Exploring the Next Phase of Growth for Africa’s Tech Ecosystem

SB Fellows at the University of Ibadan

It’s been 3 months already and it’s been an amazing experience negotiating a hypothesis focused on how the conversation about exploring the next phase of Africa’s growth potential should be explored. There is no better time to re-address this conversation, following the speed, scope, and nature of change shaping the narrative of how progress and prosperity would be defined, as today unfolds to the future.

The last decade exposed us to the need for deliberate action towards Africa’s participation in the global economy and the need for its youth to participate in “the defining decade” of Africa’s destiny.

SHAPING THE NARRATIVE

In response to this clarion call for deliberate action towards defining Africa’s destiny, we were inspired to question the existing mechanisms for developing the next generation of talents required to meet Africa’s growth demands through its youth. We concluded that the path to defining a hypothesis that works begins with asking the right questions. We thought to answer:

1. How can we create a sustainable solution to talent development in Africa that can be competitive, youth-centered and, lucrative while fostering multi-stakeholder relationships across the education value chain in Africa amidst its unique challenges?
2. How can we create an enabling environment for young people to explore their own potential instead of being handed the scripts on how it’s currently being done.
3. How can we equip students to match the speed, scope and nature of change?
4. How can we fix the major learning problem of confidence rather than skill, as young people explore their dreams as a contribution to their future?

Exploring the need to develop a hypothesis, we arrived at the following insights:

• We need to develop a solution that is capacity-driven instead of skill-driven if we are going to be competitive.
• We need to create a solution that is human-centered instead of market-driven because when the dynamism of human potential mixes with the dynamism of market forces, it would be like a movie relay of Tiananmen square i.e it needs to be audacious enough to create enough socio-economic value that would drive its own market.
• It needs to be innovative instead of inventive, i.e it needs to build itself from existing models, resources and infrastructure that work but also venture into a segment that is unexplored. (Taking a journey from the known to the unknown)
• The solution we develop has to equip its participants with the necessary tools, resources and exposure needed to excite their enthusiasm to create global solutions to their local problems.
• It has to appeal to business principles of creating something that people want whilst making a profit from generating revenue.

From these insights, we thought to initiate a project to explore the hypothesis that “talent development in Africa can be best explored if we create an enabling environment for capacity development of young people beyond the acquisition of skills for the future of work”. This gave birth to StudentBuild.

WHAT IS STUDENTBUILD?

StudentBuild bridges the student community and the technology ecosystem in Africa with a strong belief that brilliance is everywhere, and a focus on capacity development as a tool for talent development.

The fundamental philosophy is to create an environment that transforms Africa’s human resources into Human Capital.

Where are we with the hypothesis

To test our hypothesis, we designed and initiated a program called the StudentBuild Incubator (mostly called SB Incubator) where we recruit the most ambitious and growth-minded undergraduates to help them become entrepreneurial talents, resourceful to the African ecosystem through mentorship and apprenticeship in basic career attributes and technology competencies.

We hosted a cohort of 120 students selected through a proprietary selection system that granted us access to the 20% talent pool in different universities across Nigeria.

The program includes 11 industry-savvy professionals acting as mentors and 10 Facilitators driving the mission, a progressive team and an enthusiastic cohort of 120 bright minds from across Nigeria exchanging and interfacing with the realities of change.

January was the first program milestone we achieved with 120 students engaging the pedagogy of the Science of Happiness, facilitated by Chidi Nwaogu, the founder of Publiseer.

We asked all the students currently in the program about how the SB Incubator has made them better, here are just three of all the awesome testimonials;

I have an increased level of self-awareness. SB has put a structure on my personal development. I’ve also learned to take more bold and giant steps especially towards my career.

Ayobami Marcus Olasupo, 500L Elect/Elect, University of Ibadan

I’ve been a better person through the program because it has made me sort of accountable to people, and made me focused. I also find myself looking out for my team members, so I believe my teamwork skills are being sharpened.

Anesi Gabriella Igebu, 500L Computer Engineering, Covenant University

SB has made me better in different ways but one that has really helped me was the AMA session with my mentor. He answered a lot of life questions I have had in my head for a long time and it has helped me in making certain decisions

Tobiloba Oni, 400L Microbiology, Obafemi Awolowo University

SB Fellows L-R Habeeb, Odunayo & Modupe sharing ideas

In February, we are working to achieve the next milestone of engaging the participants with the pedagogy of critical thinking and problem solving with Chinemelu Ezeh, Senior Robotics Engineer at Hyster-Yale and Jesudamilare Adesegun-David, the CEO of Ennovate Lab.

While all these are going on, we are already leveraging technology to optimize our processes for scale and more efficiency. We should be releasing the first MVP of our product by April this year. In the meantime, you can follow us on our social channels — Twitter, Instagram, Medium and LinkedIn.