When in 2016, a group of four young people collaborated to build one of the first tech incubation hubs in Kano, they had no idea that this singular goal to participate in the tech revolution happening in the country would become the foundation of the state’s tech ecosystem. In eight years, this hub, Startup Kano, has become one of the biggest in the northern region and the entry-point into tech for over 50,000 youth in Kano, helping early-stage entrepreneurs raise over $1 million for their tech-enabled businesses. 

A tech ecosystem in Kano is vastly different from ones in other parts of the country, like Lagos or Enugu, and while the growth of the former might have inspired Kano, that didn’t make building any easier.

According to Aisha Tofa, co-founder of Startup Kano, there was no blueprint for them in the beginning as the environments were severely different. There was zero tech awareness in Kano communities, and despite its deep entrepreneurial culture, the concept of investing in technology rather than actual brick-and-mortar businesses was still largely absurd.

“People understood technology only to the extent of using social media platforms like Facebook,” she said. “Anything outside that and they didn’t trust it.”

It took years of radical tech evangelism to draw the interest of young people, and subsequently investors. Now, the state has become one of the top six tech ecosystems in the country, with the most number of startups in northern Nigeria.

According to Tofa, what is responsible for the recent push for the tech entrepreneurs in Kano is witnessing the potential of technology for their counterparts in the north. 

“At first, people didn’t even try. They simply believed that their startups wouldn’t get enough funding or traction for the single reason that they were from the north and not Lagos,” she said. “But when they started to see other founders like them in the northern region who worked hard and got rewarded for it, then they woke up.”

In 2022, a mobility startup founded by Kano-born Khalil Halilu won $8,000 for the mobility and smart city category during a GITEX Pitch competition.  That same year, another northern startup, Sudo Africa, raised $3.37 million in pre-seed funding. From 2021 to 2024, the number of tech startups in Kano has jumped from five to about sixty. 

Funding has always been regarded as the principal obstacle to growth in the Nigerian tech space, more so in emerging ecosystems like Kano. In 2023, we wrote that only about 6% of tech founders from the entire northern region had access to venture capital funding. 

Tofa has a differing opinion. She believes that for an ecosystem like Kano, there are still foundational challenges that still need to be gotten right, like education, mentorship, and creating the right market. 

“There’s a huge gap between the training and impact we see in the ecosystem at the moment. A lot of us are still using the templates from other places to train Kano youth, and it’s not the right fit,” she said. “Funding is important, but the things we do before getting to where we need funding should also be focused on.” 

According to another co-founder of Startup Kano, who’d like to not be mentioned, Kano is different and the ecosystem has to adapt to the cultural context of the city to be successful.

“When we pitch tech startups as something entirely separate from the regular businesses they’re used to, then it’s even more difficult to work with,” they said. “Startups are basically businesses, which is what we know here [in Kano] and how we ought to operate.”

The co-founder, who now bootstraps their own tech-enabled business, shared that funding isn’t as important to them now as finding the market for their product. 

“Before thinking about raising money from investors, I’m already thinking about how to sell and make my profits directly from my customers, which is exactly how my own fathers did business,” they said. 

A lot of things have changed in Kano in the past few years. Beyond an increased number of startups, there are also more incubation hubs, willing investors in the city, and increased interest.

“While building is still difficult, it is definitely not as difficult as it was four years ago because there are more resources to help you now,” the anonymous co-founder said. “Global organisations, the government, and even private individuals have seen what’s possible in Kano and want to be a part of it.”

Ahmed Idris, founder of Enovate Labs, a non-profit focused on driving innovation, warned that the buzz in the ecosystem shouldn’t be confused with a big change and there’s still work to be done.

“The ecosystem is largely still as small as it was years ago, but we’ve seen some unique cases of people and startups who’ve managed to do great stuff,” he said to TechCabal. 

Traditional banks and fintechs have historically fought fraud through internal controls, strengthening security infrastructure, and having adequate information on customers (KYC processes). Banks also share information among themselves, helping them identify and restrict the accounts of bad actors pending investigation. Fintechs have tried to replicate this information sharing but have failed. 

In March 2023, fintechs, led by Flutterwave, began talks to create a fraud database, codenamed Project Radar, to share data on individuals and groups that had attempted or made fraudulent transactions. But the fintechs, hawkish about their data and ultracompetitive, did not make much progress with those talks.

Another industry collaboration to fight PoS fraud, a popular channel for bad actors is still in its early days. However, a decision mandating mobile banking agents to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is expected to increase transparency. 

If financial institutions are learning to fly without perching, bad actors are learning to shoot without missing. The consensus is that an industry-wide response is required.

“It goes back to KYC and customer due diligence,” said Adedeji Olowe, founder of Lendsqr, a lending-as-a-service startup. “There is literally nothing new anyone is supposed to do.”

Section 7(2)(b) of the CBN Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023 mandates financial institutions to physically verify the residential address of customers. Until recently, only traditional banks have followed this directive. The CBN began mandating fintechs to follow the same rules in May. 

Those KYC processes, which are now being tightened and applied across board, are at the heart of a dispute between banks and fintechs.  In April, Wema Bank removed seven fintech partners from its payment gateway platform over fraudulent activities after reporting ₦685 million ($594,943) in fraud and forgery losses in 2023. Fidelity Bank also briefly blocked some neobanks over fraud concerns in 2023, although such heavy-handed measures are likely frowned on by the regulator. 

Nevertheless, banks and fintechs must sheathe their swords and collaborate to fight fraud. One such strategy in that fight is data sharing. 

“I think the ecosystem is ripe for a central repository where everybody can share data. Just the way the banks themselves came up with BVN before the regulator stepped in. The entire financial industry needs something similar to tackle fraud,” said Lanre Ogungbe, co-founder of Identitypass, a Nigerian identity verification company.

Data sharing has been discussed since at least 2018, possibly earlier, with little to show for it. The growing complexity of fraud has made it more important than ever. 

Financial Institutions (FIs) are part of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NEFF), a CBN initiative where they report fraud incidents and provide relevant information on the nature of the fraud, but data sharing isn’t part of the arrangement.

The argument for a central repository is that banks and fintechs can share data on customers who trigger fraud flags and make that data accessible to all participants. 

One industry insider narrated how a former employee of a traditional bank sacked for fraud got hired by a fintech startup six months later.

“Everyone must come together to fight fraud because it’s really becoming a pandemic,” said Babatunde Obrimah, chief operating officer of the Fintech Association of Nigeria, an industry lobby group. 

Yet, quite a few people are skeptical about any collaboration. “I don’t see collaboration happening because there is this aversion to sharing data. If every stakeholder is doing what they are supposed to do, fighting fraud will be much easier,” Olowe said.

Obrimah said the Fintech Association of Nigeria is developing a black book where fintechs can drop details of bank accounts that have been involved in fraud to blacklist transactions from such accounts.

Taking fraud more seriously will also include setting fraud desks and timely disclosure of fraud incidents, Damilola Adeyi, a fraud expert told TechCabal. 

“A lot of financial institutions don’t see fraud as an integral part of their operations. You can’t eradicate fraud but you can mitigate it,” he said. 

In 2015, the CBN mandated all deposit money banks, mobile money operators, switches, and all payment service providers to establish a fraud desk to receive and respond promptly to fraud alerts. But most fintechs are non-compliant because the CBN has failed to enforce the directive, one industry insider claimed. 

An executive at Moniepoint confirmed the company has a fraud desk that handles transaction monitoring and behavioral analysis, fraud detection and reporting, and investigation with law enforcement agencies. 

Yet, financial institutions are paranoid about fraud reporting and believe disclosures could cost them customer trust. At least 63% of the financial institutions profiled in a recent fraud report by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the national payment switch, failed to report fraud cases, a violation of a CBN directive. 

There is equally a need to strengthen the security systems of financial institutions. In the First Bank incident, the fraud went undetected for two years, raising questions about the bank’s internal control. A lack of an effective internal control system is the major cause of bank fraud, according to research. A 2022 KPMG Nigeria study found that only 30% of local banks have fully implemented KYC and anti-fraud measures. 

“The CBN must take its audit more seriously and do spot checks to see that Information Security Management System (ISMS) is being adhered to in all the banks,” said one fraud expert who asked not to be named.

The latest data from GitHub, a global hub for software development, has listed the two African economies – Nigeria and Egypt – as among the world’s 10 fastest-growing countries for software development in 2023.

It may come as no surprise that software development is on the rise in Africa. Vibrant startup hubs across the continent have become famous, with Silicon Cape, Silicon Savannah and Silicon Valley (South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, respectively) all known across the tech ecosystem. Over the last five years, Nigeria has flexed its continental muscle in terms of tech startup funding and development, while Egypt has shown every sign of becoming Africa’s next biggest startup ecosystem, both in terms of deal count and deal value.

What is surprising is the speed of growth, according to the report.

Nigeria grew developer talent numbers by 45.6% between Q3 of 2022 and Q3 of 2023, to 872,162 – the fastest growth in Africa.

“Nigeria has been ploughing ahead of other African geographies in recent years, firmly establishing itself as a – if not the – leading startup ecosystem on the continent,” said Disrupt Africa in a separate report.

The West African country was the world’s second-fastest-growing country for developers after Bangladesh, whose developer count grew by 66.5% to 945,696.

Egypt, placed second in Africa in terms of total developer numbers and growth rate, saw its developer count rise by 34.1% to 729,790.

The North African country topped the growth rates of Argentina (33.2%), Hong Kong (32.1%) and Indonesia (32.1%) in terms of growth rates, to finish seventh in the global ranking.

However, an article in non-profit publication, Rest of the World, warned that the fast-rising developer community could also reflect tech workers turning to unpaid work in the face of drying venture capital taps.

“A surging number of GitHub accounts might suggest a rising tech sector — but it might also represent a decline in actual work, as developers turn to unpaid work on public repos after paid work disappears,” according to the publication.

Disrupt Africa in its African Tech-Startups Funding Report 2023, reported that Egypt experienced a huge squeeze on startup jobs in 2023, with just 3,085 new jobs reported – an average of 67 per startup and substantially down from the 11,153 people employed by startups in 2022.

This was fueled by the collapse of funding by more than 50% in the country, with figures almost entirely propped up by a single company – MNT-Halan’s single round of $510 million.

Nigeria’s startup job market, however, recorded only a marginal drop, from 6,751 people in 2022 to 6,669 in 2023. The Disrupt report put the average number of employees at Nigerian startups in 2023 at 53 per startup, up from 38 in 2022. 

Other top developer markets in Africa, according to GitHub, include South Africa, which finished as the third-fastest-growing market on the continent. The country’s developer numbers grew from 412,731 in 2022 to 540,486. South Africa was followed by Morocco with a current total of 448,194 developers and Kenya with 297,581.

In 2021 search engine Google recorded the continent’s total developer count at 716,000, according to its Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021, reflecting the phenomenal level of growth in recent years.

African startups, according to the Google report, are responsible for hiring more than half of local developers, with foreign companies outside the continent hiring 38% of the remaining talent.

Data from the layoff-tracking website, Layoffs.fyi shows a total of 1,191 tech companies – including giants like Microsoft, Google, TikTok and YouTube – retrenched 262,995 employees across the globe in 2023.

The fact that you exist is not news…

Occasionally, a crisis or controversy in the African tech ecosystem ignites debates among founders and influencers about the merits of local versus international media coverage. While it’s undeniable that sensational headlines can spread like wildfire, accusing the local tech media of a sole focus on the negative is neither fair nor accurate.

At Wimbart, after eight years in the industry, I’ve come to understand a fundamental truth that also happens to be Wimbart CEO’s Twitter cover story: The fact that you exist is not news. Whilst raising over a million seed in funds could guarantee you coverage, whether you’ve launched a new product or expanded, journalists will always ask, “So what?” What’s the impact, the innovation, the human story?

The African tech market is brimming with startups eager to share their narrative. At Wimbart alone, where we represent a modest fraction of African-focused companies, we often find ourselves amongst at least three different teams pitching to the same journalist in any given week. It’s important to recognise that journalists’ inboxes are inundated with up to 50, sometimes hundreds of pitches, on any given day. Recognising their hard work is crucial—they are the storytellers who have elevated our narratives, making international media platforms not only notice but also hire local teams to push the narrative further. When I began working in PR for African tech, capturing the attention of international media was a formidable challenge—it was H-A-R-D. We owe much to local publications that have tirelessly championed our stories; they deserve our gratitude, or “flowers,” if you will.

Pitching a story that will resonate and secure media coverage is an intricate art. For those with in-house communications teams or a PR agency like Wimbart, there’s support to sculpt the narrative. Yet, we are aware that not all, especially early-stage startups, have these resources. If your pitches happen to be met with a rate card, it‘s an indicator that what is being pitched is perceived more as promotional than editorial content. There lies the distinction between what is known as “earned media” and “paid media”. In layman’s terms, earned media is akin to a badge of honour, granted for its intrinsic worthiness, whereas paid media is a lot more straightforward; it’s coverage that you pay to secure—zero thought required. Each serves a purpose but they are not interchangeable. 

So, you’re set on securing earned media coverage without resorting to financial outlay? Excellent decision. Below are some actionable steps that can elevate your story from just another pitch that ends up unread to headline-worthy news:

Research publications and journalists 

Finding the right journalist for a media outlet to share your startup’s story should mirror the process of choosing the perfect business partner or founding team. It involves aligning your startup’s mission with the outlet’s editorial focus where possible, ensuring there is mutual interest and goals. This due diligence involves thorough research into their past work and identifying the journalists within a specific publication who champion themes that resonate with your venture. Whether it’s your company’s innovative approach to sustainability, significant funding achievements, or the founder’s unique profile, finding that match means you’re ready to pitch.

Pitching to the right person transcends mere coverage; it becomes an opportunity to weave your story into their ongoing narrative. It’s about creating a partnership where your startup’s achievement and aspirations complement their storytelling, ensuring that your narrative gets shared and truly resonates with their audience, creating a meaningful impact. 

Attention-Grabbing Subject Email

Your email’s subject line is the gateway to capturing a journalist’s attention, so make every word count. Imagine you’re crafting the editorial for tomorrow’s newspaper, it should be compelling enough to make anyone pause and take notice. Take inspiration from the impactful stories you see on major platforms titles like “How [innovation/company] is changing [industry]” are not just headlines, they are calls to curiosity. Use this approach to mirror each publication’s storytelling style in your email subjects. This not only piques interest but also shows you’ve done your homework and understand what resonates with their readership. 

Keep it punchy and to the point 

Keep your pitch concise and riveting. As highlighted above, journalists sift through a mountain of pitches daily, so you need to make yours stand out by hitting the key point right from the start, much like you’d share a piece of irresistible gossip with a friend. Highlight the most compelling aspect of your story immediately to grab their attention otherwise you risk losing it before the second paragraph—this could include striking data, a customer story, etc. If there’s depth to add, consider bullet points or a summary after your email signature. Alternatively, you could keep it in reserve for a follow-up, which is often required. Reading lengthy pitches can be daunting, but this strategy respects journalists’ time and piques their curiosity, significantly enhancing the chances of your story being featured. It’s about striking the perfect balance: being informative yet engaging, ensuring your message is not just another in the huge pile but a must-read.

Build a relationship before pitching 

Fun fact: My path to landing my first big feature was paved not just by an intriguing story, but more so by the relationship I had nurtured with the journalist well ahead of the time I needed to pitch my client’s news. It’s crucial to start building these connections early, long before the urgency to disseminate your news arises. This can be done by demonstrating a sincere interest in their work, engaging in meaningful conversations, and extending your assistance, such as connecting them with a speaker, without immediately anticipating a return; it can remarkably shift your stance from that of an outsider to a respected collaborator. I’ve found that the most fruitful relationships are those where communication can be as simple as sending bullet points over WhatsApp. Yet, reaching this level of informality and trust with journalists requires an investment of time and genuine interaction, moving you from just another contact in their inbox to a trusted and familiar figure.

As we’ve established, the art of pitching is nuanced, requiring more than just presenting facts—just because a publication is considered “local” or regionalised, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice the art of pitching. Truthfully speaking, you could tick all of the right boxes with your pitch and due to timing or resources, it doesn’t get picked up. But if your pitch is compelling and memorable enough, the journalist will come back to you at the appropriate time. Journalists seek stories that captivate their audience and bring significant attention to their platforms, therefore pitching must be strategic. By following these tips, founders can not only refine their failed approach but also build respectable, productive relationships with African tech media. This foundational work is crucial for when it’s time to scale up efforts and introduce a PR expert *cough, Wimbart* to the fold. Let’s turn your innovation into news that matters. 

2Africa project is a Subsea Cable connecting three continents and about 33 countries in Africa, including Nigeria. At 45,000km, it is the world’s longest submarine cable and is expected to connect about 1.3 billion people and deepen 4G and 5G Internet penetration to more remote locations. 

The subsea cable, owned by 2Africa Consortium —led by Meta— has now reached the shores of Nigeria through Lagos and Akwa Ibom states. The Akwa Ibom landing location which is managed by MainOne is at Ibeno and feelers suggest Rivers and Akwa Ibom states are the main focus for now. Doors are however open for other states in the region if enough interest is generated. 

Here are the top five ways I believe this represents a game changer for the extended business communities in general and the startup ecosystem within the regions in particular:

• Improved & Faster Internet Connection

The deep-sea cable project will connect 32 other African countries and directly support economic development in Africa. This will foster further growth of 4G and 5G and increase broadband penetration to millions of people and businesses across the continent. At 180 terabytes per second, this will deliver high-speed internet to homes, offices, government institutions, and others in the region.

• Speedup Economic Growth

According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU global study), it was estimated that on average, an increase of 10% in mobile broadband penetration yielded an increase of 1.5% in GDP. We expect this cable landing and subsequent last-mile distribution activities to further grow the economy of the regions in particular and Nigeria by extension. 

• Talent Attraction & Rapid Growth of the Startup Ecosystem

We expect more companies to set up in the region leading to more talents choosing to live and work here. This will have some ramifications for the economy of the region but more importantly, it would attract and deliver more experienced professionals to the startup ecosystem, some of whom could become founders or work in some of the innovative startups that call the region home. This would also attract more investors.

• Affordable Internet Access

We expect increased competition to lead to affordable Internet access. The 2Africa Cable will bring the total number of cable landings in Nigeria to seven. However, it is the only subsea cable to successfully land on the southern coast of Nigeria designed to deliver more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables currently serving Africa at a capacity of up to 180 terabytes per second (Tbps).

• Job Creation & Youth Engagement

The Cable landing will create hundreds —and probably thousands— of direct jobs via the rise of last-mile Internet service providers that are required to get Internet connections direct to homes and offices. Many more direct and indirect jobs will be created through several new Internet-enabled businesses such as data centres, cloud companies, and outsourcing agencies, among others. Additionally, affordable Internet will lead to more engaged young people who will connect and plug into several Internet-based opportunities and commercial recreational activities such as e-sports and gaming.

Uche is the Convener of #StartupSouth, an organization that promotes and advocates for the development of the startup ecosystem in the South-South/South-East region of Nigeria.

Fundus AI, an AI-powered solution for diagnosing diabetic retinopathy co-founded by Abdulmalik Adeyemo, and XchangeBox Solutions, a fintech startup supporting rural SMEs with loans and digital records—co-founded by Abiola Jimoh, emerged as the winners in 1st and 2nd place respectively. 

Both winners will receive a trip to Gitex Africa 2024 in Morocco, including accommodation, an exhibition booth, and entry to the Supernova Challenge with a chance to win $100,000. The Road Show continues in Lagos and wraps up in Kaduna—Gitex Africa’s first-ever event in the city—on Thursday.

Beyond the startup pitches, the event featured a breakfast meeting between industry leaders and Bilal Al-Rais, Vice President, Portfolio Growth Tech & Digital, Dubai World Trade Centre. A panel discussion which focused on fostering cross-border collaboration to drive business growth was held. Participants included  Khalil Halilu, CEO of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and representatives from Nigerian agencies such as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN),  Wema Bank, and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).

Startups outside Lagos and Abuja feel neglected

With the Nigerian tech ecosystem being one of the fastest growing in the world,  raising $398.2 million in funding in 2023, startups in the northern region still struggle to scale due to a lack of access to funding. 

At the Gitex Breakfast Briefing, discussions emerged on how to give visibility and resources to startups outside major cities like Lagos and Abuja. Usman Illiyas, co-founder of Startup Bauchi, a humanitarian development program that focuses on supporting startups, particularly in Bauchi, highlighted the disconnect between organic startups and government agencies. 

“The state government and government agencies are the first point of communication for Gitex and the likes when sourcing new talents and innovation. However, without proper communication between the state government and Nigerian startups, many startups lose access to gain the visibility they need,” Illiyas noted.

Illiyas and many other participants suggested improving communication between the government and startups to ensure these startups have access to opportunities like GITEX Africa. 

Other upcoming Gitex events include GITEX Africa 2024, which will take place in Morocco from May 29-31, 2024, followed by GITEX Global in Dubai from October 14-18, 2024. GITEX will make its debut in Europe in 2025, scheduled for May 21-23.

Sanusi Ismaila moved from Lagos to Kaduna in 2014 to set up a technology hub that trained people to solve real-world problems. He believed it was essential to inspire and cultivate tech ecosystems outside of Lagos because local issues need to be solved by locals who understand the nuances.

After a while, he ran into his first problem: no talent pipeline to sustain startups nationwide. So, he went one step backward on the value chain to produce the talent needed to build high-quality products and startups.

In 2016, Ismaila launched CoLab, and it became Kaduna’s first tech hub and the second in northern Nigeria. Today, CoLab is a community for those building tech careers and dreamers looking to connect and learn from each other. 

Lagos is to the Nigerian tech ecosystem what Silicon Valley is to the North American ecosystem. Yet, unlike the United States, where other states like New York, Seattle and Chicago still have thriving ecosystems that complement Silicon Valley, tech ecosystems outside Lagos struggle to build their identities or grab significant attention from stakeholders. As a result, some of the best tech talents from these regions frequently feel the need to migrate to more viable regions to attract better opportunities.

After a brief conversation with these men,  he discovered they were CoLab members; the following month, he signed up to learn data analytics. Six years on, he now works at AltSchool and is the director of people and head of data science programs at CoLab while still living in Kaduna.

What started as a small community of young people wearing hoodies and sitting around with used HP laptops has become one of northern Nigeria’s biggest tech talent pipelines. CoLab has over a thousand alumni, with some collaborating to build startups like Sudo Africa and others working in organisations like Paystack, Microsoft, and Google.

The community became such a force that in May 2022, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir ElRufai, provided them with seven hectares of land to set up a campus and train even more tech talents.

Excel Ajah, who built writersgig, an online platform for freelance writers, has struggled with finding tech talent, and he believes that this is a significant contributing factor to the slow growth of the tech ecosystems in the East. 

“Because ecosystems like Lagos are more advanced, it’s easier to find people who can do exactly what you want,” he shared. 

The tech ecosystem in Imo State is in its earliest stages and didn’t begin to take shape until 2020. According to Ajah, its inception can be traced to when he and a couple of people started hanging out in public facilities to work and discuss other tech ecosystems like Lagos. In no time, they attempted to replicate these communities and events they saw in Lagos and soon organised The Owerri Business Week and Social Media Fest, which attracted a lot of attention and have become annual events.

While still running writersgig, Ajah launched Silicon Africa, a tech innovation centre dubbed after its counterpart in San Francisco. With a new company came hiring needs, which was where he encountered his first challenge. Scarcity of talent. It was difficult for Ajah to find strong developers in the region to work for his company, so he began training them instead.

“Some of the early developers I hired still work with me and are now senior developers who now train other early-stage developers in the centre,” he shared. “This has been interesting to watch because it has become a cycle, and those they train now train others.” 

For Chidi Duru, another founder who operates from Owerri, the problem of the ecosystem in Imo precedes a scarcity of talent. For him, it’s a lack of interest in learning tech skills driven by the popularity of internet fraud in the region, especially in the past years. Duru’s tech hub, CodeAnt, provides coding classes to young people with support from Google, but it is still difficult to convince young people to focus on learning tech skills. 

As a founder, building from Owerri limits him from a network of people who understand what he’s building. Recently, in Lagos, he walked around at a centre wearing a CodeAnt hoodie merch and had a couple walk up to him to discuss the classes and company. 

“This has never happened in all the years I’ve been wearing our merch in Owerri,” he shared while laughing. “I even contemplated moving to Lagos for some minutes.”

While it’s a lot of work, Duru says that he’s committed to putting in the work to ensure that aspiring tech talents in Owerri have a space that’s dedicated to their growth and learning. So far, they’ve trained about a thousand young people with coding and digital marketing skills.

Beyond a talent pipeline, Lagos has a more structured ecosystem that encompasses the talent, the investors to fund these ideas, and the media to tell stories about said ideas. In newer ecosystems like Imo, for example, securing avenues to tell their stories on the centre stage can be difficult. Most tech media is focused on more vibrant ecosystems like Lagos, which makes getting their attention “a bit challenging,” in the words of Duru.

During a fireside chat in January, Sim Shagaya, the founder of u-lesson and Miva, both Abuja-based ed techs, shared that one of the reasons why tech ecosystems outside Lagos have struggled is a lack of structured institutions in these regions. Before the rise of the tech industry in Lagos, it was already home to tertiary institutions like The University of Lagos, Lagos State University other private and open universities, providing it with a high mass of young people from these institutions to feed into the tech ecosystems. 

This population, which is a blessing in this case, could be its blight. Pablo believes that smaller ecosystems are the best place to learn and get into the tech space as they offer the intimacy of organic communities.

According to Pablo, the tech ecosystem in Kaduna isn’t trying to be like Lagos. The more conservative state has a culture and rhythm that is slower and smaller compared to Lagos, and he doesn’t think that will change anytime soon, as it works perfectly for the people operating in the region.

“It gives participants a chance to build without a lot of noise and pressure, which is especially important for people in the early stages,” he shared over a call. “ People do not feel the need to perform for a large ecosystem, and there’s a lot more space to interact in communities and gain access to the things you need as there’s less competition.”

On January 17, TechCabal reported that Access Holding Plc, the parent company of Access Bank, received approval in principle from the Central Bank to launch Oxygen X, a standalone lending product. While Access is the first holding company to make a play for standalone digital lending, other banks are in talks to spin off standalone digital lending services, a highly-placed industry source told TechCabal. 

“Banks may launch their apps, but they don’t have the mastery of execution that fintechs have,” said the source who asked not to be identified. “Banks will possibly drop the ball. I am not betting on any banks to win in the market.” 

That argument isn’t new. When traditional banks began a push into fintech, the consensus from fintech insiders was that the banks didn’t have the operational chops to mount a challenge. But Habari Pay, the fintech arm of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), posted profits of ₦1.3 billion in the first half of 2023, according to GTCO’s financial report.

It also may be premature to write off the big banks given that QuickCredit, arguably the most innovative lending product in the last few years, has come from the banks. 

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Will banks change their approach to retail lending? 

While one of the core mandates of commercial banks is to lend, they don’t give out a lot of loans, especially to individuals and small businesses (retail lending). Rather than serve a mass market with a high risk of defaults, banks would instead give loans to high-quality borrowers such as salary earners with credible employers. 

A former bank executive argues that the entry of traditional banks into the digital lending market will only be a game-changer if the banks abandon the old lending and leverage data philosophy. 

“For me, the big question is, what will be different? What is the play? Is it lower rates and faster returns? One advantage banks have is that they can unlock customers’ data to make lending decisions,” he said.

Nigeria’s digital lending market is dominated by startups like Carbon, FairMoney, and OPay, serving a growing mass of digital-first customers. There are about 211 licensed digital lenders in Nigeria, according to the country’s digital lending regulator, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). The selling point for these startups is the simplified lending process, allowing people to get loans in a few minutes and less stringent KYC requirements. 

But easier means more expensive. Many digital lenders offer loans with interests as high as 30% per annum, while banks like GTBank—through its digital lending platform QuickCredit—offer around 21%. 

The difference in interest rates often comes down to the cost of financing. While traditional banks have trillions of Naira in customer deposits to lend from, fintech startups often draw on debt or venture funding. Beyond this, digital lenders don’t have as many data points to make loan decisions, meaning slightly more risk. These risks are baked into the interest rates.

The cost of loan recovery is also one key issue lenders have to deal with. As one industry insider put it, traditional banks “can’t do the rough things,” referring to some digital lenders’ questionable loan recovery methods. 

One thing is clear: traditional banks offer lower interest rates to beat fintechs. Whether they can change their lending strategies remains to be seen. 

Ochai has spent the past 20 years working between the creative industry and the tech sector in Africa and has created a space for herself at the intersection of these two fields. Now, her work revolves around providing support to tech startups that are building for the creative industry.

Beginning as an arts and administrative assistant in 2006, Ochai rapidly moved up the ladder at the British Council, and in May 2010, she became director of arts in Nigeria and West Africa. By 2018, she was director of programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, where she started working on creative economy projects across the continent. According to Ochai, her background in tech made her particularly curious about how technology was impacting activities in the creative sector and social space. So she delved deeper into exploring that, one research paper at a time.

This curiosity eventually brought her to the doorsteps of CcHub, where she is excited about making emerging tech mainstream, among other things.

Ochai and two other Nigerians—Khalil Nur Khalil and Obi Nwosu— sit on the board of BTrust, a bitcoin non-profit set up by Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z to support bitcoin development with a focus on Africa and Asia.

She regards her work at BTrust as transformative, and the entry point into her journey into that space was curiosity. In 2017, while working at the British Council, she commissioned a study on how arts and culture practitioners were leveraging tech in their practice. Driven by curiosity, Ochai dove head-first into a research rabbit hole until she eventually landed on the most fascinating answer: bitcoin. 

“I was fascinated by the opportunity in blockchain and bitcoin,” she shared. Before then, she’d had minimal interaction with the digital currency, and although she’d bought some in 2013, she had no sense that it was going to be a big thing. “If you’ve been in the creative industries, you’ll know that there were a lot of issues around licensing, royalties, payments, and cross-border remittances, and I got fascinated by the opportunity in blockchain [and consequently bitcoin] to solve that,” she said. 

And so, when, in February 2021, Jack Dorsey put out a tweet looking for three board members for BTrust, she signed up.

The entire process included four rounds of interviews and an essay, where she hesitantly shared her theories on how the creative economy could leverage Bitcoin to grow. This impressed Dorsey because, in November 2021, she was sent a Google Meet link for the final stage of the screening process.

“I don’t think I knew it was the last stage,” she recalls. “I just got on a Google Meet, and there I am, on a call with Jack Dorsey. How is this my life?”

That same year, Ochai left her job at the British Council to cofound the creative economy practice at CcHub. This pivotal decision came after she analyzed the creative industry and digital economy in about 94 countries, which made her realise that it was getting more difficult to distinguish between the creative industry and the digital economy, as their value chains were intertwined. 

Ochai already believes in the core purpose and direction the previous leadership at CcHub had established: providing support to founders building tech-based solutions for social impact. 

“There won’t be a dramatic shift in how the company runs,” she shared over a call on a Friday afternoon. “Much of my effort will go towards staying on track rather than charting an entirely new course.” 

She, however, shares that she will be building on the current foundation to expand further thematically and into more countries across the continent. 

Expanding thematically means that CcHub will be paying special attention to emerging tech like blockchain, artificial intelligence(AI) and intelligent automation (IA) with their main focus being how to mainstream it into the current work being done. 

“If these emerging technologies like AI, bitcoin or blockchain, are going to revolutionise the world, then we can’t just be interested spectators. We have to be participants,” she shared.

Currently, the company supports 24 startups across Nigeria and Kenya, with its main focus being edtech. It is running an accelerator for startups to receive up to $100,000 in non-dilutive capital and six months of acceleration. CcHub also has its eyes on the creative industry and is backing early-stage startups like Nollydata which aggregates service providers in Nollywood, and Orange VFX, a visual effects company. 

“We’re consuming, and it’s great, but who on the continent supports the people building the tech for creative industries?”

Outside of emerging technologies and the creative economy, another area Ochai is looking to bring mainstream is climate and environment. She believes that builders in the ecosystem must pay attention to how issues like climate change can impact other outcomes like health and the economy and find ways to innovate around that. CcHub will also be supporting founders in building solutions to adapt or mitigate the changes currently happening due to climate change.

In December 2023, Ochai was named MD of CcHub following its founder and former CEO Bosun Tijani’s appointment as Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation and digital economy. For twelve years, Tijani led CcHub from a small innovation centre in Yaba, Lagos, to becoming one of the most noteworthy tech hubs on the continent, with centres in Kenya and Namibia. Now, Ochai, who shares that she has always been a CcHub fangirl, has stepped in to lead the company, with a staff strength of about 200.

Predictions for the creative and digital economies

According to Ochai, one of her biggest predictions for the digital economy and creative industries is the emergence of more robust business models for our content industry, something quite different from the linear business models we have now. 

“You make content, you stream it or you take it to the cinema,” she shared. “[However], I feel like we haven’t maximised the opportunity for the IP assets that we’re generating in our content industry.”

Intellectual theft is still a huge problem in Nigeria despite the IP laws available. The majority of the population has remained ignorant of these laws, and this, coupled with the country’s weak legal system, has affected the growth of the creative industry. 

Another forecast she gave for the creative economy is the advent of infrastructure investment or more specialised services around the creative industries. Nigeria’s creative industry employs some 4.1 million people and is projected to contribute $100 billion in 2023.

“We’ll see more companies build for the creative industry around support like agents, talent managers, and other service providers. Think about insurance, or pensions—all of the things that make an industry work.”

In March, Nigeria became the first country in Africa to adopt open banking regulations that allow banks to share customer data with third-party service providers—fintechs and mobile money operators. This move promised increased data sharing and innovation, empowering consumers with control over their data. However, the initial excitement was dampened by a proposed plan by Nigeria’s Central Bank to centralise open banking operations through the National Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The apex bank would later rescind the decision following pushback from industry stakeholders.

Also in March, Osun state made headlines after cancelling right-of-way fees, allowing telecom companies and internet providers to lay fibre optic cables for free. The move was aimed at attracting startups to set up shop in the state. Osun also unveiled plans to domesticate the Nigerian Startup Act. The Nigerian government also launched a $618 million fund under the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the digital, technology, and creative industries. [ad]

May came with a twist as Nigeria’s Central Bank revoked the operating licences of more than a hundred financial institutions across the country for non-compliance. One of the affected banks is the Softcom-owned digital bank Eyowo. Another remarkable event in May was the last-minute attempt by former Nigeria’s minister of communications and digital economy, Isa Ali Pantami, to amend the already passed Nigeria Startup Act, just days before ex-president Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure ended. Similarly, a controversial bill that seeks to ascribe new powers to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigeria’s governing body for information and technology, passed a public hearing at the Senate, despite pushback from stakeholders.

In June, President Bola Tinubu signed the Nigeria Data Protection Bill 2023 into law. The new law provides a legal framework for protecting and regulating personal information in the country. In another development, following the unification of the exchange rate, the central bank announced new rules that allow beneficiaries of diaspora remittances to receive payments in naira. The move birthed new opportunities for fintechs and traditional banks. But on the flip side, the new FX regime affected how Nigerian startups report revenue to their foreign investors. 

In August, Bosun Tijani, co-founder of CCHub—adjudged to be one of the most influential tech incubators on the continent—was named Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy. His appointment brought a new wave of optimism for Nigeria’s growing tech ecosystem which now has a seat at the table. In October, the minister formally unveiled his plans to train 3 million technical talents in four years. In the same month, OPay, Meta, and DHL were investigated by Nigeria’s Data Protection Commission (NDPC), for alleged data privacy violations—claims that the companies denied.

In November, the minister flagged off the pilot phase of the ambitious plan to train 3 million technical talents. A total of 30,000 will be trained in three months. The same month, the Nigerian government launched its Startup Support and Engagement Portal thirteen months after its Startup Act was signed into law. The portal will facilitate the labelling of Nigerian Startups and the registration of venture capitalists, angel investors, accelerators, incubators, and innovation hubs. Other benefits include tax incentives, access to financial resources, and fund management as well as collaboration with relevant government agencies. In December, Nigeria’s Central Bank removed a two-year restriction on cryptocurrency transactions but introduced stringent guidelines for financial institutions. 

Ultimately, 2023 was a year of regulatory highs and lows for Nigeria’s tech ecosystem. One thing is clear: the ecosystem will be counting on one of its own to push policies and programs to spur its growth. More importantly, collaboration and engagement with the government are a no-brainer.