Google has launched a special hub in Lagos, Nigeria, for African developers, entrepreneurs and startups and investors to connect and collaborate.

The Google Developers Space, previously known as the Google Launchpad Space, was established in partnership with Impact Hub and local company Spacefinish to foster collaboration and innovation.

“Google is strengthening its commitment to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa by opening the Google Developers Space,” says Launchpad Accelerator Africa head of operations Onajite Emerhor.

This follows Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s 2017 commitment to African entrepreneurs to start the Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme and launch a site to house these efforts in Nigeria.

Google’s first regionally based startup accelerator programme, Launchpad Accelerator Africa, runs out of a dedicated space in Lagos.

Google has committed to training 60 African startups over three years, representing over $3-million in equity-free support, working space and access to expert advisers from Google, Silicon Valley and Africa.

Launchpad Accelerator Africa has worked with 47 startups across 17 African countries since the first class kicked off in early 2018, with the companies raising millions of dollars in investments and creating over 900 jobs across the continent.

These include startups in Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The new Nigeria-based hub, which will also house Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa, will support developer meetups, training, experts office hours, ‘women in technology’ events, startup programmes and partner events that support the wider entrepreneur and developer ecosystem.

It will also host Google digital skills training initiatives.

The next class is scheduled to start at the hub in May.

“This space is the next step to our support for developers across the continent. “Our commitment to train 100 000 developers across Africa and the launch of developer merchant support in the Google Play store, [makes] it possible for developers to earn money through apps they build,” says Google Nigeria country director Juliet Ehimuan.