This platform wants to tackle issues Nigeria’s hardware makers are facing

With the increase of internet access and broadband adoption, developers and makers in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem have found it much easier to develop software solutions across various strata of Nigerian society.

For the hardware community, the story is not as rosy and that is what Hardware Lagos hopes to fix.

The quarterly event aims to bring entrepreneurs, students, makers and other stakeholders interested in the hardware space, together to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with developing hardware solutions in Nigeria.

Over the past year (the first edition was in April 2016), the platform has grown a community which includes founders of Nigerian hardware companies, electronic component distributors and young graduates building different solutions.

Speaking to Pulse Tech on the motivations behind the platform, Chuma Asuzu, founder of Involute (a 3D printing service) and convener of the Hardware Lagos events says, “Hardware is hard, but developing hardware solutions in Nigeria are even harder due to the lack of infrastructure. I have experienced this first hand starting Involute as a 3D printing service and FlowByte as an ioT solution.”

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Asuzu also says Hardware Lagos, as the only hardware-focused meetup event in Nigeria, is constantly looking for ways it can build a community in Nigeria, particularly by reaching out to more hardware entrepreneurs working independently and facing similar concerns.

“Our meetups are centered around a certain topic each time, with three people speaking on topics they have experience in. We hope to be a constant source of knowledge in the space as well as build partnerships that reduce the challenges faced by hardware entrepreneurs,” he says.

And the platform is making good progress too. They already have co-working space Capital Square as sponsors (they hold the meetups at Capital Square’s space in Ikoyi, Lagos) and the next meetup (happening August 19, 2017) will feature a design challenge in partnership with VR building platform, Imisi3D.

While the rest of the Nigerian tech ecosystem is caught up in the software bubble, Hardware Lagos is attempting to build up the other side of the tech divide.

It’s hard not to get behind that.