Those who built for Africa and succeeded without government backing are very few.
A lot of venture-backed startups in West Africa are shutting down, and founders are either going back to school or joining other companies as employees.
Building for the world from Africa is incredibly difficult; I only know one tech startup that sells software from Lagos to foreigners and is profitable.
And to your question in your email, yes, they're both hard (building for Africa and the world) when you're doing it while living in Nigeria.
One bottleneck, off the top of my head, is banking. There are many restrictions for Nigerians when trying to manage their business finances.
I actually do not know a single Nigerian tech startup using Stripe that is profitable. The Paystack acquisition didn't really help businesses in Nigeria. It's discouraging to set up systems to receive FX payments, including through Flutterwave. Although I have seen some fashion businesses use Paystack for USD payments, maybe it's easier for them to set up. I never bothered to try the payment gateway to confirm if it was actually working.
They also don't consider startups that operate remotely. Moniepoint, for example, wants to see your signboard before giving you a business account that can process any slightly above-average transaction. KYC requirements are nuts, and founders are always trying to connect with someone there to get their businesses set up.
Thanks for bringing out the practical aspects of this discussion, Maro. Both approaches are hard, so you have to choose your hard.
But I definitely hear you: It's one thing to aspire to build for global markets from Nigeria/Africa, it's another thing entirely to navigate the hurdles it takes to do so successfully.
Those who built for Africa and succeeded without government backing are very few.
A lot of venture-backed startups in West Africa are shutting down, and founders are either going back to school or joining other companies as employees.
Building for the world from Africa is incredibly difficult; I only know one tech startup that sells software from Lagos to foreigners and is profitable.
And to your question in your email, yes, they're both hard (building for Africa and the world) when you're doing it while living in Nigeria.
One bottleneck, off the top of my head, is banking. There are many restrictions for Nigerians when trying to manage their business finances.
I actually do not know a single Nigerian tech startup using Stripe that is profitable. The Paystack acquisition didn't really help businesses in Nigeria. It's discouraging to set up systems to receive FX payments, including through Flutterwave. Although I have seen some fashion businesses use Paystack for USD payments, maybe it's easier for them to set up. I never bothered to try the payment gateway to confirm if it was actually working.
They also don't consider startups that operate remotely. Moniepoint, for example, wants to see your signboard before giving you a business account that can process any slightly above-average transaction. KYC requirements are nuts, and founders are always trying to connect with someone there to get their businesses set up.
Thanks for bringing out the practical aspects of this discussion, Maro. Both approaches are hard, so you have to choose your hard.
But I definitely hear you: It's one thing to aspire to build for global markets from Nigeria/Africa, it's another thing entirely to navigate the hurdles it takes to do so successfully.