http://www.paxnigerian.com/nigerian-email-scams-make-it-hard-for-african-nations-legitimate-startups-to-attract-clients-and-funding-from-abroad/

Blame it on the Nigerian prince of Internet lore. Nigeria’s online sector is booming, as evidenced by the hundreds of entrepreneurs, social media experts and tech industry insiders that have flocked to the city for Social Media Week Lagos 2015. But many of the businesspeople in attendance say the stigma of Nigerian email scams — so ubiquitous that they merit their own entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica — is difficult to shake as they court customers and crucial investors from Europe and the United States.

Just 13.3 percent of respondents to a recent Ernst & Young survey of international investors view Nigeria as an attractive prospect, and only 27.5 percent of people already doing business on the continent say it’s a good bet. And while Kenya, its East African counterpart, saw a 40 percent increase in foreign direct investment last year, Nigeria saw just 19 percent.