The Mandela Washington Fellow Putting Benue on Nigeria’s Tech and Innovation Map

In the first three months of 2025, Solomon Kershima Yateghtegh received at least four rejection emails from different applications. So when, on his birthday, March 13, a notification popped up from the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, he assumed it was another. Nigerians often call such messages “love letters” – a wry phrase that softens the sting of rejection.

“I was very scared to open it,” he recalls. 

He had applied for the Mandela Washington Fellowship three times before, each ending in disappointment. This year, he was hopeful, but even that could not blunt the anxiety.

When he finally opened the email, the words on the screen stunned him. This time, it was an acceptance. He broke down, momentarily lost for words. Fondly known as “Prof.” among friends and colleagues, Solomon found himself retracing the long path that had brought him here.

“All the bootstrapping of many years without any formal funding, reaching this stage was a significant moment,” he says. “It was the best birthday gift.”

By the time we spoke in July, Solomon was travelling back to Nigeria via Germany, having completed six weeks as a Mandela Washington Fellow at the University of Iowa, where he joined the Leadership in Business track.

His fascination with technology began as far back as junior secondary school, when he asked his parents to enrol him in a computer literacy programme during the holidays. In 2017, after earning a degree in computer science from Tansian University in Umunya, southeastern Nigeria, he moved to Jos, Plateau State, for his mandatory service year. There, he was posted to nHub, the North’s first technology and innovation hub, where he worked as a digital marketing specialist and trainer.

A year later, he founded SKYHub, a creative digital innovation centre that supports start-ups, helps clients gain visibility, and trains young people seeking to build careers in the tech industry. He also taught with the Google Digital Skills for Africa programme, continuing a role he had long embraced: opening doors for others. Over time, SKYHub became a pioneer learning partner for Nigeria’s 3MTT project, aimed at equipping three million young people with technical skills. To date, it has trained more than 10,000 individuals, supported over 500 small businesses, and incubated 12 startups.

In 2021, Solomon relocated the hub from Jos to Makurdi, Benue State, where he felt there was even less activity in the tech ecosystem.

“Seeing myself as someone who is working in an environment where my work goes almost unnoticed, applying for the Mandela Washington Fellowship was a reminder that impact cannot be hidden,” he says.

The North Central region, where he focuses much of his work, particularly Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau states, remains underserved in Nigeria’s digital economy. Media coverage of tech largely centres on Lagos and the South West, or Abuja, the capital. Investment in his region is limited, and many who acquire technical skills leave for opportunities elsewhere. Nigerian startups raised more than $400 million in 2024, with most of the funding concentrated in Lagos, which now hosts over 2,000 startups.

“The MWF is an opportunity to showcase my work on a global stage,” he says.

Running SKYHub in Makurdi has come with both wins and setbacks. In the early days, many people mistook the centre for an internet café, a place for browsing, printing, or photocopying. With the rise of cybercrime, some even viewed it with suspicion, as though a tech hub was a training ground for fraudsters.

“So, we did a lot of reverse shift,” Solomon says, describing the effort to change mindsets and reshape perceptions.

Infrastructural challenges also persist, from unreliable internet to inadequate facilities. Yet he insists the ecosystem is growing. Since SKY Hub’s arrival, the number of tech hubs in Makurdi has increased from about three to ten, he says. “The impact we have left on ecosystem players has increased the growth of the ecosystem and the drive to build tech solutions in the heart of Benue State.”

Now, fresh from Iowa, Solomon is doubling down on his commitment. His next goal is to expand access by offering training in local languages, bridging the digital skills gap among undergraduates, and raising digital literacy in Benue State to 40 per cent within three years.

It is an ambitious target in a country where only 9.4 per cent of households own a computer—falling to just 3 per cent in rural areas—and where fewer than 36 per cent of Nigerians use the internet. Despite government plans to achieve 70 per cent digital literacy by 2027, the current adult literacy rate stands at just 63.1 per cent.

For Solomon, the fellowship is not just a personal victory but a chance to prove that innovation can thrive beyond Nigeria’s traditional centres of power.

“It is a call to do more,” he tells me.