The Destination is the Improvement of Our Society. (P2)
The Destination is the Improvement of Our Society. (P2)
Nigeria remains one of the world's most fragile nations. Local innovation ecosystem leaders are working hard to help researchers and entrepreneurs overcomes the odds.
TGB: What you have described sounds full of potential.
AGI: Even before I was appointed to this position and was teaching communication engineering, I loved the students because I could see their potential. I have seen examples worldwide of people overcoming the odds and I want that to take place here. We have to open our eyes and see needs around us and then create solutions for them.
TGB: When you get to the office each morning there must be things that worry you, that are sources of concern. What are those things?
AGI: The first thing that I think about when I get to the office is funding, how do we get enough funding. Funding is a major challenge with all that we need to do. What’s needed is true industry support but sometimes industry looks outside the country because they prefer to depend on foreign technologies. This is one of the main factors that affects the ITMO.
We know the U.S. is a leader in innovation and one of their core ecosystem advantages they have is private sector funding. If we could replicate this aspect of innovation ecosystems into Nigeria that would be good. Our location is an advantage for building relationships with the private sector, gradually we are getting there.
Funding is such an issue that some staff began to strike, starting in February 2022. So, relying on government funding is hard to do; we need the support of the private sector. Our view is that there needs to be a more robust UNILAG-private sector partnership, one built on trust. For example, I did my post-doctoral work in Germany and it was a normal thing for private sector companies to approach us, to trust us there. But we don’t have that here yet.
TGB: It feels like ITMO is your startup, it has the same energy with the need to build trust and find early partners. And it sounds like things are going well – what other things would you like to see in order for there to be even greater success?
AGI: Better policies around funding, and also in the form of incentives and tax breaks. We need more support for local solutions and local talents. If we could ease the bureaucracy, reduce regulatory and informal obstacles- and provide more incentives-that would help. Reducing customs duties is a good example, there was a time when I had to pay the import duties on important lab equipment. While there is a vote to have that sort of duty waived, it is this sort of thing that affects our ability to get work done, and all of it ties to funding policies.
Further, much of our non-governmental funding comes from out of the country. It’s there for early stage innovations but not for the typical startup’s various stages of business. Many early stage businesses show little no profit; when there is too little investment capital people give up and the startups collapse.
From what we know, Nigerian startups have a lifespan of about three years. They start off very well but then run out of the capital required to grow the business, improve products, increase production. We need more early stage investment capital, from the seed financing and beyond so these challenges can be solved.
The banks don’t seem to be responding to this need either. Most entrepreneurs are young, they don’t have assets against which the banks will lend. And this leads to entrepreneurs seeking alternatives: I have a friend who went to Germany where they waived costs and made it easy for him to get the loan he needed to get underway.
A further means of encouraging innovation is investment in infrastructure, installing more innovation hubs across the country. We have an advantage given our location in Lagos – what private sector business there is, is more likely to come to us. But regionally few universities have structures in place to properly support innovation. We need more spaces to innovate in our two major cities, Lagos and Abuja. . We also need infrastructure for electricity. It’s not news that electricity is not consistently available in the country.
We need more widely available broadband, and while it is true the government is trying to encourage the expansion of broadband infrastructure, many operators are reluctant to build it out due to cost concerns.
When you add it all up, imagine the number of funding stories like ours there would be if the right infrastructure was available across the country.
We want to improve society. We don’t just want to innovate for staff and students, we want innovations to help everyone. Often that means trying to provide free solutions, anyone with an ID can usually try or have access to our innovations because that is consistent with our mission and the needs of a developing nation. But that usually creates its own challenges in terms of sustainability, so that is usually the challenge.
TGB: I see that Nigeria is listed among the Top 50 most fragile states in the world, so I understand where you’re coming from.
AGI: Yes, the fact that Nigeria is developing is affecting us in so many ways. As new innovations emerge things like trust can be an issue, there are concerns about preventing competition with other innovators worldwide. There are challenges of housing and transportation – like most cities most of our students live very far away from campus (Lagos population is nearly 16 million people) so there are time costs involved and while we have power 24/7 on campus this is not always the case elsewhere in the city.
When I was studying in Germany, I was living in Dusseldorf and commuting to Ruhr-Universität Bochum. By train it was only an hour – fast and easy. In Lagos and in Nigeria commuting isn’t as easy, so this is another issue.
TGB: There is a tension between the desire to make rapid societal progress – governments usually have every incentive to make citizens’ lives better – but that can sometimes mean locating technologies and skillsets offshore. Local skills and talents don’t get the chance to develop.
AGI: There is some movement to support local development but it’s not enough.