Yaba, located in Lagos Mainland and dubbed the Silicon Valley of Nigeria or Yabacon Valley, is home to a lot of youths as it houses most of the city’s citadels of knowledge and a host of companies. Yaba is fast becoming one of the go-to places for technology renaissance in Africa, quite like Nairobi in Kenya, with Tech startups like Hotels.ng, Andela, Cc-Hub and many others impacting the ecosystem for good.
A lot of these technology startup companies steadily attract investors, venture capitalists, enthusiasts and media people from all over the world – even the world renowned Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, who visited Yaba in recent times. Yaba continues to be a leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, buoyed by the country’s budding technology-savvy middle-class and the massive online population of 45 million internet users such that a lot of upcoming technology firms consider opening offices within this axis.
Yaba is interestingly a mixture of exotic and local. It’s popular Yaba left region stems from the location of the Psychiatric hospital in that region. The Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba is located at 8 Harvey Road, Yaba, Lagos. The popular “Yaba left” slang is used to refer to people with abnormally functioning brains.
With University of Lagos and Yaba College of Technology situated in Yaba, the axis is known as a citadel of knowledge as you will find many learned people working and living in this environment. More interesting is that there are many students living in this neighborhood and that has as a result contributed to the liveliness of this part of Lagos.
Tejuosho market, with its vibrancy and diversity is a Yaba spot any visitor would like to visit. You can find almost anything even though it is popularly known for its “okirika” cloth sale (thrift clothing) and feminine based goods like wigs and shoes.
Yaba market, which is invariably one of the most popular markets in Lagos is a dreaded spot for women because of the constant harassment, sexual advances and unruly behavior of touts in that market. Except they want to buy things in the market, people, including men avoid going through, they would rather walk around it.
