Just like the saying goes: “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. You will agree to the lone fact that the revitalization of Africa’s economy has been attributed to the leading advance in technology. This crucial factor that has played a prime role in this development can be attributed to the rise of tech hubs, especially in Africa. This is eminent as it is on the rise especially in Nigeria and Africa at large. But then: What are tech hubs? How do they work? How can upcoming startups and developers benefit from this phenomena?
What is a Tech Hub?
Just like the computer network hub, a connection point for devices in a network (Webopedia, 2018), the term ‘tech hub’ is simply a physical space (can be remote), a city, a suburb (like computer village Lagos), or a collective suite of offices whose aim is geared to help technology stay companies succeed, and scale up. Tech hubs create an environment specifically targeting the up-build of young technology companies thrive by encouraging: incubation, fast tracking, helping such firms network and collaborate with like minded individuals or enterprises.
The major goal of a tech hub is to grow ideas.
What Do They Need?
For a tech hub to thrive there are a lot of impeding criteria that must be meet so as to establish its relative productivity. One basic factor is a steady supply of permanent and temporary suitable workers, a means of generating revenue, relatively high speed internet access, robust infrastructure, location, transport, relative proximity of access, friendliness of the hub, and total coordinated organization.
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Where Are The Best Hubs Located?
Remember, that the best known tech hub is probably Silicon Valley, based in California USA. Here you can find the big boys (companies) in the tech industry: Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Intel, Tesla, and major startups many of these were founded here.
In Nigeria, there are a numerous tech hubs available. The full list is available here, Prosper Otemuyiwa’s really helped in making this task easy, they include some in pictures:
How and Who Can Benefit From Tech Hubs?
While you might feel that only software and web developer are the most prime people to benefit from the establishment of tech hubs, you will be surprised to note that a lot of unskilled individuals are more likely on a ratio of 3:5 to gain immense experience from tech hubs.
Government agencies are really poised to gain knowledge, because tech hubs offer a wide angle of disseminated technologies, backgrounds, work groups, personalities and ideas. The core truth is that even companies seeking for skilled personnel’s to assist their companies can get a handful from reliable tech hubs across the continent.
So its a win-win. Tech hubs are for everyone, and by everyone. As the saying in the introduction of this article: “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, Nigeria has had a decent share of tech advancement due to the increase in tech hub, we have seen more open minded individuals come up in terms of technology challenges and even advocacy groups. The GitHub benchmark is a prime example of how poised and raging Nigeria and Africa is becoming towards the Open Source development and knowledge sharing. In it all, tech hubs are just like the library, you gain resources, experience and exposure.
So next time you think about a tech hub, what comes to your mind? Definitely, you will remark a tech hub as a ‘catalyst’ in crucial development. So find a tech hub around you and innovate!
