This week’s tech narrative is twofold: first, global brands and local platforms converged at GITEX-branded activity in West Africa, where IBM, Meta, MTN and others showcased AI tools and infrastructure partnerships aimed at helping Nigeria scale digital services. Organisers and sponsors framed the participation as a public-private bridge to the administration’s $1-trillion economic target, with explicit focus on talent development, digital skills and startup acceleration.
Second, the Lagos state government continues to create supply-side support for startups — reports point to an innovation fund and budget provisions intended to give early-stage firms more runway and to catalyse private investment into non-fintech verticals. The proposed ₦31 billion innovation fund (tied to Lagos’s 2025 capital expenditure) is being positioned as catalytic — offering grants, matching capital and incubation infrastructure to fast-growing teams. Observers say the fund could ease near-term liquidity pressure for founders, but structural challenges (power, transport, talent flight) still limit scale unless matched by larger infrastructure investments.
Startup headlines also included product and strategy moves: Cardtonic — an ecommerce/payments startup — announced ambitions to become a “super app” for gift cards, gadgets and payments, a sign that merchant-facing and payments layers remain active experimentation zones for Nigerian founders. Local VC and development agency conversations at TICAD also flagged possible co-funding windows (including JICA discussions about multi-million support to incubation hubs), which could funnel fresh capital into the ecosystem.
Leave a Reply