“Launch/promote EA for Africans. To be really frank, Cape Town is not Africa. Lagos or Nairobi (or even Joburg) would make a better base if this goal is the priority.”
Important comment—there is certainly a benefit for EA to balance productivity and efficiency with insulating itself from the issues it seeks to impact (e.g. GH&WB). Lived experience of a city like Lagos or Nairobi could be extremely valuable for many over access to surfing and good views of coastline. People willing to tackle the short and medium term problems of Africa should be willing to get knee deep in the reality.
My impressions is that safety in Lagos ha degraded further in the last few years so I wonder how this could be managed.
The problems of Lagos are mostly structural. Say, insufficient infrastructure like road or housing and the general terrible governance across the country. However, Lagos is considered generally safe, arguably the safest in Nigeria right now.
I wouldn’t suggest the idea for a completely different reason which is cost. We have black outs for, sometimes, 20 hours a day. The cost of running your own independent power is high and every other aspect of your productivity may rest on having this single piece of infrastructure.
Despite all the challenges, if you like New York, you’ll like Lagos. It’s open, warm, bustling. Lagosians never-say-die. Perhaps this intense connection between dysfunction and survival is where all the creativity comes from. Hence why the city thrives, not at its optimum potential but certainly a force to reckon with.
I agree with you especially on productivity losses. I lived in Lagos for a few months. My sense was that since I was there kidnappings and general civil unrest has increased (perhaps the former more-so outside of Lagos).
Interesting about your comments on blackouts. I lived in both a villa with its own generator as well as an estate with its own back-up gen. Surely an EA hub could find a location which provides this?
Have you seen Eko Atlantic by any chance? Has this made much progress and I wonder if this could this be a potential location in the medium future if the project actually manifests.
“Launch/promote EA for Africans. To be really frank, Cape Town is not Africa. Lagos or Nairobi (or even Joburg) would make a better base if this goal is the priority.”
Important comment—there is certainly a benefit for EA to balance productivity and efficiency with insulating itself from the issues it seeks to impact (e.g. GH&WB). Lived experience of a city like Lagos or Nairobi could be extremely valuable for many over access to surfing and good views of coastline. People willing to tackle the short and medium term problems of Africa should be willing to get knee deep in the reality.
My impressions is that safety in Lagos ha degraded further in the last few years so I wonder how this could be managed.
The problems of Lagos are mostly structural. Say, insufficient infrastructure like road or housing and the general terrible governance across the country. However, Lagos is considered generally safe, arguably the safest in Nigeria right now.
I wouldn’t suggest the idea for a completely different reason which is cost. We have black outs for, sometimes, 20 hours a day. The cost of running your own independent power is high and every other aspect of your productivity may rest on having this single piece of infrastructure.
Despite all the challenges, if you like New York, you’ll like Lagos. It’s open, warm, bustling. Lagosians never-say-die. Perhaps this intense connection between dysfunction and survival is where all the creativity comes from. Hence why the city thrives, not at its optimum potential but certainly a force to reckon with.
I agree with you especially on productivity losses. I lived in Lagos for a few months. My sense was that since I was there kidnappings and general civil unrest has increased (perhaps the former more-so outside of Lagos).
Interesting about your comments on blackouts. I lived in both a villa with its own generator as well as an estate with its own back-up gen. Surely an EA hub could find a location which provides this?
Have you seen Eko Atlantic by any chance? Has this made much progress and I wonder if this could this be a potential location in the medium future if the project actually manifests.