During my visit to The Hub Sao Paulo, I spoke with Gilberto Jr., co-founder of Amanaie,  about the role of the Brazilian government in fostering innovation. He said that although the government has committed significant resources to hi tech investments, the money isn’t getting where it is supposed to go. Jr also challenged the notion that there are no startups in Brazil. Along with a small group of partners, Jr. launched a Web site called Startupi, which he said is like a Brazilian TechCrunch. Each week, Startupi profiles 5-10 homegrown startups.

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[Editor's Note: Nigeria is Africa's sleeping giant and it could one day be a global technology powerhouse. There are a number of factors that the country has in its favor. While numbers vary considerably, Nigeria has the largest university system of any sub-Saharan African nation, with more than 725,000 students on 76 campuses, according to AllAfrica.com.  In the U.S. Nigerians have highest rate of advanced degrees of any immigrant group and both abroad Nigerians are heavily represented in medicine, engineering, business and hard sciences.

Both at home and abroad, Nigeria's 150 million citizens represent tremendous untapped human capital. With a stable national government, Nigeria has much to show the world and one area of considerable promise is in the field of Web entrereneurship.

Chronicling the rise of Nigerian Web ventures as the stars of tomorrow is Loy Okezie, the founder of Startups Nigeria. Okezie has been featured on Global Voices,  White African and Appfrica, among others. Okezie is a serial entrepreneur and a bit of a practical joker. He really had me going on April Fools when he said that Startups Nigeria was shutting down due to criticism. Touchy.]

TechTrotter: What is your experience with startups in Nigeria?

Loy Okezie: I grew up with computers and although I didn’t have my first PC until I was in the University,  I have developed a lot of interest in the technologies, the companies, the people and in more recent times the developments in the new web space. And I follow all the major players – TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, GigaOM, RWW and more.

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