6 Top Tech Communities in Nigeria and Africa

There are a lot of tech communities in Nigeria and few places in Africa, which help tech talents groom themselves and network.

Tech communities are hubs that foster innovation for technology startup companies. These tech communities help create an environment specifically targeted at helping young technology companies thrive by encouraging experimentation, not demonizing failure, and helping firms network with other like-minded individuals and enterprises. Tech communities are like a family or a group of people who are interested in developing themselves when it comes to technology.

No Doubt about the presence of Tech in Africa which has brought a lot of top tech communities across the nations of the continent.

We have curated some good and top-notch tech communities in Nigeria.

Kwara Build

Kwara Build is a premier global association tech community in Kwara, Nigeria for enthusiasts and developers, who are passionate about building and developing the tech ecosystem of Kwara state.

Its mission is to bring together a team of like-minded individuals to showcase Nigeria’s best talent ideas and businesses with a focus on leveraging technology innovation.

They started as a team of three with the goal to prepare the youth for the future. This tech community has reached over 1000 students in secondary schools across the Kwara state.

We have empowered over 150 ladies with soft skills through our women in tech program and our recently launched startup program reached over 100 entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving their local challenges.

Kwara Build

They have been making Kwara state home of technology innovation considering the rate at which youths are embracing digital skills and striving to make an impact in the global economy. They have been developing the tech ecosystem in Kwara state. They educate youths about the power of technology towards ecosystem development and future foresight.

Google Developers Circle

Google Developers Circle is a community that consists of a group of people and passionate leaders in their tech community that is dedicated to helping others learn and connect.

Read also about Nigeria Startups doing well in 2020

They are local groups of developers who are specifically interested in Google products and APIs. They plan and host meetup events on a wide range of technical topics typically on a monthly basis in a location near them.

These community organizers come from various backgrounds, from all types of companies and industries. To join a Google Developers circle close to you or in your city, just google search ‘GDG { place }’, common ones I know are GDG Lagos, Ibadan, and Osogbo.

Tech Communities in Nigeria And Other African Nations

Forloop
Forloop Africa is an African tech community that was initiated in Nigeria. It started as a community for Nigerian developers. You can get sponsored online courses here for free.

It has spurred many to stay abreast of the latest technological trends while encouraging them to hone their craft of software development. ForLoop Africa is the largest developer group, connecting local chapters with members across eight African countries which it just expanded to North Africa.

Forloop was at first a university developers community before it started getting recognition for its works. The Tech community was founded by Ridwan Olalere and others who volunteer to make the community successful at its inception.

ForLoop Africa’s model of accompanying developers through every stage of professional growth positions it as a “village” that truly “raises” the child, fulfilling Olalere’s original goal to build an inclusive, engaging, and vibrant community of developers across Africa.

FigmaAfrica

FigmaAfrica is a tech community that connects, network, and grow your design skills with an online community and in-person events across the continent. Open to everyone; from advanced practitioners to aspiring novices.

It is a community for UI/UX designers who want to network, they periodically hold meetups and also share a lot of useful info, tools, and updates. It is a platform for the designers in Africa to come to interact, mentor, learn, grow and profit together while engaging in design activities.

FigmaAfrica officially launched the design community in May 2018 in Lagos and by the end of 2018 they were in 8 countries, and 17 cities and they had 25 design ambassadors across these places advocating for the community.

unStack Community

unStack is a community of passionate developers, designers, and other technical talents. unStack, one of the great tech communities in Lagos is mostly focused on hands-on technical workshops and conferences around the web, mobile, and other emerging technologies.

They focus on helping the audience gain an in-depth understanding of any chosen topic area, therefore the workshops and talks will be on specific frameworks and libraries with a far-reaching impact on the JavaScript ecosystem and beyond.

They teach about new technologies, and patterns to navigate already existing ones. They also connect engineers from all over Nigeria to share their ideas.

They have over six thousand attendees for their event and over one thousand as their sponsors. Andela happens to be among these sponsors.

Dev Career Community

Dev Career Community is a non-profit tech community that creates opportunities for people who are held back due to a lack of resources to pursue a desired career in software development in Africa. Dev Career is a non-profit Tech organization to support the rising Tech Ecosystem in Africa.”

Dev Career was founded by Sultan Akintunde, a front-end developer and developer advocate. The community started in March 2019 with Chidi Okoye a fellow software developer. Its first-ever cohort started with 22 participants, DevCareer goes beyond just giving laptops. The community then proceeded to give the selected candidates high-performance laptops, a co-working space, free online courses, and continued mentorship for a 3-month period.

It’s certain that a lot of things can slow down the journey of budding developers, especially in Africa where some countries do not have basic amenities in abundance or share the privilege of getting products on a long-term payment plan. Budding developers have to face bad electricity and slow or no Internet access, then there’s a problem of getting the right course, a good laptop, and finally, a mentor.

It recently received a £5,000 (~$6,500) donation from Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, via GoFundMe for its Laptops4Developers project. This is a project in which the community is giving out laptops to budding developers who cannot afford them.

They partnered with companies like iSAMS, Revivn, Kuda Bank, Eden Life, and Peerigon. They’ve also partnered with Hubs like CcHub, Impact Hub, Lagos; Wennovation Hub, Abuja; HUB67, Ibadan; Aimtoget Hub, etc.

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