Business Times Africa Magazine 2017 /vol 9/ No2 BT2Edition2017_web | Page 69

"YABACON VALLEY"
YABA WILL
BE A LOST
OPPORTUNITY IF
WE USE OUR OWN
NARRATIVE TO
KILL IT.
“Both companies left because
they needed bigger spaces,” Tijani
tells Quartz. “Like any cluster, you
need infrastructure and Yaba needs
investment in big enough, befitting
structures.” For smaller startups, Ti-
jani says the real estate infrastructure
problem isn’t one to worry about yet
and argues that Yaba remains the
“best cluster for tech companies” be-
cause of factors such as its location in
central Lagos and its proximity to tal-
ent hubs like Yaba College of Technol-
ogy and University of Lagos. As such,
he considers talk of Yaba’s demise
premature. “Yaba will be a lost oppor-
tunity if we use our own narrative to
kill it,” Tijani says.
Thinking long-term
To solve the infrastructure prob-
lem, CcHUB is planning a $8 million
innovation center in Yaba which Ti-
jani says will be operational by 2020.
The 10-story building will serve as
CcHUB’s new location while also
providing other startups in the clus-
ter with office space for lease. Addi-
tionally, Tijani hopes the innovation
center will provide enough space to
host large tech events and conferenc-
es—another pressing need.
The planned innovation center is
the latest bold step CcHUB has tak-
en in growing the Yaba ecosystem.
Since it was founded in 2011, the hub
has proven crucial to the growth of
several successful startups including
BudgIT, a civic enterprise focused on
government accountability, WeCy-
clers, a waste recycling start-up and
LifeBank, a health start-up focused on
improving access to and transporta-
tion of blood. Over time, CcHUB has
gradually evolved into an accelerator
funding startups in exchange for eq-
uity.
In December 2015, to mark its fifth
anniversary, it announced a $5 mil-
lion social innovation fund focused
on social tech ventures hacking local
solutions to pressing problems. But
while it is bound to impact startups
directly, the hope, Tijani tells Quartz,
is that CcHUB’s Innovation Center
will inspire more expensive real-es-
tate bets in Yaba and help other inves-
tors realise “there’s an opportunity