Back Story
December 2021, nHub Nigeria
The pioneer tech and innovation hub in Northern Nigeria, nHub appointed Bashir Sheidu as its Chief Operations Officer (COO), to oversee operations at nHub Nigeria and nHub Foundation.
Soon after Sheidu, in an interview with CRESTHUB said that the campaign slogan for his administration was the “Build back better” strategy.
This strategy, he explained, would see to the upgrading of key positions in the areas of training, incubation, partnerships and business segments.
He added that the hub would provide added services such as training models, customer relations, product development, proper feedback mechanisms, accountability and transparency, customer retention and acquisition strategies.
Present Day
It’s been 7 months since this declaration was made but the question still remains, has nHub been built back better to its former glory? Has there been an upgrade in its areas of training, incubation, partnerships and business segments?
What is nHub?
nHub was founded in 2015 by Kwopnan Mclean and David Daser (current DG Plateau State Information And Communication Development Agency). The hub was built to empower entrepreneurs on their journey to build great ideas out of little or nothing.
Between 2015-2018, the hub had offered training sessions; one of which was the Code Plateau Bootcamp amongst others.
Although the hub was vibrant in its activities, it now seems to have lost its touch prompting criticisms from members of the public; who referred to it as a “computer centre” while others have called it an “event centre”.
The nHub Build Back Better Strategy
In CRESTHUB’s bimonthly Twitter space chat titled #CrestHubChats, Sheidu explained the build back better strategy by highlighting the following:
- Restructuring of the services in terms of services about the co-working space: The co-working space which was a revenue stream had suffered a lot. Also, certain staff of the hub were replaced to build a vibrant team.
- Technology strategies used in its training: This has expedised the training programs. These technologies have reduced the time frame, for instance, Pandora’s box training towards becoming front end developers is now three (3) months.
- A vibrant and sustainable incubation program: This would introduce digital social innovators (DSIs) for founders.
- Provision of qualitative developers to bring about the solutions, which would bring about nHub’s incubation programs that would in the nearest future house startups. Also, according to Sheidu, the hub would soon launch 4 startups – 3 in agrotech and 1 in healthtech.
- Restoration of partnership and collaborations with ex partners to boost the growth of not just the hub but also, the ecosystem. Building a sustainable community in the city of Jos: this is leveraging on the past community development and growth, such as the partnership with Data Science Nigeria (DSN) which brought about the first artificial intelligence (AI) in 2019 in the hub.
Challenges around the Build Back Better Strategy
VR/AR Lab
Under Sheidu’s administration, the hub has launched the Virtual Reality (VR) lab. This lab, in sync with the inclusion and development of the Metaverse is an applaudable one but has in the recent months faced challenges. One of the challenges that has sprung up includes the absence of high-tech computers to aid in the actualisation of a working VR/AR lab.
Moving Forward
In actualising this strategy, nHub is tapping into building a community around its mentioned areas of restructuring; this would involve programs around various sectors such as the data science league, VR/AR lab amongst others.
Sheidu assured CRESTHUB and its community of listeners/readers that in no distant time, there’d be proof to his background work.
