‘Bosun Tijani is Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer of CCHUB Nigeria Limited, an organisation which prides itself as a social enterprise. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, Teejay as the suave and gentlemanly upwardly mobile executive is fondly called, speaks on the prospects and challenges of running a social enterprise
What informed the whole idea of CCHUB Nigeria?
CcHUB was founded to provide a platform for identifying and supporting smart Nigerians to build the future we collectively desire using technology. We strongly believe in the unprecedented opportunities presented to us by technology to leapfrog social and economic development in Nigeria.
The CcHUB – the dream of two naïve but determined young lads gave birth to Nigeria’s first innovation hub exactly five years ago today.
With a deep sense of responsibility, we took on the challenge of building a platform capable of spotting and supporting smart Nigerians to build the future we collectively desire. Albeit our experience of working in social innovation and innovation consulting respectively, Femi Longe and I set out on the journey knowing we were betting against odds in an attempt to create something. That ‘something’ was to simply build a ‘movement’, a renewed social fabric for enabling creativity despite the countless barriers to it in Nigeria.
Our fascination and excitement for technology innovation and social capital was largely disconnected from the start-up movement sweeping the world at the point. While we drew inspiration from the work being done by many innovation hubs across the world, we were adamant on our goal of creating a movement around addressing social issues in Nigeria with technology. Our motivation hinged on the single fact that Nigerians are aspirational and as such desire better – the future without doubt belongs to entrepreneurs who are able to address social challenges in commercially sustainable ways.
To achieve our objective, we would be required to work with start-ups, enable civil society organisations and ultimately inspire PPPs that will strengthen our ability to support innovation as a nation. Without doubt, we have managed to do a lot of good while being commercially viable. Yes, we are one of the few financially sustainable innovation hubs in Africa.
I have been incredibly lucky to work with some exceptional and deeply committed young Nigerians to whom I owe a lot of gratitude. We have collectively created an incredible platform that is about to unleash our talent further and empower us to support the amazing community that we serve.
As we look ahead into a future with promises, I look back at the catalytic role played by Indigo Trust, Omidyar Network and MainOne Cable Company with a heart full of appreciation. These are three unique organisations that took a bet on us even when we had no business plan. Without your investment, there won’t be CcHUB.
Our commitments for the next five years will again be on working with a handful of new and established organisations to deepen the innovation ecosystem in Nigeria. We’ll seek to create ways to develop talent, fund both early and growth stage businesses and accelerate the development of smart infrastructure for economic prosperity in Nigeria.
Is this place modeled after any company in Nigeria or elsewhere?
CcHUB is similar in some sense to many innovation hubs across the world though our fascination and excitement for technology innovation and social capital was largely disconnected from the start-up movement sweeping the world at the time we launched. While drew inspiration from the work being done by many innovation hubs across the world, we were adamant on our goal of creating a movement around addressing social issues in Nigeria with technology. Our motivation was hinged on the single fact that Nigerians are aspirational and as such desire better – the future without doubt thus belongs to entrepreneurs who are able to address social challenges in commercially sustainable ways.
Is CCHUB Nigeria run like some academy of sorts or it’s just like your typical workstation where people just come and set up shop?
CcHUB is neither an academy nor a workstation. We are an innovation centre that supports start-ups, civil society organisations and in addition work with partners (private and public) to find sustainable ways of making technology work for Nigeria. Our five-floor facility includes a co-working space for freelancers, an incubation centre for start-ups, a mobile experience lab and a space for kids between the ages of five-18 to learn computing. CcHUB also serve as a meeting and event space for technology businesses and gatherings.
Is CChub Nigeria only for the IT savvy or just anybody interested in building stuffs regardless of their expertise?
Our focus is on applying technology in smart ways for economic prosperity. We as such work with both technologists and every Nigerian with fantastic ideas on how our mandate can be accomplished for the common good of the nation.
We also run programmes aimed at engaging technologists and non-technologists to collaborate in building relevant and sustainable solutions to challenges faced by the average Nigerian.
What modus operandi do you adopt?
We are a social enterprise.
Which organisation do you benchmark your standards with?
Our mandate is quite unique to Nigeria though we draw a lot of inspiration from NESTA (UK).
How many SMEs have you empowered since you set up shop?
We have supported over 60% ventures at different stages since inception. Our support ranges from Pre-incubation (idea stage) to incubation (early/growth stage) and non-portfolio related support through our Mobile Experience Lab and Market Intelligence Services and Investment Unit (Growth Capital by CcHUB).
Who pays for what?
We started with a grant from the Sainsbury Family Trust, Omidyar Network and MainOne Cable Company (in-kind). Our activities are now fully funded from commercial services and project implementation support services.
Are your motives completely mercantile or purely altruistic?
We are a social enterprise hence our goal is to provide leadership and support for how technology is harnessed for the benefit of Nigeria. This we do as a business and through sustainable means.
What are the infrastructure gaps you have had to contend with thus far and how have you been able to get around them?
The major one being the quality of Internet – which led us to playing the leadership role in the development of the technology cluster in Yaba. In conjunction with TechnoVision, Mainone Cable Company and Lagos State Government, the fibre optic cable in Yaba and part of Somolu area was installed thereby opening up the area for business. The initiative not only improved the quality of internet available to our innovation centre but also opened up Yaba to many other technology businesses. The number of technology businesses in the area moved from six– to about 60 in the two years following the installment of the cable.
In addition to Internet, follow-on funding for start-ups beyond very early stage is still a challenge in Nigeria. To address this problem, CcHUB in conjunction with the Bank of Industry, Venture Garden Group and Omidyar Network launched “Growth Capital by CcHUB” with an initial N1billion fund aimed at funding ventures who are building smart infrastructure or enabling old and new infrastructure in Nigeria to be more accessible.
CcHUB growth capital is bullish about the potential for technology to be applied smartly to connect different public infrastructure to each other for the sole purpose of making them more accessible to the populace. We will commit N1billion over the next 24 months to catalyse its development.
We consider ourselves Nigeria’s first social innovation fund aimed at creating an unprecedented path to scale for outliers driving social change in Nigeria. As such, we want to support high potential, early stage businesses building our next generation infrastructure using technology.
Our participating investors bring their experience, resources and networks together to work for our investees to catalyse their path to growth.
What are the set criteria’s required before you can sign any prospect on board?
Since 2011, CcHUB has supported the growth of a community passionate about the role of technology in transforming Nigeria. We have seen from experience that there are lots of people and organizations interested in the application of technology to solve local problems and our goal is to continue to unearth such individuals/companies and to support them to bring their ideas/products to life.
We start by identifying talented individuals/teams who have ideas and support the development of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to solve real local market problems/issues. To date, over 50 ideas have enjoyed support through our Pre-Incubation program prominent of which are BudgIT, WeCyclers, Truppr, Traclist, Genii games, Vacantboards, Jobs In Nigeria, 500 shops, Efiko, Nigerian Constitution app, NaijaTeenz, Open apps, Church+. The programme provides idea proponents/teams with mentoring, pre-seed funding, project planning, usability testing and customer validation for their solutions.
Once the solutions start gaining traction and start monetising, such teams ‘graduate’ to our Incubation programme where they receive mentoring, business development, administrative and funding support to test their models and focus on execution. As at October 2015, there are nine startups in our incubation program i.e. Vacantboards, Truppr, Autobox, Mamalette, Grit Systems, GoMyWay, Genii games, Wecyclers and Efiko who are beneficiaries of our seed investment program receiving between $10,000 and $25,000 per startup. We have also ‘graduated’ two startups i.e. BudgIT and Traclist.
As to how you fit in, you have to be able to provide answers these questions: Do you have an innovative idea (leveraging web or mobile) that solves a problem/issue that affects a large number of people first in Nigeria and beyond?
Does the idea improve on an existing process/solution or is it completely new i.e. hasn’t been done locally?
Have you taken time to research the problem/issue and have a clear picture of the target segment it affects?
Do you have the skills to build a prototype of the solution? (or have access to technical skills)
Are you prepared to spend the next three –six months building the solution and going out to understand your potential users?
After answering these questions you can then apply for pre-incubation accordingly.