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By Elisha Chebwawaza Gideon
Jos has something many emerging technology ecosystems spend years trying to build: talent.
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Across the Plateau State capital, software developers, technology entrepreneurs and digital professionals are building products, working remotely for companies across Nigeria and international markets, and participating in an increasingly borderless technology economy.
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But beneath that growing activity lies a bigger question: Can Jos turn its pool of technology talent into a self-sustaining ecosystem capable of building, scaling and retaining globally competitive technology companies?
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Findings from field research into the city’s emerging technology ecosystem suggest that the challenge is no longer simply about producing skilled professionals. It is about building the infrastructure, capital, market access, policies and networks required to convert talent into companies, intellectual property, jobs and economic value that remain connected to Plateau State.
For technology entrepreneur and software developer Gideon Yakubu, Jos already has the ingredients. What is missing is the connective tissue.
“We have the talents, we have the ideas,” Yakubu told IT EDGE. “What we need is infrastructure, capital, market access, supportive policies, and stronger connections to the global ecosystem.”
That distinction could determine whether Jos becomes a technology production centre or remains primarily a talent source for ecosystems elsewhere.
Jos Wants to Build, Not Just Export Talent
Nigeria’s technology economy remains heavily concentrated in Lagos, where venture capital, major technology companies, accelerators and international investors have created a powerful ecosystem.
For founders operating outside Lagos, relocating can therefore appear to be the quickest route to investment, visibility and commercial opportunity.
Yakubu believes Jos does not have to accept that reality.
He recalled an artist friend, Philip Dawson, who recorded a song titled I’ll Blow From Jos. For Yakubu, the idea behind the song captures a possibility that should extend beyond entertainment: success does not necessarily require leaving Jos.
“You don’t need to move away from Jos in order for you to attract investors or in order for you to get their attention,” he said.
The real requirement, he argued, is the ability to build products that solve problems large enough to create markets beyond the city itself.
That, however, does not mean building in isolation.
Jos-based founders still need access to investors, corporations, accelerators, customers and technology networks in Lagos, other parts of Nigeria and international markets.
The goal, therefore, should not simply be to keep entrepreneurs physically in Jos. It should be to build an ecosystem so well connected that geography ceases to be a disadvantage.
The Remote-Work Paradox
Perhaps the strongest evidence of Jos’ technology potential is already visible in its remote workforce.
Developers based in the city are working for organisations elsewhere in Nigeria and in international markets including Rwanda, Europe and the United Kingdom.
Their ability to compete successfully for these opportunities demonstrates that physical location does not necessarily determine the quality of technology work that can emerge from Jos.
But it also creates an intriguing paradox.
If developers can sit in Jos and build products for companies thousands of kilometres away, why is more of that expertise not being brought together to build companies within Jos?
Yakubu puts the question bluntly:
“How come these people don’t put their heads together to build solutions here in Jos, to partner, to collaborate?”
The answer is unlikely to be that remote employment is a problem.
Remote work gives local professionals access to international experience, income, professional networks and global standards. The bigger opportunity is to ensure that some of the knowledge, relationships and capital generated through those global engagements flow back into the local ecosystem.
That changes the definition of talent retention.
For Jos, the objective should not merely be to prevent people from leaving. It should be to ensure the city retains more of the economic value created by its people.
Power and Internet Remain the Foundation
Technology ecosystems cannot operate without the physical infrastructure that supports them.
The field research points to two particularly fundamental requirements: reliable electricity and affordable, high-speed internet.
For technology companies, these are not conveniences. They are production infrastructure.
“For technological companies, power and internet are not luxuries. They are major infrastructure,” Yakubu said. “It is what you build with; without it, you cannot deal.”
For Jos to become a serious technology destination, therefore, infrastructure interventions will need to move beyond generic connectivity projects and focus on the locations where technology businesses are already emerging.
This could involve closer collaboration between technology operators, investors and public institutions, including the Plateau State ICT Development Agency (PICTDA).
Rather than attempting to solve the entire infrastructure deficit simultaneously, targeted technology clusters could provide a more practical starting point.
Could Jos Build Technology Zones?
Innovation hubs could become anchors for a new generation of technology clusters if they are supported with reliable connectivity and energy.
Shared high-speed internet, including satellite-based connectivity where appropriate, could lower operating costs for startups and developers. Dedicated solar and alternative-energy systems could reduce dependence on the national grid.
The result could be technology zones where entrepreneurs have access to the basic infrastructure required to operate at globally competitive standards.
Such zones would also create something technology ecosystems often need but cannot manufacture through talent alone: proximity.
When developers, founders, investors, technology companies, universities, government agencies and potential customers operate within connected networks, opportunities for collaboration become easier to discover and execute.
Building Technology Markets Requires More Than Technology
Infrastructure, however, is only one part of the equation.
A technology ecosystem also needs customers willing to adopt what its entrepreneurs build.
For startups developing solutions for schools, hospitals, government institutions and traditional businesses, market education can become as important as product development.
Yakubu has experienced this through his team’s educational cloud platform, EduCloud.
His experience suggests that founders cannot assume potential customers immediately understand why an existing process needs to change simply because a new technology solution exists.
Technology adoption often begins with educating the market about the problem.
He illustrated the challenge by comparing it with the transition from travelling by donkey to travelling by air.
“For someone who always uses a donkey to move, the day that person books a flight… will understand, ‘Oh, I don’t have to be under the hot sun,’” he said.
For startups, the lesson is straightforward.
Customers may not care about the sophistication of the underlying technology. They care about whether it can reduce costs, save time, eliminate paperwork, improve efficiency or solve a problem they experience every day.
In an emerging market such as Jos, therefore, building the product and building understanding around the product may have to happen at the same time.
Government Can Become More Than a Regulator
Government has another potentially transformative role: becoming both an enabler and a customer of local innovation.
Technology companies working in fintech, education, healthcare, logistics and other regulated sectors can encounter multiple layers of approvals and compliance requirements.
Yakubu argues that Plateau State does not necessarily need an endless stream of new technology policies.
Instead, it needs targeted interventions that remove specific barriers to innovation, investment and commercial growth.
Public procurement could be one of the most powerful tools.
Where local technology companies demonstrate the required capacity, transparent opportunities to compete for government digitisation projects could give them access to their first major institutional customers.
Tax incentives could support startups creating jobs and developing indigenous technologies, while innovation zones could combine connectivity, electricity and security in designated locations.
Government Contracts Could Become Startup Launchpads
For an early-stage technology company, government procurement can provide something that grants and competitions do not always deliver: revenue, market validation and a credible track record.
A successful government deployment can demonstrate that a local company has the capacity to solve a real institutional problem at scale.
Government-supported seed funding or low-interest financing could also help promising products move beyond prototype stage and into commercial deployment.
The combination of capital and procurement could therefore create a pathway from idea to product, product to customer, and customer to company growth.
That pathway remains critical if Jos is to convert individual entrepreneurial success into an ecosystem.
From Talent Pipeline to Technology Ecosystem
The emerging picture from Jos is not of a city waiting for a technology community to emerge.
Much of the raw material is already there.
There are developers. There are entrepreneurs. There are technology hubs. Young people are building products. Professionals are already participating in international technology markets.
What remains underdeveloped is the connective structure between them.
Developers need networks through which they can find collaborators. Founders need access to capital and customers. Technology hubs need deeper relationships with industry and government. Startups need customers willing to adopt locally developed solutions.
And the entire ecosystem needs stronger connections to Nigeria’s broader technology economy and international markets.
That may ultimately be the fulcrum of Jos’ technology ambitions.
Can Jos Keep the Value Its Talent Creates?
The fundamental question facing Jos is therefore not whether it can produce technology talent.
It already does.
The more consequential question is whether the city can build the institutions, infrastructure, commercial relationships and investment pathways that allow that talent to generate lasting economic value from Jos.
Without those connections, the city risks becoming an effective talent pipeline for technology ecosystems elsewhere—producing skilled professionals whose expertise, companies and economic value eventually become anchored outside Plateau State.
With them, Jos could position itself differently.
It could become more than a city where technology professionals are trained or remotely employed. It could become a place from which globally relevant technology companies are built and scaled.
As Yakubu told IT Edge News.Africa:
“The future of Jos should not be about exporting our best young people. It should be about creating an ecosystem where those young people can stay, build, earn, and compete with the world from here.”
