Yaba_Local_Council_Development_Area,_Adekunle

Yaba is a suburb located on

Lagos Mainland Lagos Mainland Local Government is a local government area in the Lagos Division of Lagos State, Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Repu ...

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

Lagos State Lagos State ( yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Èkó) is a States of Nigeria, state in South West (Nigeria), southwestern Nigeria. Of the 36 States of Nigeria, states, it is both the List of Nigerian states by population, most populous and List of Nigerian state ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. There are several federal government institutions in the area, which include Queen's College, the

Nigerian Institute of Medical Research The Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) in Yaba, Lagos state, Nigeria is a medical research institute established by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the research institute establishment act of 1977, to promote National health a ...

, the

Yaba College of Technology Yaba College of Technology, popularly known as YABATECH, was founded in 1947, and is Nigeria's first higher educational institution. It is located in Yaba, Lagos. It has a student enrollment of over 16,000. Overview Yaba College of Technology ...

Igbobi College Igbobi College is a college established by the Methodist and Anglican Churches in 1932, in the Yaba suburb of Lagos, Lagos State, South-western Nigeria. It is still on its original site and most of the original buildings are intact. It is one ...

, the

University of Lagos The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in th ...

, the Federal Science and Technical College, and the Federal College of Education (Technical) Akoka. Yaba has one of the busiest market sites in Lagos, known as

Tejuosho Market Tejuosho Market is an ultramodern market located along the Ojuelegba-Itire Road in Yaba, Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. The market which is divided into two phases (Phase I and Phase II) contains about 2,383 lock-up shops in a sprawling four-store ...

. The old Tejuosho market was demolished in 2008 and rebuilt into a modern shopping complex by the end of 2014. Directly opposite the Yaba market is a psychiatric hospital popularly known by many Lagosians as Yaba Left. Yaba is one of the go-to places for technology renaissance in Africa, with tech startups such as

Hotels.ng Hotels.ng is a Nigerian online hotels booking agency which was launched in 2013. The platform was founded by Mark Essien who hails from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria and claims to list over 7,138 hotels from 320 cities in Nigeria. History In 20 ...

, Andela, Cc-Hub and many others with a positive impact on the economy. The redevelopment of the Tejuosho Market, which was undertaken as part of the Lagos Megacity Project, has transformed it into a major shopping center for Lagosians. The market complex houses various facilities including boutiques, food stores, and a sports center.

History

Yaba Local council Development area was carved out of the old

Local government area, which was created in 1977 as a separate Local government following the national reform of Local governments in September 1976. Lagos Mainland was carved out of Lagos city council which administered the Lagos Metropolitan city consisting of Lagos Island and Lagos Mainland. With the creation of three more Local governments on 27 August 1991, the former Lagos mainland was re-constituted with Surulere carved out of it. Yaba Local council Development area was one of the 37 newly created Local council Development areas created out of Lagos Mainland by the administration of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, after the state assembly passed a law creating new Local council Development areas.

Notable institutions

Nigeria Centre For Disease Control The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is the national public health institute for Nigeria. It is a federal government agency under the Federal Ministry of Health (Nigeria), with its headquarters in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory. The ...

Central Public Health Library * Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba * 68 Nigeria Army Reference Hospital *

Lagos University Teaching Hospital Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) is a tertiary hospital established in 1961 and is located in Idi-Araba, Surulere, Lagos State, the administrative division of Nigeria. The teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Lagos Coll ...

Annex * Federal College of Education, Yaba *

West African Examination Council The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is an examination board established by law to determine the examinations required in the public interest in the English-speaking West African countries, to conduct the examinations and to award certif ...

West African College of Surgeons The West African College of Surgeons is a professional organization that promotes education, training, examinations and research in surgery in Africa. The college is the first organization to organize surgical subspecialty training in the region. ...

Methodist Girls High School Methodist Girls High School, formerly Government Girls Secondary School is a private, all-female high school in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Ea ...

, Yaba * Ozone Cinemas * Queen's College Yaba * All Saints Anglican Church, Yaba * St. Finbarr's College * Our Lady of Apostle Secondary School, Yaba

Yabacon Valley

Yabacon Valley is a nickname for an area within Yaba. It is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordselectronic computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These program ...

s. The name is an imitation of America's

Silicon valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

. It is not known if the term ''Yabacon Valley'' has been mentioned or used in reference of this tech cluster in the past, but its first published use is credited to The Business Aim. According to Google search results, the name was first used by ''Blaise Aboh'' as part of a title for an article on a new technology startup.

The emergence of Yaba as a startup cluster

In 2011, Wennovation Hub in partnership with African Leadership Forum started incubating startups in the tech ecosystem. The tech space in yaba became popular in late 2011 when

Bosun Tijani Olatunbosun Tijani (20 July 1977) is a Nigerian-British Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of Co-Creation Hub. Co-Creation Hub works at the forefront of accelerating the application of innovation and social capital for a better ...

and colleagues founded Cc-HUB, and it became one of Nigeria's pioneer startup incubator. With investment and support from organisations such as the Indigo Trust, Omidyar Network, MainOne Cable Company and the Lagos State government, it soon gained momentum and proceeded to install a fibre-optic-powered information superhighway. In 2011, former banker Seun Onigbinde co-founded

BudgIT BudgIT is a Nigerian civic organisation that applies technology for citizen engagement with institutional improvement to facilitate societal change. The company, which launched operations in Lagos, Nigeria, was founded by Oluseun Onigbinde and J ...

, a fiscal transparency project, on the third floor of CC Hub's six-storey building in Yaba. As one of the first early-stage startups to benefit from CC Hub's incubation drive in 2011, it received $5,000 of its $90,000 seed funding from billionaire businessman Tony Elumelu. Big names like Konga, eCommerce company valued at approximately $200 million as after raising $20 million in Series C rounds, arrived in 2013, while Africa Internet Group which has $469 million in 4 Rounds from six investors transferred six of its companies to Yaba in 2014. In same 2014 BudgIT received $400,000 grant from Omidyar. Mid 2016, Andela – a Nigerian-founded talent accelerator for programmers that has campuses in Lagos, Nairobi and New York – received $24 million in investment from the

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is an organization established and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with an investment of 99 percent of the couple's wealth from their Facebook shares over their lifetime ...

. In 2015, Hotels.ng, a hotel booking site in Nigeria secured $1.2 million in funding from Omidyar Network to expand its listings across Africa. In August 2016,

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...

visited Nigeria, and specifically Yaba. A day after Zuckerberg's visit to Yaba, local and international media went agog as to why Yaba is 'Nigeria's Silicon Valley'.

Photo gallery

File:Sabo Round about at Yaba.jpg, Sabo Roundabout at Yaba File:Road directional at Sabo Yaba.jpg, Road directional at Sabo Yaba File:2013 Yaba Lagos Nigeria 12998105744.jpg, Yaba, Lagos, 2013 File:Psychiatric Hospital Yaba.jpg, Psychiatric Hospital Yaba File:Reagan Girls Memorial Secondary School.jpg, Reagan Girls Memorial Secondary School File:Yaba Baptist Church.jpg, Yaba Baptist Church File:All Saints Anglican Church Yaba.jpg, All Saints Anglican Church Yaba File:A view of Ojuelegba Under bridge, Yaba, Lagos-Nigeria.jpg File:Layout of Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Yaba COVID-19 isolation centre (cropped).jpg, Layout of the COVID-19 isolation centre, Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba.

References