By Efem Nkanga

The positioning of  Nigeria as a hub  for innovation and software development was boosted by a recent visit of the Ministry of Communication Technology to Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley is known for spawning globally acclaimed innovative technologies, software, electronics and internet services that have birthed some of the most successful and largest companies in the world – Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter to name a few.

The purpose of the trip was, therefore, to explore and understand the innovation ecosystem in Silicon Valley with a view to boosting innovation in the ICT sector in Nigeria and also strengthen the fledgling, but fast growing Incubation Hubs/Accelerators including the recently established iDEA Hub – a collaboration between NITDA and the private sector that will drive the creation of innovative ICT companies in Nigeria.

The Minister was accompanied by a strong representation of young but extremely upwardly mobile ICT companies including Interswitch, online travel booking company Wakanow, e-commerce player Jumia, mobile Payments Company Scratch and Pay, online music company NotJustOk and internet advertising consultancy Wild Fusion and Jumia to showcase the potential of the industry. Also on the trip were representatives of Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), IDEA and Venia Business Hub. The Nigerian Ambassador to the US Ambassador Adekunle Adefuye gave his full support and actively participated in the three day event.

The visit which was organized in partnership with Echo VC, managers for the $15 M Nigerian ICT Innovation Fund – a venture capital fund specifically focused on the software development industry, included discussions with the Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business-Dean Garth Saloner and the leadership of SEED West Africa, a Stanford Business School Initiative to improve the success of SMEs in Africa; as well as visits to the well-known 500 startups and Plug and Play Incubation Hubs and investment presentations to VC/Investor funds based in Silicon Valley hosted by Bloomberg TV.

Successful outcomes of the trip included a commitment to run Stanford Business school’s Global Innovation programme for young ICT entrepreneurs in Nigeria, establishment of linkages between a well know incubation hub and opportunity for partnerships between Nigerian owned tech companies based in Silicon Valley and US companies that have an appetite for or have been seeking entry into the Nigerian market and a wide awareness creation of the investment opportunities in the ICT sector.

The Silicon Valley trip comes at a time when the Ministry is working to refocus the efforts of talented software developers in the country of not just writing code and developing applications, but creating successful and viable companies around the software that they are developing to create jobs and wealth – what has been called a ‘Companies not Code” approach.

One of the approaches to implementing this philosophy is the Techlaunchpad and IDEA initiatives. Techlaunch pad identified six entrepreneurs through a competitive process, and they have been admitted and are being mentored in the IDEA incubation hub/accelerator to fine tune their  software solutions that innovatively  solve problems confronting critical sectors of the economy whilst also nurturing and building commercially viable businesses.

It is expected that, by the end of their incubation period, they will be eligible for the first round of funding from the recently established IT Innovation Fund solely focused on ICT businesses. The fund will raise needed capital for ICT entrepreneurs to boost growth in the sector and scale up the innovation process.
The Silicon Valley visit ended on an optimistic note and the linkages and synergies created will be further explored to the advantage of the young Nigerian Start-Ups that are innovating and creating value adding solutions to aid the transformation of Nigerian into a digital economy.

Efem Nkanga, SA Media to the Minister of Communication Technology, wrote in from Abuja.