It seems that tech/business start-ups from Nigeria can now benefit from a Y-Combinator-like incubation programme created in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja. Well, it also seems that Abuja is gradually becoming Nigeria’s Silicon City.

Enspire is an incubation programme that creates a conducive (physical) environment whereby sustainable small businesses can be birthed. The programme, which also looks to support the creation of business entities out of the groups of individuals who graduate from the incubation, will equip you with the necessary skills (and pay a monthly allowance) to grow your entrepreneurial wings.

Last August, enspire incubated three ideas that included software engineering and web portal solution projects and was carried out over a six week period. It is believed that the experiences from last year’s pilot scheme have been incorporated into a more robust program that now delivers incubation programs across Information & Communications Technology (ICT), Agro Technology, Bio Technology, Mineral & Energy Technology.

Enspire’s main goal is to produce successful graduates, or businesses that are more financially viable and stable when they leave the incubator, usually in no more than two to three years. Their vision is that businesses incubated today should be at the forefront in developing new and innovative technologies, creating products and services that can enrich citizens’ lives and their communities.

Via: PhotoBucket.com

Will Enspire provide funding?

I’m not sure about that. Enspire describes “funding [as] an important part of any new business initiative, however there are other ingredients that make up a successful start up entreprise.”

However, “the enspire programme will take incubates through a carefully prepared programme of training and mentoring to ensure that when graduands leave the facility they have the pedigree to go out into the real world and compete for business.”

See their Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

So, if you are an entrepreneur and wish to enter the Enspire Incubation Program you must apply for admission here. The deadline is March 24, 2010.

Selection is made through a robust and transparent process that includes idea presentation, selection by panel of judges and formal acceptance documentation/contracts. If you also have skills in database designing, 3d animation, video editing etc this programme is for you.

My thoughts

I think this is a good step towards creating a healthy competitive environment for tech entrepreneurs from Nigeria. While the success of the programme is yet to be seen, it looks promising.

If managed well, the Enspire incubation programme would develop to become Nigeria’s Y-Combinator. Again, if greater attention is focused on developing Nigeria’s “Knowledge Economy” over the next 5 years, we will start seeing the development of new startup hubs around the country.

After all, Kenya recently launched iHub, described as “an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in the area…[and] “a tech community facility with a focus on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers and designers”, by Erik Hersman of WhiteAfrican.com

My hope is that in the next 5-10 years, we’ll be seeing the emergence of local innovative start-ups grow to become huge IT companies such as Google, Cisco, Microsoft and the rest of them.

Read the post: Five Key Factors to Creating Startup Hubs in Nigeria.

Today, I’m excitedly announcing the first edition of the Lagos [Startup Digest].

For some weeks now, I’ve been discussing with Chris McCann, co-founder  of Startup Digest, a weekly curated email list of the best startup and technology events in over 15 cities around the world.

Startup Digest started in Silicon Valley and in 15 weeks has already attracted over 15,000 subscribers and received endorsements from some  of the most high profile entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley – many of whom have encouraged us to expand the list to  Lagos, Nigeria because they believe that there is a massive amount of unrealized potential in the startup community here.

Here’s what it looks like:

I offered to curate the Lagos [Startup Digest] in order to share the knowledge of the best Lagos events for techies and entrepreneurs with others and to better understand the startup community here.

To subscribe to the Lagos [Startup Digest], visit TheStartupDigest.com and select Lagos [Startup Digest] on the list. If you know of other events, want to host your own event, or know people we should reach out to, please email me at loy [at] thestartupdigest.com

Even TechCrunch featured Startup Digest a few weeks ago, where they called it “a pretty smart idea” and it’s attracted folks like Guy Kawasaki and other Silicon Valley heavyweights to subscribe to the list as well.

Update: The TechCrunch article about StartupDigest above has been removed due to a breach of trust by the former TC writer, Daniel Brusilovsky. This is a Google’s cache of the article.

At a time when some states in Nigeria like Lagos and Ogun have set the ambitious goal to achieve a mega city status, one wonders if a silicon city is in their master plans.

By Silicon City, I mean a place for growing and nuturing start-ups. Simply put, a start-up hub. While I’ve suggested quite a few places in Nigeria that can be developed to encourage start-ups, entrepreneurs and investors to move to, I didn’t consider Ilorin, Kwara State until now.

In a video posted on YouTube, a new proposed commercial project called Asa Dam Muliti-purpose Center is being embarked upon by the Kwara State Government, which if managed well, could make Ilorin a potential start-up hub to watch.

Vop Osili, an Architect and Founding Partner and Principal, A2SO4, who visited the site in 2007, described it thus:

The Asa Dam project is a massive undertaking that will result in a tourist center unlike anything that has ever existed in that part of the world. It includes a large amusement park, three hotels, a conference center, a mall, gardens, and a sprawling golf course.

Also included in the plans is an international school, which will give Nigerian children the chance to experience high-quality education for the first time. The project will cover almost 1,000 acres and seeks to elevate the Asa Dam area’s prominence, both nationally and internationally.

It is also an environmentally-conscious project that will preserve the ecosystem and biodiversity of the area. The goal is to bring new investment to Nigeria and new pride to a nation of people.

What about Electricity?

According to an article in Trade Invest Nigeria,

Due to the recent completion of the Ganmo sub-station, Ilorin currently enjoys very close to 24 hours a day of uninterrupted power supply. In fact, many business owners are delighted by the fact that they have to make very little use of generators.

If this is true, I guess we can start picturing a city such as Ilorin becoming a great start-up hub. Whether this would become a reality or not, I don’t know. But I think it could very well compete with Silicon Cape which is gradually bringing people together to create Africa’s largest start-up hub in Capetown, South Africa.

Perhaps, the Silicon City Nigeria social network created by Kayode Adebayo via the Ning platform could spark up discussions on creating an ideal start-up hub in Nigeria.

Until then, a silicon city in Nigeria might just be a dream.

Photo via: Tourism ROI