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In Africa, Nigeria is also establishing itself as a significant player in the era of innovation and technological advancement. Young and vibrant entrepreneurs have emerged in the Nigerian tech space seeking to provide solutions to the challenges of the economy. In Lagos State, there has been the emergence of what has been described as “Africa’s Silicon Valley” in Yaba, developed by the Co-Creation Hub team. Also, there are innovative companies like BudgIT, WeCyclers, Ruby, Lifebank, amongst others. Apart from Lagos, young Nigerian entrepreneurs have dazzled with innovative software development companies providing solutions in the financial services and other sectors of the economy like Andela, reliance health, Mecho Autotech, and Flutterwave. Today, there are several innovation hubs in the country, from Abuja, Lagos to Port Harcourt in the South-South region of the country. A typical example is the Ennovate Lab, an innovation centre focused on social impact, innovation and education. It is an enterprise and innovation centre where creative minds meet to systematically develop and transform communities through technology, creativity, and social enterprise. It was established in November 2017 by Jesudamilare Adesagun-David, Chima Omike, Pelumi Igunnubole, and Ijeoma Nwawka Nkechinyelu. Ennovate Lab is an innovation centre that wants to foster innovation, initiatives, and success in undeserved communities where universities are not adequately provided for, starting from Ogbomoso, their host community. Simply put, Ennovate Lab is like a factory building and shaping individuals into products that are useful to society. Currently, the startup has over 140 team members and has donated over 1200 books to schools in Ogbomosho. 500 teens and adults have been impacted through their three innovation challenges. They have over 40 clients on qeola and 1750 clients have been trained on critical thinking and complex problem solving on cogneasy. Over 20 entrepreneurs were given advisory and mentorship services. The vision of what the startup stands for can be captured within three points: Innovation hub, startup Foundry, and Seed Fund.
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- Ennovate Lab as an innovation hub: They are committed to building strong innovation ecosystems in underserved university communities. What they essentially do is to plant ideas, sharpen existing creativity and nurture dreams of people who want to be game-changers, inventors, creators, etc to become leaders of the increasing technology-driven society. They equip these individuals in University underserved villages with knowledge of technology, critical thinking, and problem-solving to make an impact both on their lives and that of their society.
- Ennovate Lab as a startup foundry: Also known as a startup factory or a venture studio, it is a studio-like company that aims at building several companies in succession. The startup builds borderless solutions for communities by the community. It simply means that Ennovate Lab aims to build several companies from these underserved communities to provide solutions to their challenges as well as Nigeria in its entirety. Startups in their portfolio include Qeola, Cogneasy, Gradeplus Africa, Virtually, Trifold, GreenGirly, and Commugrid.
- Ennovate Lab as a seed: They plan to write cheques for promising startups in communities where they are. This means that ideas that can be developed to solve problems can be given an amount to fund the process of its setup. With their service Sendcloud which would soon commence, they plan to give community startups as much as $2500 to $10000 and are looking for partners to make it happen.
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