In this edition of Innovation Support Network (ISN) hubs featuring innovation centers in Nigeria, we made a call at Hub Aspire located at Victoria Island in Lagos.
Established in 2018 by Monisola Akiyemi, Co-founder/CEO) and Ayodeji Akinyemi, Co-founder/Executive Director, Hub Aspire is an initiative of Elaine David Company, one of the pioneers of flexible workspace solutions in Nigeria which opened in June 2012 with today’s Nigerian E-commerce titan, Jumia as it’s first client.
According to its website, the hub provides an ecosystem that stimulates personal and corporate growth through the provision of virtual offices, co-working spaces, private rooms, meeting and training facilities and business support services all within a community of like-minded forward-thinking people.
As explained by Monisola, the purpose of creating the hub was to help businesses succeed by providing them with bespoke, convenient and cash flow-friendly ways to set up and run their offices.
Entrepreneurship and innovation
On how hubs, foster innovation/entrepreneurship for their local community, Monisola explained that innovation centers provide an environment that stimulates creativity, which is a precursor to innovation. They also provide a stimulus for business and socio-economic growth.
Considering Nigeria’s sheer potential of her young, vibrant population compared to the increasing average age of the population in most developed countries; Nigeria’s huge young population should be an asset in today’s world, however, it’s a despairing case due to large-scale unemployment this asset is going to waste. Furthermore, there is an entrepreneurial spirit in the average Nigerian that desires to make an impact in society.
According to her, a major problem entrepreneurs in Nigeria encounter include a general lack of quality and affordable infrastructure such as electricity, high-speed internet, the cost/flexibility of payment for office space (most landlords ask for annual rent rather than monthly) which makes it difficult for business ideas to blossom into high flying startups and also makes the cost of doing business so high that startups and mature companies struggle to stay in business.
“Hub Aspire is positioned to significantly alleviate these barriers to entry by providing a business ecosystem that solves the aforementioned problems through the creation of a conducive environment for solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses to be nurtured and ultimately flourish at affordable rates.”, Monisola noted
On improving Nigeria’s technology, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems there is potential for a thriving tech ecosystem to have a positive impact on conomic development, through job creation resulting from entrepreneur empowerment and SME growth. “Capacity building programs, knowledge sharing and training can also foster the tech, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems.”, she added
Challenges and milestone
As explained by Monisola, spiraling overheads such as daily running costs, unstable power in the country leads to unpredictable service costs because diesel costs for the generator can fluctuate as well, in addition to a hike in landlord rental fees.
In all these, Hub Aspire’s first clients when it opened its doors in June 2012 were a new Tech startup called Jumia with less than 30 employees, and today Jumia has become Nigeria’s Amazon, employing over 1,000 staff and processing thousands of transactions per day.
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