Nigeria's Tech Bro Flywheel

Happy Friday! Caleb here with Prox Weekly 👋🏾

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Morning! 

To be honest, was surprised when I landed in Lagos. 

By the numbers, Nigeria is Africa’s tech giant and the centre of success on the continent:

• Between 2019 and mid 2022, Nigeria had snatched up 36% of funding in Africa.

• Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, with a population of 200 million that is expected to double to 400 million by 2050.

• Nigeria has also spawned 4 of Africa’s 8 Unicorn companies - OPay, Andela, Flutterwave and Interswitch

The centre of all this is Lagos - Nigeria’s commercial hub and Africa’s ‘New York.’ The city where the hustle is real, things happen and dreams can become reality.

So when I touched down in Lagos, I expected a fully functioning tech haven with bustling energy.

It is New York, but a big twist. It’s in Africa.

And by Africa, I mean real Africa - not dressed up for the rest of the world (like Nairobi or Kigali).

You feel it as soon as you arrive at the airport - chaotic, disorganised and nothing works.

My housemate in Lagos has ‘bank days’ where she blocks out the entire day to go to the bank to access her money.

She will often get redirected to a new branch, or asked to fill out the same form for the n’th time. In her calendar, she writes off the whole day - you never know how much time you need at the bank.

My point: Basic things are difficult.

And by the time you’ve started your day, you’ve already fought through three or four fires.

So in my first week, my reaction was ‘how does anyone get anything done here - let alone build a company?’

But when you’re fighting fires all the time just to exist, you naturally develop a tough skin.

With that level of resistance from the world, you get used to adversity and learn to take on challenges, while looking for opportunities.

It means that Nigeria’s young population are hungry for opportunities and overflowing with ambition.

Nigeria is tough, and that’s what takes Nigeria’s hustle culture to a different level.

And for the new generation of hustlers in Lagos looking to make their fortune, they have a new golden ticket: Tech. 

Tech Bros = Money Trees

Conventional wisdom is that well paying jobs need a university education. Study for three years, join a big company and work up the ranks.

This is not accessible to most, requires time and money.

Now, there is a way to change your life - and quick. Working in tech.

Getting started in tech is easy and it’s skills-based - not credential based. All you need is a laptop and some ambition.

Jeremiah Ajayi, Senior Content Marketer at Stears, explores how being a ‘tech bro’ has changed young peoples lives in Nigeria.

One of the subjects is Dolapo - a 28 year old Lawyer-turned-Product manager.

When Dolapo worked as a Lawyer, they earned ₦35,000 ($116 USD) a month.

After transitioning to become a product manager at an Agritech startup, they have 10x’ed their salary, earning ₦350,000 ($1164 USD) a month - letting them pay off their debt and start investing.

In Africa, tech is a golden ticket.

It can take you anywhere - whether that’s the heights of an acquisition, or a salary at a global company that’s 10x what you could get from a traditional career.

And attention isn’t just going to tech roles and workers. It’s being focused at the ‘pinnacle’ of these tech companies - the founders.

Founder Superstars 🤩

In my first week in Lagos I encountered another interesting phenomenon.

I went to lunch with Kennedy, CEO of Kippa. When we wrapped up, we asked a waiter to take this picture for us.

Right after, she looked at Kennedy and asked ‘you’re Kennedy, the CEO of Kippa right?’

Kennedy admitted that he is a founder celebrity the CEO of Kippa and she followed, asking if she could work with him - ‘let me know if you need an assistant at Kippa.’

The next week I ran a panel on how to run a high growth startup.

Kennedy was a panelist, and a lot our attendees were Kennedy superfans who had been following Kippa since the start.

Now, Kennedy really is a great founder and role model in the ecosystem.

But Kippa hasn't been around for two years and is already generating this much clout.

Meanwhile in Australia and the US, no one knows who you are until you’ve raised a stacked eight figure round.

In Nigeria, founders are superstars. And that's why the founder flywheel is so powerful.

The Founder Flywheel in Action: Paystack

In October 2020 Nigerian fintech, Paystack, was acquired by Stripe for $200m.

Founders, Shola and Ezra, let the rest of Africa realise that large scale acquisitions are possible on the continent.

They also made it clear that being a tech bro really could equal a money bag.

The Paystack team went on to start their own companies (The Paystack Mafia), Shola and Ezra became local heroes, and a new generation of entrepreneurs were inspired to start their own companies.

Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega from Not a Deep Dive (a great newsletter on Nigerian tech news), comments on founder superstardom in Nigeria’s startup ecosystem:

Many of the millennial-founder class enjoy cult statuses, far above the founders who came before them and “paved the way” for the successes and privileges the ecosystem enjoys today.

While this can be dangerous if it’s not checked, I think it’s one of the most powerful systems for Nigeria’s tech ecosystem flywheel.

When you give a country of hustlers young role models like Shola and Kennedy, they are inspired build their own companies and generate value.

The success and growth of one company spawns another ten, and the ecosystem have even more role models to look up to.

More people are willing to take bets, start their own companies or join quickly growing startups in the hopes of changing their lives.

Lagos is Africa’s New York, but with big challenges.

But with those challenges comes more ambition and when that ambition meets tech we have a growth virtuous cycle that keeps giving.

And that’s a wrap for this week.

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Catch you next week!