Supporting Nigerian Talent
By Kede Aihie Nigeria holds a vast, largely untapped talent pool spanning millions across virtually all sectors. Despite this, the country’s startup ecosystem has grown with little to no venture capital funding. Founders have built companies from scratch, often without institutional backing, and a few homegrown fintech solutions like Flutterwave have scaled into unicorns. This […]
Black News 
By Kede Aihie
Nigeria holds a vast, largely untapped talent pool spanning millions across virtually all sectors. Despite this, the country’s startup ecosystem has grown with little to no venture capital funding. Founders have built companies from scratch, often without institutional backing, and a few homegrown fintech solutions like Flutterwave have scaled into unicorns. This shows that demand and capability exist, but the financing infrastructure has not kept pace.
A major barrier is the banking system. High interest rates and an opaque banking structure discourage lending to SMEs, which are the main source of employment and economic growth. Nigerian banks operate more like trading companies, prioritizing short-term, low-risk trades over long-term support for entrepreneurs. As a result, founders are forced to seek funding outside the formal system. Over two decades, banking reforms have been slow and reactive rather than intentional. Without structural change, entrepreneurs will continue to be excluded from domestic capital.
Examples of what’s possible despite these constraints are emerging. Decide, founded by former Flutterwave developer Abiodun Adetona, has gained strong reviews and is competing with brands backed by billions of dollars. In defence tech, Terra Industries, an Abuja-based company founded by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, builds autonomous drones, sentry towers, mine-detection vehicles, and battlefield intelligence software to protect infrastructure across Africa. Its systems secure assets valued at over $11 billion, and it operates a large-scale facility outside Abuja producing tens of thousands of drones annually. Terra has raised millions in seed and venture funding from US investors like 8VC and Lux Capital, highlighting how foreign capital steps in where local funding does not.
Underlying these gaps is a political mindset that discourages capable young Nigerians from entering governance. Politics remains transactional, rewarding unproductive actors rather than service delivery. Without reform in the National Assembly and state houses to create a policy environment that understands and enables innovation, the ecosystem will remain constrained.
Nigeria can adapt the UK’s VC model to address this. The UK’s £8-9 billion annual market works because institutions like the British Business Bank act as anchor investors, de-risking funds and crowding in private capital. Nigeria can replicate this through NSIA, AFDB, IFC, and pension funds, with NSIA committing 30-40% to a “Nigeria Tech & Infrastructure Fund.” Given limited R&D capacity, the fund should blend standard tech like fintech, logistics, SaaS, and health platforms with infrastructure-adjacent deeptech in defence, agritech, energy, and mining. This mix balances faster returns with contract-backed revenue.
To attract Nigerian HNWIs and family offices, the fund needs tax incentives modeled on the UK’s EIS/SEIS schemes, capital gains holidays, and regulatory sandboxes under SEC and NITDA. Formalizing university tech transfer and building corporate venture arms at Dangote, BUA, and MTN would create exit paths through local M&A and secondary sales. A hybrid structure using SPVs for asset-heavy projects and holding IP at the holdco level would align with local capital preferences. A $120M fund anchored by NSIA, with these incentives, could target 18-22% IRR over 5-7 years by selling to corporates and government.
