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Paper short abstract:

This case study of YabaCon Valley in Lagos treats the gentrified neighborhood as an aspirational space constructed and used by a new class of urban youth, leading to a larger socio-spatial entrepreneurial experiment that potentially shapes youth urbanism and city futures.

Paper long abstract:

In the recent decade, the emergence and growth of tech start-up companies turned Lagos into a vibrant tech urban system. More than a hundred start-ups that began in the area of Yaba have given rise to its nickname, “YabaCon Valley”, a name with a vision of Africa’s Silicon Valley. Although its narrow streets and aging infrastructure might not give an immediate impression of a high-tech hub, many observers attributed the rise of Yaba to the location associated with two major educational institutions in Lagos. Relatedly, the case study of YabaCon Valley treats this gentrified neighborhood as an aspirational space constructed and used by a new class of urban youth. The urban space in this sense is defined by the ways in which these university students and graduates aspire to an urban future. Specifically, by drawing on a start-up that worked on ride-hail mobile APP from 2019-20, this paper illustrates how Yaba serves not only as a business base but also as an aspirational space, leading to a larger socio-spatial entrepreneurial experiment based on Lagos. Moreover, a detailed examination of spatial practices of a company employee—a young male university student—and his narratives of life experience in Lagos further illuminate a discussion on the relationship between youth and urbanism. By complementing the Africanist literature on underemployed street youth and urban informality, this study suggests that the spatiality of youth livelihoods, particularly their aspirational space, should be taken into account when exploring the multiplicity of African youth urbanism and city futures.