[July 22, 2011] Ebay Billionaire Gives U.S.$200,000 to Local Tech Incubator Tweet Jul 22, 2011 (Daily Trust/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The Omidyar Network, founded by eBay's billionaire founder, Pierre Omidyar has awarded a $200,000 grant to fund the Co-Creation Hub, Nigeria's first open living lab and pre-incubation space. The hub has also received a $45,000 grant from the Indigo Trust, a unit of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts of the U.K. According to a press release, the Co-creation Hub is a "non-profit, social enterprise centered around a shared work space where stakeholders from multiple walks of Nigerian life come together to collaboratively create tech-based solutions that address social challenges facing Nigerian society. It will be Nigeria's first multi-functional, multi-purpose space dedicated to the creation of social technology ventures." The Hub will be a geek heaven of sorts, a place where techies, software developers, mobile and web programmers, government, tech companies, hackers and venture capitalists can converge to collectively create ground breaking mobile, web and software technologies that will solve social and tech-related problems around Africa, create job opportunities, and secure Nigeria's place in the global league of tech superpowers. The co-creation hub is scheduled to launch operations in August this year. Founded by tech enthusiasts Bosun Tijani and Femi Longe the hub will accommodate about 50-60 tech start-ups at a time and will provide a plethora of pre-incubation services including, but not limited to: training, mentorship from seasoned professionals in the technology industry and access to local and international venture capitalists. The hub will also serve as a place for stakeholders to convene, develop strategic partnerships, brainstorm on ideas and collaborate through focus groups, meet-ups, hackathons, competitions and talks by seasoned tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. This is not the first time the Omidyar network is supporting the creation of a tech hub in Africa. Last year, the Omidyar network along with Hivos of Netherlands funded the iHub, Kenya's first tech innovation hub to meet the incubation needs of the country's ever-growing tech community. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]