And here is cheering news once again for the fledgling tech ecosystem in Nigeria as CcHUB partners Microsoft, Blackberry, and Thoughtworks to help aid the development of the next generation of developers.

CodeCamp is a 4-week intensive residential training programme for 15 top Nigerian students/ early-stage software developers focused on mobile application design and development. The course will see participants work in teams as part of its completion to build app solutions to real world challenges in sectors such as Education, Health, Agriculture, Disaster Management, Financial Services and Governance.

To be picked, candidates will need to show proficiency in a short test that seeks to ascertain the applicant’s basic understanding of JAVA, Objective C & HTML 5. As earlier stated, successful candidates will be lodged for the duration of the training program. Catering services will be provided at no cost to participants everyday of the week except on Sundays. They will also be required to come with their own PCs.

To find out more about Codecamp and how to get involved, look here

Co-Creation Hub and Nokia are pleased to invite you to the Open Pitch session of the second cohort of the Growth Academy accelerator program.

Growth Academy Program is a first of its kind business accelerator programme in Nigeria dedicated to providing intensive hands-on support to help approximately thirty (30) early stage tech start-ups/projects build world class mobile applications for the Nokia platform regionally and globally and to grow their start-ups into high yield businesses. The Growth Academy program is where top developers hone their skills; focus on developing world class solutions relevant for the local market and gain a clear understanding on how to monetize their solutions especially with mobile applications.

The aim of the programme is to nurture the start of innovative tech ventures that will possibly disrupt the way we live and do business in Nigeria.

Over the past three months, six teams have undergone hands-on and structured training and mentorship to actualize their ideas with modules around business model development, implementation plan and lean product development coordinated by the Co-Creation Hub. Working with Futurice (a leading global mobile software firm), the teams have enhanced technical expertise around mobile application development and user driven design.

The Six Ventures

The six teams in the second cohort of the programme have solutions covering agriculture, real estate, location based services, security, entertainment, human resources. The ventures are:

iPolice: is a mobile and web security tool to help Nigerians get latest security information as well as collaborate with Security agencies:
Download link: iPoliceMobile App

JobsInNigeria: Fetches all the latest jobs in Nigeria and let’s you apply from your phone
Download link: Jobs In Nigeria App

CABAN: A mobile application that allows renters and buyers to search for properties in Nigeria and Agents to advertise properties utilizing a cost effective, self-managed platform

Download link: Caban App

GRAID: A tool made for poultry farmers to help with decision-making, analysis and much more to ensure the growth of their farms

Download link: GRAID Feed App

Nearest: A mobile application that allows you locate the nearest points of interest.

BushParrot: All your news, gists and gossips in one place

The Open Pitch Session

The Open Pitch session will be the opportunity for the all the six teams to present their ventures to potential angel investors, mobile network operators, OEMs and other supporters for feedback and possible support. Each venture will have ten minutes to present followed by five minutes of comments/feedback/questions. The session not expected to last longer than three hours.
Details of the event are as follows:

Date: Monday April 29, 2013

Time: 12 noon – 3pm

Venue: Co-Creation Hub Nigeria, 6th Floor, 294 Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos
Please confirm your participation by RSVPing to info@cchubnigeria.com on or before Friday April 26, 2013. For any enquiries, kindly contact CcHub at +23412950555.

This is a great platform to engage with tech-entrepreneurs and find business investment opportunities & interesting ideas that have good market potential in Nigeria today.

We look forward to seeing you.

Topup Genie (TuG) is an airtime recharge platform that helps Nigerians QUICKLY and CONVENIENTLY topup their mobile phones, or that of friends, family, staff, church groups, et al.

TuG delivers airtime recharge in 6 seconds or less making it the fastest way to topup in Nigeria.

The TuG team presented at CcHub’s Showcase Tuesday on February 19 to share some of the platform’s new features with the tech community. Users had noted that our service only worked with internet/data plans activated. In response, we introduced TextMe Credit and FlashMe Credit.

Using TextMe Credit is simple: The user sends an SMS with the syntax “Topup Amount AccountID” to 0817 460 4088. An example SMS is “Topup 2000 845CD” where 2000 is the amount of airtime requested, and 845CD is the unique account identifier. Innovative security measures ensure TextMe Credit is safe:

1. It can only be used to top up the phone number where the top up request is originated
2. The account owner must have previously authorised TextMe Credit for this phone number
3. There is a limit to the total amount of airtime that can be obtained via TextMe Credit per phone number however this can be increases/reset by the account owner. In the example above, at least ₦2,000 of that limit should be available for a successful transaction. Note the account owner must also have a balance of at least ₦2000 to execute the transaction.

SMS functionality is phone agnostic and TextMe Credits are charged at the network SMS rates (₦4)

FlashMe Credit is a ‘Joker’ for INSTANT airtime. The user simply flashes the same phone number above to buy airtime. The security features are the same as in Text Top up however the amount of airtime to be topped up, e.g. ₦200, ₦500, must have been predefined by the account owner.

A robust discussion followed with a lot of interest in the specific technologies used to power the features. A teaser about our coming Pay-Like-Magic and Merchant/Affiliate services was shared with developers to get them excited about some of the new things cooking in the Genie Lamp.

The Hub is an exciting place to be as it feels like the epicentre of Nigeria’s nascent tech revolution. The number of skilled web and mobile app developers, designers, and their resultant ventures is sensational and will only increase as more people take advantage of the laid foundations. It is really an avenue for co-creation as we have been beneficiaries of – the re-architecting of the TuG platform post its initial launch where community members helped brainstorm on intelligent ways to make it robust and scalable. This collegial atmosphere and community ethos is one of the Hub’s strength and the advantage any tech start-up working out here has over many others.

This piece was contributed by the Topup Genie team. You can find out more about topping up your line using Topup Genie here