BlackBerry, Lagos to establish apps lab

BlackBerry and the Lagos State Innovation Advisory Council have endorsed a Letter of Intent outlining plans to build a BlackBerry Apps Lab in the state.

The Managing Director, West, East and Central Africa, BlackBerry, Mr. Waldi Wepener, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday, said “With over 250 Nigerian developed applications already available on the next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform, Nigeria’s software development community is clearly demonstrating impressive growth and innovation.

“Following a series of BlackBerry developer events and local partnerships in Nigeria, our commitment to build an apps lab in Lagos is a clear demonstration of our long term approach to support the development of a sustainable ecosystem in Nigeria.”

Waldi  said BlackBerry was delighted to find a progressive partner in the Lagos State Government.

“We are delighted to find such a progressive partner as the Lagos State Government, committed to building a culture of innovation as a core contributor to future development and we look forward to working closely with them to identify the most appropriate location for the lab,” he added.

Commenting on the partnership, Governor Babatunde Fashola, said, “Innovation is at the heart of our approach to developing Lagos into a mega city. We are very pleased that BlackBerry has chosen Lagos State as a partner and is today committed to establishing an apps lab that will further Lagos as a centre for excellence in Africa.”

The Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Adebiyi Mabadeje, had earlier revealed the state’s plans to build a software institute.

Speaking on how far the state had gone on this, the commissioner said, “We are still on the software institute. We have taken a lot of time because what we want to build must be futuristic, while we use sustainable materials.

“We are also looking at alternative sources of power. A lot has been in the back-end on it.”

 The scope of the software institute project, according to the commissioner, has evolved from just a software institute to a technology hub/science park.

 “We will birth it this year,” he said.

In a similar vein,  Mabadeje urged software developers in the country to focus on the development of problem-solving software.

 “There are lots of freelance developers and what they do is to develop what comes to them naturally and what they think the market will need. However, they have to begin to develop software to address peculiar problems in our society. This will help them in the area of marketability and the Lagos State Government is already developing programmes to help the developers,” he said.