[ singing ] anthony: it s a fully functioning community. i ve seen barbershops, restaurants, groceries, hotels edoato: hospitals, private schools anthony: self-made, self-run, self-policing, independent of everything. it exists because it has to. i mean there s electricity. there s water. all of this you provide, yes? edoato: yes. yomi: yes. we provide.
seni sulyman, is a rigorous training program that teaches coders and engineers with the goal of creating no less than a continent-wide ecosystem of high value software developers. shalom: my mom has like a mobile shop, something like what s in computer village. that s where i grew up, like, she would sell mobile phones and they d fix it there, and she just used to run that. blessing: i came looking for a job, but the jobs i got, i said, no, i don t want to be a salesperson, i don t want to be a secretary. so that s why i got into programming. anthony: shalom and blessing are trainees in the program, people who will someday rewrite the way africa works. seni: as you can see, there are a lot of issues in nigeria today. the average nigerian is struggling for just food, water, clothing, shelter. we all believe that this will change, and we all believe that we will change that. in the u.s., for every software
yam. she certainly doesn t want to pound yam. and i m sure when she s getting married, one of her gifts to her husband s house will not be a mortar and a pestle. oz: unlike 20 years or 30 years ago. iqou: it would be a food processor, most likely. and personally, i think maybe people, women, my generation might have failed people like her by not passing things on. but now, thanks to food bloggers, the younger ladies have a atim: an avenue to learn. iqou: an avenue to, you know, get this information without getting it from their mom. anthony: how much interest in food is there these days? more? oz: more. nigerians are big on meat, so when you see that we have a few vegan chefs. anthony: wow, vegans. oz: vegan, yes, in nigeria. i think that shows you just how much more people are finding their niches. iqou: you know, that s for a second social class. the bulk of the people still
generated in lagos, not so much by oil but by the free market. a wild west free for all of private enterprise. tunti: it grew organically, not by government intervention. anthony: it just happened. tunti: it just happened. everything is crammed into this small eco-system. you have one small store. somebody selling mobile phones right in it. and in front of him you got another guy who s selling applications for the phones. a repair guy he s right there, and it works. that s the amazing thing about it. anthony: tunti andrews is a journalist, radio host, and an expert on the nigerian economy. the guys who fascinate me are these kids sitting there with phones are opened up. like if i want my iphone repaired in new york i have to go to the apple store and i have to wait on line, i have to say bye to my phone for a while. but here they know how to take apart my iphone, fix it, and put it back together. tunti: this how the computer village eco-system works right, a young boy trying
and error, so your phone might just be a practice but anthony: right. tunti: yeah. anthony: but they get there eventually. tunti: they get there eventually, and that s the success story of almost all the people you see here. most of them came into this particular market with nothing. okay, this is anthony: oh, yeah, let s go get some food. tunti: exactly. anthony: pounded yam is the ubiquitous starch of nigerian cuisine. here served with egusi soup. a stew of goat meat, melon seeds, fish stock and chiles. this is very, very good. so, i ve heard this market described as the perfect market. now, what does that mean? tunti: right here, you can find on the same street, about 20 people doing exactly the same thing. so you go to the first guy and you say, hey, i want to repair