GOVERNANCE | POLICY
Minister Tijani’s Tinapa Moonshot: A Viable Tech Hub or A Bridge Too Far?
Tinapa Free Zone and Resort was once a bold vision for economic transformation. Today, it sits as a question mark in Nigeria’s development narrative: a reminder of what could have been and, perhaps, what could still be.
Tinapa received the spotlight in October 2023, when Minister Tijani visited the place he called close to his heart. However, to understand his vision for Tinapa, we must first examine Yaba — Nigeria’s first attempted tech cluster and a crucial chapter in Minister Tijani’s ecosystem-building journey.
The Yaba Legacy
Minister Tijani, CEO of CcHub until his appointment has always been a big advocate of talent, innovation and ecosystems. CcHub’s position as the root of today’s techosystem tree is hard to dispute as Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey went to pay homage there when they visited Nigeria.
He has long advocated for technology clusters. In one interview, he uses clusters like Shomolu for printing and Computer Village for gadgets as examples that back his push for a tech startup cluster in Nigeria. Yaba, CcHub’s home was the chosen one.
CcHub’s place in the early days of Yaba highlights Minister Tijani’s prominence in building today’s startup ecosystem. He cofounded CcHub and the company chose Yaba in 2011 for its office. Soon Yaba’s place as the technology cluster earned it the heavily criticized name: Yabacon Valley.
By 2017, the suitability of Yaba as the tech cluster for Nigeria began facing increasing scrutiny, particularly after Andela and Konga moved to Ikoyi and Ikeja respectively. While proponents like Minister Tijani and Mark Essien argued in favour of Yaba being the model cluster, others like Oo Nwoye disputed it.
Oo Nwoye’s article is very impressive. You should give it a read
In the same year, the Yaba Manifesto was born with seven pillars, led by a volunteer; culture, funding, talent, infrastructure, policy, smart city, and research & development. The government of Lagos in 2018 announced KITE, its ICT cluster project in Yaba to sit on a 30,000 sqm in 2018, a nod to Yaba. But, there’s hardly any indication that it has taken off.
The Yaba Manifesto failed to materialize but Yaba did not fail. Its proponents had lofty goals, typical of ambitious people, but like Oo rightly argued, when compared to Silicon Valley, it is a tiny place. It was never going to be able to house a rapidly growing tech cluster and become the model tech city they envisioned. They wanted to convert Yaba, an originally residential district into their Silicon Valley. Mark Essien appears to have repented of his Yaba purism.
The expectations placed on Yaba exceeded what it could reasonably achieve. It still has a good cluster of startups like LifeBank, Risevest, Kuda, and Paga. While Ikeja’s Computer Village is the gadgets cluster in Nigeria, there are more clusters in Lagos and around Nigeria. This is the current state of startups in Nigeria, but Yaba’s prominence is weaker than Computer Village’s. With the government of Lagos planning to relocate Computer Village, it may be good that Yaba did not become choked with startups.
Besides, a cluster does not mean everyone is in the same building or street.
While Yaba drew its inspiration from Silicon Valley’s organic growth model, European tech hubs offer a different template — one that might be more relevant to Tinapa’s potential transformation.
The European Model
In 2017, CcHub embarked on a Pitch Drive across Europe, visiting Station F, Google’s Paris office and B. Amsterdam amongst others. At Station F, Minister Tijani said he wished he could bring the President and the minister to see the place.
Bosun Tijani is now the minister.
Station F was previously an abandoned railway freight terminal and sits on an area of over 50,000 sqm. Opened in 2017, it houses America’s big tech companies and runs over 30 startup programs annually. It has 3,000 workstations, five kitchens, two event spaces, an auditorium, a chill zone that can accommodate about 1,000 people and a co-living space near the property with about 600 rooms and 100 apartments strictly for people who work within the campus.
B. Amsterdam was IBM’s old property and has a total of 64,000 sqm after adding two buildings to the old IBM headquarters. B. Amsterdam is Europe’s largest startup facility having 10 lounges, 12 indoor padel courts, 44 event spaces, a food market, a gym, a startup school and storage spaces for e-commerce transshipment. It has earned its identity as ‘a city within a building’.
Station F is an incubator-leaning startup-first location, while B. Amsterdam is best described as a tech business community. But, they share many similarities. They are tech campuses as opposed to organic clusters, created by converting old buildings and harnessing community on a scale that clusters will struggle to match. Both are home to a mix of companies — Station F has some public sector occupants — and are owned by private entities. A French billionaire founded Station F and three founders created B. Amsterdam.
“With the volume of startups we have, any problem they have, there’s someone sitting 5 feet away from them that has encountered the exact same problem and they can help.”
— Kitty Knowles, “Station F Is The World’s Biggest Startup Incubator, Can It Become The Best” [Forbes]
There have been other attempts at similar ecosystem campuses. Germany’s Factory Network opened its first campus, Factory Berlin in 2014, its second, Factory Berlin (Görlitzer Park), in 2018 and Factory Hammerbroklyn, in Hamburg in 2021. Its largest campus, Görlitzer Park, with 14,000 sqm was closed down this year as it had a significant amount of unused space due to an increase in remote work.
The European examples demonstrate how successful tech hubs combine location advantage, private sector leadership, and ecosystem maturity. With these lessons in mind, we can examine Tinapa’s potential as Nigeria’s next tech campus.
Tinapa’s Viability as a Tech Campus
Tinapa is a multi-use business and leisure resort in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. It was established in 2007 under Governor Donald Duke as a free trade zone (FTZ) to attract local and international businesses and stimulate economic activities in the state and the region.
The facility spans 265 hectares and includes a shopping mall, a wholesale emporium, a business centre, a luxury hotel, a film production studio known as “Studio Tinapa,” an entertainment strip with a casino, a water park, and an artificial tidal lake.
While Tinapa was envisioned as a transformative project for Calabar, it has largely fallen short of its promise. However, Minister Tijani sees beyond its current state. During the 2017 PitchDrive, the now minister enthusiastically described how ecosystems like Station F and B. Amsterdam are relevant for talent incubation. He mentions two locations in Nigeria as having similar potential; Yaba and Tinapa. The Yaba ship has sailed, leaving us with Tinapa.
Searching Tinapa in his Twitter profile shows it has been a longtime interest. Thus, it was no surprise when he paid it a visit within his first three months in office.
But the problem with Tinapa is twofold. First, Minister Tijani’s plan is not clear. Thus, it would be a stretch to imply that the government will convert the entire area to a tech campus. Second, Tinapa is a large multipurpose facility. It is unclear how much of the area the minister is eyeing. While there is a mention of a tech quarter called BlankCanvas on the website, it could not be confirmed if it is a new development or if it is part of the existing facility.
Following his 2017 interview, Minister Tijani is looking out for a training centre but the examples he mentions who would set up their talent campuses in Tinapa — Andela and FindWorka — have changed their model. Andela and FindWorka have pivoted to talent marketplaces. FindWorka still runs its training arm, named TechCampus. He is not unaware of these changes, leaving the door open to what he presently envisions.
The European examples sharply contrast with the training campus model. They are primarily spaces for trained talent to coexist, not coding schools. Staying with the examples, the viability of Tinapa as a choice location for any effort towards a tech campus is questionable.
Maybe not Tinapa?
Station F and B. Amsterdam are located in the most popular cities in their respective countries. The city equivalent for these in Nigeria is Lagos, not Calabar. Station F has played host to tech leaders who visit France’s startup ecosystem and in Nigeria’s case, it has always been CcHub. It has always been the Nigeria equivalent of these locations. It is not a massive campus like these two, but it fits the bill — used to at least. CcHub could have gone the B. Amsterdam way, acquiring nearby properties. The Station F approach is a tall order.
Since both locations are conversions of existing facilities, Lagos still holds promise. At Station F, the now-minister mentioned the Nigerian Railway yard in Yaba as having similar potential. It may be time to look again.
Iddo Terminus anyone?
There are numerous abandoned public properties in the Yaba-Marina-Ikoyi axis of Lagos. Maybe we can get our own Station F from one of them as we did with the Startup House in San Francisco. It is debatable if a govt-led approach will get the same reception as the European examples.
In 2018, Venture Garden Group’s Vibranium Valley was opened by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. It is located in the old premises of Concord Newspaper, close to the Lagos airport. It checks the boxes of our European examples, located in a major city, conversion of an old facility, multipurpose spaces, and private ownership. But, there are tech talents in Lagos who have never heard of it.
Vibranium Valley puts a big question mark on the Tinapa agenda as it replicates the Europe model but has not received similar attention. It was launched like Station F, with a senior government official paying a visit. Today, Regus, the coworking space provider, operates a portion of the area, converting it to bland office spaces. It will be important to figure out why Vibranium Valley did not attract and maintain buzz before plunging into Tinapa. Maybe TechCabal will answer this for us next year.
Vibranium Valley’s journey from high-profile launch to partial coworking space raises crucial questions about the viability of large-scale tech campuses in Nigeria. These questions become even more pressing when we compare our ecosystem’s size with those hosting successful tech hubs abroad.
It may be time to confront the fact that there aren’t many technology companies in Nigeria and talent cannot be churned out to serve non-existent companies. France has 33 unicorn companies and 25,000 startups. Station F delivered its first unicorn, HuggingFace, in 2022. The Netherlands has 12 unicorns and over 4,000 startups. Nigeria has 5 unicorns and there’s no clear estimate on the number of startups. An estimate of less than 1,000 startups is fair. It may be wise to cut our coat according to size.
The converted facility approach puts Tinapa up for consideration but its location is a big bump in the road. It can be safely argued that Tinapa does not need to become the central tech campus in the country but one of many. However, Cross River State has to make a convincing case for its viability. The state does not boast a prominent tech cluster and the University of Calabar is behind its peers as a breeding ground for incubating tech talent. There is no incentive for anyone to take their office to Calabar. Looking outward as a destination for companies to hold retreats is also a tough sell as as numerous options exist within Lagos and nearby Ogun State.
Looking Ahead
If Station F, B. Amsterdam, Factory Berlin, and Vibranium Valley are reduced to one phrase, “co-working space” is the best fit. Everything else is an add-on. If Vibranium Valley struggled to become the central workspace for the ecosystem in Lagos, it is hard to believe that Tinapa in Cross River state, is a potential space that can match Station F or B. Amsterdam.
Tinapa hosts Nigeria’s largest shopping mall, sitting on about 80,000 sqm. It has been unable to attract any of the largest retail chains. For comparison, Ikeja City Mall has a 22,645 sqm area and none of the other completed shopping malls in Nigeria boasts of up to 30,000 sqm area.
Should the shopping mall be the only property within Tinapa that Minister Tijani swipes for his tech campus, it will be larger than B. Amsterdam, possibly the world’s largest of such. If a 2,600 sqm Vibranium Valley isn’t buzzing with startups and several office spaces within Lagos remain uninhabited, does Tinapa stand a chance?
These spatial and ecosystem comparisons point to a critical question: What realistic path exists for Tinapa’s transformation into a tech hub? The answer lies in breaking down Minister Tijani’s vision into actionable steps while acknowledging market realities.
A worthwhile approach is to not eye Tinapa’s size. Startups are usually advised to launch a minimum viable product to test their product’s performance in the market. A tech campus in Tinapa could be thought of in the same way — Minister Tijani took the MVP approach with the 3MTT program. If the MVP doesn't work, Tinapa should be left alone.
While Tinapa, like B. Amsterdam, is not located within its city centre, its infrastructure deficits cannot be ignored. From transportation to housing, its isolation means significant infrastructure investment is required to make Tinapa worth the attention. Any vision for Tinapa, whether from the minister or the state government must be grounded in reality, having a clear, staged roadmap rather than an ambitious but potentially unsustainable leap.
As there is no mention of anything close to Tinapa or a tech campus in the minister’s strategy document, putting this together was a little bit of a struggle. The document has served as a good reference point in previous articles. Here, we’re walking with blindfolds. Ambition is good. Well-articulated plans are better. Minister Tijani’s vision for Tinapa remains hazy and it would be a stretch to conclude that it is still aligned with his 2017 ideas.
The tech ecosystem in Cross River State needs to apply pressure and get the minister to clearly articulate his intentions for Tinapa — if any are still on the table. There is no harm in admitting that an old vision is no longer viable. It will be a shame if his tenure ends and a place he’s had his eyes on for so long does not become, even in part, what he envisioned.
This is the third in a series of articles on Bosun Tijani’s leadership of Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy in his first year. You can read the previous articles below.
If you’re bored and want to read up on the Yaba Manifesto and related things; here are a few good links. There are many more out there but something something separating wheat and chaff.
- TechCabal’s Radar served as a crowdsourcing platform for the manifesto’s pillars https://radar.techcabal.com/t/the-open-yaba-manifesto-is-here/13061
- Oo Nwoye’s two-part article on Yaba's place as a cluster and the development of clusters outside Lagos https://medium.com/@oothenigerian/what-does-yaba-have-to-give-3a5d559afb69, https://medium.com/@oothenigerian/looking-ahead-building-tech-communities-beyond-yaba-f8920229727b
- Minister Tijani’s short pro-Yaba treatise https://medium.com/co-creation-hub/yaba-the-nigerian-tech-cluster-success-story-1cd942d58d56
- Ndudi Osakwe’s pro-Yaba treatise https://medium.com/@ibgnigeria/yaba-the-making-of-a-technology-ecosystem-2f5ce516b735
- Francis Sani’s summary of the Yaba Townhall that produced the resolution for the Yaba Manifesto https://medium.com/co-creation-hub/history-was-made-yesterday-c1f25dce3a14
- Seun Onigbinde’s argument on the need for incubation spaces (I wonder what he thinks of it in the context of today) https://techcabal.com/2015/06/19/why-do-people-misunderstand-incubation-spaces-in-africa/
