nHub Nigeria, the pioneer tech and innovation hub in Northern Nigeria has appointed Bashir Sheidu as its Chief Operations Officer (COO), to oversee operations at nHub Nigeria and nHub Foundation.
Mr Sheidu who was previously the Executive Director of nHub Foundation, a non-profit arm of the innovation hub will be succeeded Eric Nanle, the former Financial Officer of the Foundation.
Bashir Sheidu told CRESTHUB that, his appointment is aimed at “building back nHub Nigeria which has been struggling in the areas of capacity building, outdated models, business strategies and financial stability”.
In recent times, the once vibrant nHub has come after several criticism especially from social media commentators. Some have referred to it as a “computer centre” while others have called it an “event centre”.
“We have been struggling especially in areas of capacity building, outdated models and business strategies and financial stability – the chairman and the board of directors saw it fit for me to vacate the position of the executive director to become the operating officer of both nHub Nigeria and Foundation”, Sheidu said.
He started as a social media manager at nHub Nigeria, Community Manager and then became the Executive Director of nHub Foundation in 2019.
Drawing from his previous experience, the new COO stated that he will implement policies that will return nHub to its true position in the value chain of the tech ecosystem in Northern Nigeria.
He added that one of the secrets of running a successful company was having the right team, a well plotted structure and a perfect strategy which he had built over time and is serving as a fair advantage, hence, there wouldn’t be much challenges in his office as the calibre of talents are proven effective and efficient.
Build Back Better
“The slogan for my administration is to Build Back BETTER which I believe all the key staff in both organisation are already keying in. We will be upgrading some positions especially in training, incubation, partnerships and business segments”, he said.
He added that more trainings will be introduced and most of the services will be improved as programmes will be introduced and more emerging technologies will also be introduced, hence, staff without perquisites expertise will giving opportunity to upskill or will be let go.
“nHub is bigger than everyone of us and we need to take her to her former glory. We already looking at other talents just incase we don’t get the response from our current team in nHub Nigeria but we intend to give opportunity to them”, Sheidu said.
Speaking on the services that’d be introduced, Sheidu said that they would be the training models, customer relations, product development, proper feedback mechanisms, accountability and transparency, customer retention and acquisition strategies.
Reminiscing on his days serving as the Executive Director of nHub Foundation, he highlighted the big wins such as the registration of the organization, implementing of PlaceHer, an initiative that trains young ladies on various tech skills.
nHub Foundation in its uniqueness serves as one of the nonprofit organizations in Northern Nigeria. It served as the birth place for nHub Nigeria, serving as a drive for social impact to help fasten digital inclusion and literacy in rural area modelled around the digital economy policies of the federal government of Nigeria.
