Nigeria's biggest social incubator wants to link foreign capacity with local development

folarin okunola

May 9, 2017 8:37 AM

Facebook’s offices in central London played host for the launch of CcHub's venture to engage entrepreneurs, innovator and scientists from African communities in the UK.

Femi Longe and Bosun Tijani of CcHub on stage at the Diaspora Challenge launch in London.

CcHub’s Diaspora Challenge, an international project that will engage entrepreneurs, innovator and scientists from African communities in the UK and source scalable business solutions to social challenges in Africa, has launched.

Facebook’s offices in central London played host for the launch which saw keynote addresses from CcHub CEO and Co-founder Bosun Tijani and Dr. Nelson Ogunshakin.

Boko Inyundo, Rachel Jenkins, Iyin Aboyeji, Alae Ismail and Ike Anya were also present at the launch to talk about the challenges of connecting African professionals in the Diaspora with improved development on the continent.

Facebook’s Head of Platform Partnerships for the Middle East and Africa, Emeka Afigbo, was present on behalf of the social media giant along with legendary producer cum artiste Cobhams Asuquo who provided the days' entertainment.

This launch kickstarts a UK-wide search for early-stage ventures that are focused on either financial technology, energy or education. A statement from CcHub says, “a panel of esteemed judges made up of academics, industry experts and investors will select two ventures,” from each of the aforementioned sectors.

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Selected ventures will receive $15,000 in funding from CcHub as well as incubation for nine months while “are able to demonstrate sustainability and innovation are then each able to access a further $250,000 seed investment” from Growth Capital.

“We have long wanted to build stronger tech community connections between the UK and Africa in order to increase Diaspora community involvement. CcHub is a social innovation hub — we innovate and build to address social problems, and we want to facilitate development-focused dialogues and attract the best talent to help us in our mission. The CcHub Diaspora Challenge is the starting pistol to engaging, mentoring, incubating and investing in Africans in the UK who can help ‘build Africa’ alongside us,” says Bosun Tijani.

From a business perspective (and I don’t claim to know much), it seems like a smart move from CcHub. Regulations and crappy Ease of Business practices just makes Nigeria a very hard place to do business in.

But if you have a venture that is incorporated outside Nigeria (the UK in this case) starting out in a business-friendly climate that will also contribute [via its own innovation and your guidance] to providing some much needed access (on both sides - Nigeria/UK) to solutions that solve local, immediate problems here in Nigeria— that puts you in a very strong position.

Shall we?

folarin okunola