollywood and Bollywood. However, on my way to the office just two days ago, around the Ojodu Berger area of Lagos state, a flier was flung in my car by boys on roller skates. It was the campaign flier for a young politician by the name Adebola Mayowa running for Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) chairman.
First on his agenda was to “create a Tech hub & IT centre” in the Ojodu. (There’s a personal discrepancy as to whether Ojodu is different from Ojodu berger) Mayowa is a trained laboratory engineer at Milton Technical Centre, Cambridge, United Kingdom who rose to the position of Senior Manager at Integrated Electronics Company Limited, a foremost consultant to NAFDAC, GSK, etc” according to a website funded by certain “Youths for Mayowa Adebola”, found here.
From the issues raised by players in the ecosystem ranging from accommodation; affordability and availability, concentration of actual tech businesses in the area, road networks, investor friendliness, the list goes on, it is worthy of note that Ojodu is a place that links Lagos to other parts of Nigeria. By measurement, Ojodu Berger is far bigger than Yaba. For people who are visiting Lagos or returning, on road, Ojodu Berger is the first bus-stop. Accommodation is much cheaper there too, just check tolet.com.ng and you’ll see. Ojodu has also gotten a major face-lift on the road network and traffic management. The area is looking more and more high profile and attractive to say the least. So much that the thought of creating a “tech hub” there would seem like the cherry on top. But does this guarantee the success of a tech hub there? Will startup owners migrate?
Is it a good idea to expect "the government" to institutionalize a tech hub or is it better left to the control of players in the ecosystem, as it is?
I thought it was interesting that Mayowa would make, specifically, creating a tech hub a campaign promise and so while his campaign flier and website do not give details about what this tech hub will look like; shape, form and concept, an earlier interview he had with The Guardian quotes him as saying,
“I want to meaningfully engage the youths in my LCDA through skills acquisition and entrepreneurial training. Majority of the people are energetic individuals between the ages of 16 and 25 and are mainly uneducated and unemployed. I want to implement programmes that will direct this energy into sustainable enterprises”
While Mayowa’s profile does not mention any practical involvement with modern/mobile technology except for his stint at the Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology which is quite honestly a completely different kettle of fish (pun intended), it will be of great benefit to see what the LGA chairmanship candidates in Yaba have up their sleeves before the elections set to hold June this year. Also, engaging all parties in a debate will give a clearer, more realistic-futuristic view to this “Yabacon Valley” dream the Nigerian tech players so passionately believe can happen.
Not to add, there’s a nice ring to “Yabacon valley”. Ojoducon sounds like “Ojodu kan” meaning one Ojodu when pronounced with a Yoruba accent. Try it.