Africa’s massive playground for savvy tech giants

Harriet James @harriet86jim

The interest of international tech giants in Africa is on the rise with various companies turning to the continent to take a piece of or influence the expanding tech space. 

The most recent is Google, which last week, launched the first African developer space in Lagos, Nigeria.

Previously referred to as the Google Launchpad Space, the Google Developers Space is a hub for startups, entrepreneurs and developers to grow, to be nurtured and to connect and collaborate with each other. 

“We are very excited to have opened this space. If you look around the world, there are centres of excellence created where you have access to infrastructure and likeminded people coming together.

You have healthy competition, investors, institutions of learning, which has fostered a lot of vibrancy in the technological world,” says Juliet Ehimuan, Country Director Google Nigeria.

Nigeria was the city of choice as it has the most startups. Nairobi ranks second and Cape Town and Cairo follows at third and fourth respectively.

Startup Blink ranks Kenya’s capital at 7.92 points and Lagos at 8.044, based on the quality of startups, business environment, and the number of startups in the city.

“Lagos is just a starting point. During the Google for Nigeria 2017 event, our global CEO, Sundar Pichai, made a commitment to offer our Google Launchpad Programme to support early-stage technology startups in Africa.

Part of that commitment was this space. The new facility is part of its long term commitment to train 100,000 developers across Africa,” Ehimuan explains.

The platform in Lagos is the second phase of Google’s launch pad accelerator programme, which looks at unique needs of different markets and offer startups and developers access to tools and technologies to build and expand their products.

Since its creation, it has worked with 47 startups, which have since raised millions in investments and created jobs across the continent.

Launchpad Africa has accelerated startups from 17 African countries so far, including Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. 

Part of growth 

“We want to see global success stories from Africa. We believe there is a lot of talent in Africa and if they have the right skills, they can participate in the digital economy.

If there is a thriving digital economy, multiple players will benefit including Google,” explains Ehimuan.

Google does not charge for the use of the Developer’s Space, which in addition to housing Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa will support developer meet ups, training, experts office hours, Women in tech events, startup programmes (outside of Launchpad), will host events that support the wider entrepreneur and developer ecosystem, as well as Google initiatives for empowering people through digital skills training. For anyone who wants to use the space, their project must be technology-related. 

“Being that we are passionate about diversity and being inclusive, we have different work style spaces to ensure that none of the populace in need of digital training or assistance is excluded.

Africa’s startup ecosystem is growing and this space is our way of supporting and being a part of that growth,” says Launchpad Accelerator Africa head of operations, Onajite Emerhor. 

Just like Silicon Valley 

Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, Silicon Valley has been known as the epitome of innovation as well as high technology. 

The region is currently home to most global high tech corporations and most startup companies. 

Following its success, countries around the world are trying their best to copy this model.

Africa too has not been left behind with lively start up scenes. Since the creation of iHub in Nairobi in 2010, there have been similar businesses incubating organisations across the continent.

From 2017 to 2018, it is estimated there has been a 41 per cent increase from 314 active tech hubs to 442.

However, startups face a number of challenges including access to funding and suitable infrastructure, for example, in some countries, broadband is not always available or is too expensive.

Access to mentorship too is a challenge; that’s why tech giants such as Google and Facebook have shown interest in supporting hubs and innovations. 

Such projects by tech giants have been largely driven by technological advances with the high speed Internet and increased number of  Africans with mobile phones thanks to falling prices.

In addition, not only does the high population of youths provide a huge market for startups, but also there is a huge need for innovative solutions in various sectors such as education, infrastructure, healthcare, sanitation and agriculture. 

“A lesson from Silicon Valley is that when you have a hub and an enabling environment, it’s easy to have a centre of excellence and innovation.

You have great centres of learning, access to training and talent, ability to retain talent, healthy competition, investors, access to cutting age information. And all these support startups,” notes Ehimuan.