Exclusive Interview with Temi Kolawole on BarCampAfrica
On Saturday October 11th 2008, young entrepreneurs from around the world attended BarCampAfrica on the Google Campus in Mountain View, California with the aim of building connections between people and opportunities in Silicon Valley and Africa.
I thought it’d be nice to feature one of the participants, Temi Kolawole, a young Nigerian web developer and co-founder of Antigravity Inc., (a web development company); Sturvs, Nigeria’s answer to Digg.com, and Nigeria’s first ever Facebook application.
In this exclusive interview with StartupsNigeria, Temi shares his concerns about Internet technology in Nigeria and what Nigerian web entrepreneurs must do in order to develop world-class startups…He also shares his thoughts about organizing a BarCamp in Nigeria.
Hope you enjoy it!
SN: You just came back from BarCampAfrica held in California. Please tell us what it was all about.
Temi: BarCamp is basically an informal gathering of people to share ideas, based mainly around technology. I must confess that BarCampAfrica was a little different from others I’ve attended, in that I expected it to be a technology event, but found it to be a lot more about African development and charity. That’s of concern to me. I believe there’s extreme poverty all over the world, in Asia, Europe and other places, but we all still find it very hard to talk about Africa, without focusing on charity and aid. Africa is rich, and as much as some people in Africa might need foreign help, we need more of investment and business opportunity, than we need free aid.
I’m glad this was pointed out at some point during the event. Africa isn’t just a needy continent. It is the continent with some of the fastest growing emerging markets in the world. We also need good government. We can get all the aid and World Bank loans possible, but still not make any progress until we get good government. I’m not sure about other African countries, but I definitely know Nigeria doesn’t need much aid. What we need is investment.
SN: What were your reasons for attending BarCampAfrica? What benefits did you derive from attending BarCampAfrica?
Temi: I wanted to meet and interact with people that have similar interests as I do, and also spread the word about my startup, Sturvs (which was one of the event sponsors). I ended up being sort of an ambassador for Nigeria, even though I didn’t plan to, but when I got there, I discovered there weren’t a lot of Nigerians at the event. So I can say one benefit is the fact that I got the opportunity to talk about Nigeria, and tell people the truth about our great country. That was more fulfilling than any personal interest I had at the event.
SN: What was your contribution to BarCampAfrica? How do you intend to implement the discussions and presentations at BarCampAfrica?
Temi: I gave a talk titled: “The Potential of the Internet in Nigeria”, which basically just highlighted the huge potential that exists for Nigeria and how much that potential has been underutilized so far. Nigeria has the largest population, the highest number of internet users, but is nowhere near the top when it comes to internet technology. I definitely want to play my own part in putting personal interest aside, and do as much as I can to promote and encourage the growth of Nigeria’s web 2.0 scene.
SN: We’ve seen several BarCamps held in African countries such as South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, etc, what are your thoughts about organizing a BarCamp in Nigeria?
Temi: At BarCampAfrica, I noticed the extent to which Nigeria was behind. As a matter of fact, Sturvs was the only Nigerian start-up showcased at the event. Many people would see that as a good thing for me but I see it as a very bad thing for Nigeria. Nigeria would have hardly been mentioned at the event if I didn’t decide to give a topic. All the focus was on Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and I sat there thinking: “Wait a minute…do all these people know that Nigeria makes up for one quatre of Africa? Is this the same Africa we’re talking about?”…
If you asked the Americans at the event to mention 5 African countries, I’m very sure they wouldn’t mention Nigeria. And the only other time I heard someone else mention Nigeria in another session was when she mentioned Internet fraud. I said, during my topic, that if all the Internet fraudsters in Nigeria and all the “yahoo boys” were working for a mega Nigerian start-up, that start-up would currently be bigger than Google and Yahoo!. That’s another challenge we face among foreigners and even among ourselves.
I think one of the reasons why we haven’t seen BarCamps in Nigeria is because of our attitude. Many people might dispute me on this but the average Nigerian web entrepreneur is looking out for only his/her self. We don’t have the mindset of working towards a common good. We find it hard to come together to share ideas and collaborate. There’s an overall attitude of envy and selfishness among us that we need to get rid of in order to move forward as a country. I wrote a blog post about this when I got back from BarCampAfrica when I saw other fellow Africans sitting down to discuss issues facing technology.
SN: What benefits could we envisage, if we organize a BarCamp in Nigeria? Are there any challenges of organizing a BarCamp in Nigeria? If so, how can we manage them effectively?
Temi: A BarCamp will create a more solidified industry. Right now people know different websites, but a BarCamp will solidify the inter-startup relationships and create possible partnerships.
One challenge might be the unwillingness of Nigerian web developers/entrepreneurs to come together. We Nigerians are very fond of doing our own thing, but this has held us back for so long. If a BarCamp is organized in Nigeria, everyone has to leave their egos at the door and be willing to serve the group. It’s a volunteer event coordinated and organized by everyone involved. Kenya and Uganda have numerous world-class startups, and I believe Nigeria can definitely do better than these countries.
I think another challenge will be “web 2.0 mentality”. I’ve worked among programmers in Nigeria and half of them believe in Java, which is not exactly a web 2.0 language. We also need to step up our design standards. I don’t see why Nigerian websites should look “Nigerian”. I’ve always been in support of websites that meet up to worldwide standards. We should also be able to come up with unique & original ideas.
The biggest challenge I think will be how many Nigerians don’t like competition. This is also a big stumbling block to our progress. Google won’t be as good as it is if there was no Yahoo!. Nigerians want to be the only ones doing something, which might be possible now, but not for long, as more and more people come into the industry. The key is to make your service better than the competition, not being against it.
SN: Do you have any plans of improving the awareness of web 2.0 in Nigeria? If so, how do you plan to achieve this?
Temi: I definitely do. I’m going to be organizing seminars and programs on some Nigerian campuses. I’m also willing to be involved in organizing a BarCamp in Nigeria too sometime next year.
You can read more about Temi and his Internet projects in this interview on StartupsNigeria.
I’m glad we still have Nigerians who have the interest of their country at heart, The issues you have raised are really true because you can’t talk about Africa and not involve Nigeria especially internet issues. We are the largest internet users in Africa and we need to show it in our web contents.
We need service-oriented individuals like you to move our nation forward in every aspect. God bless you sir.
“Many people might dispute me on this but the average Nigerian web entrepreneur is looking out for only his/her self. We don’t have the mindset of working towards a common good.”
I agree with this statement and I am a Nigerian
BTW, very good post
@Titilope - It’s happenning…so just make sure you’re a part of it:-)
@Richard - Any ideas on how we can change this trend?
Truly nice issues raised. It isnt just IT guys who are ’selfish’ : the whole psyche of the Nigerian (at least in lagos) is built round me, my , mine, myself…. the struggle to acquire and achieve are all too personal.
The issues raised at BarCampAfrica are pertinent because Charity and Africa development are the issues which Technology can and is playing a big role in! The irony of the matter is Africans are best suited to understand and solve the problems ourselves…Mr. Kolawole is talking a whole lot of sense and we need more people like him!
Loud this some more…
Kudos Temi, you’ve just hit the nail on the head. Whoever stand to dispute those fact is not just been sincere with him/herself. I think it’s high we started facing the realities and be more sincere to ourselves. We need a Nigerian Dream! A dreams strong enough to over shadow the current political and ethnic differences.
We have no time to sit around mourning the situation, it’s high time we started making some difference, even right from own family level.
I know many will say they have no means to do anything but you do, if you help to change the orientation of just one of your friend towards a Nigerian Dream. You just make a difference on the Nigerian Society.
I’m convinced more than anything that we shall get there, those who don’t join the train will certainly be left behind.
God Bless Nigeria!
nice one temi, someones gotta lead the way and doing it quite nicely…
Good one there Temi, You are really representing.
The fact is that I have seen many good programmers in Nigeria but you know it is a stupid thing to be a computer genius without riding an hummer here. Many programmers would not sit down to get the best out of the Technology world. once they have a good application working they divert into marketing. I think We need a lot of startups amongst Nigeria young programmers. Industries are not helping matters as they will outsource softwares to indians and turn our programmers to be software administrators.
Web 2.0 is not strange, more programmers here are PHP/My sql, then Java.
All we need is a lot of buiding capacity and synergy.
Hmm easier said that done. There are two issues when it comes to startups especially in African startups are affected by, The partnerships restraint and the solo initiative limitations.
If a startup is established based on a partnership model, which means they are leveraging on the fact that partners have unique skills they would bring to the table, then its fair to say that, that would be very difficult in a Nigerian setting because the average Nigerian is about returns not results. And in such a setting nothing would be achieved based on the pre-requisite of such constructs, that is the initiative of the members.
In regards to the limitations of Solo Solo startups, they are very costly, and most developers are struggling to make ends meet. You can’t develop a solo startup without spending on things like the server, the interface, and the tit bits.
Now the average Nigerian developer is just doing petty projects here and there to make ends meet, now you are promoting the concept of such a developer becoming an entrepreneur overnight and Developing a startup around his programming skills? Give Nigerian developers a break.
long live Nigeria …
nice one, temi. guess who this is jibo(babcock university) this guy whats happrning to you, i got so bent on finding you when i saw you yesterday on a video, musical video. funny you know, dude whats good with you. this guy reach me on sewejer@yahoo.com thats my e-mail. phone 08037215378. nice one keep it real.
kudos temi, do keep the good name of nigeria up high, i was so exciting to learnt that meanful nigeria are still there to up hold and bring good initiative to our mother land.
I didnt know how far Nigerians have gone on the net until now. Good work Loy..
Well, the potential(s) of the Internet in Nigeria (mov’land) cannot be over emphasized as it largely borders directly on so many stakes in different dispensations. The world is “relatively” globalized as this same global mkt has come to stay; Nigeria is an emerging economy inherent wiv so many abounding potentials. Temi, you know i said it the other day…kudos. However, there is a website am working on that has a taste of the real estate world in its entirety…jes all ’bout keeping the hope alive…20% loading~~~
one love.