General Perception of Innovation, and what it should be for budding Entrepreneurs in Nigeria: My View

When people think about innovation, they often think about its technical aspects, like software architecture, server choice, what platform to build for (iOS, Android or web) and other concerns that have to do with the technicalities involved in building the product. While these are very important components of actualising and scaling an idea or a concept, with respect to your immediate market and ecosystem, I think the big learning has to be the business model innovations.

When looking to innovate and build products for an existing or non-existent market in this part of the world, it goes beyond what platform you are building for and which programming language to use. To ensure a safe landing and to build a strong foundation for your product to scale, ask yourself some critical questions like: how do we reach a customer base that has never had access to formal financial services (e.g. online/digital payment) or sceptical about using one, how do you get millennials to trust an online student accommodation booking platform even when they haven’t seen the room yet.

Many young innovators, who are often quite inexperienced, take their cue from Silicon Valley. Most of them know more about what’s happening there than their local markets.

Conclusion

In trying to build products for your immediate market and our local ecosystem, intimately associate yourself with the market to understand the limitations (both human and infrastructure-wise) of building a useful and scalable product.

Note: The kind of innovation that emerges from Africa will be very different from what you see in other parts of the world.