We have all seen what happened to crypto exchanges today and we know how that will affect crypto startups.

The same thing happened to logistics startups in 2019.

Fintech startups might be next.

With how anti innovative the Nigerian government is, is it still wise for a Nigerian developer to build products to solve problems for the Nigerian populace. To me I feel it's a waste. I rather build products to solve western problems. They have the money to pay for the littlest of services and are very pro innovation.

What do you guys think?

Try escaping this country then build a startup to fix Nigeria's issues from abroad
Try your best to make sure it doesn't rely on Nigerian infrastructure so you can avoid government regulation

No don't try it this country is waste

.

Same thought occurred to me when I saw the news, "What's to happen to the numerous fintechs who were trying to establish early dominance in the crypto industry?, Years of planning, toiling and not to mention capital all gone"

The problem is Nigeria is still a huge market, how do you overlook such in search of greener pastures somewhere else?

Donpre:
Same thought occurred to me when I saw the news, "What's to happen to the numerous fintechs who were trying to establish early dominance in the crypto industry?, Years of planning, toiling and not to mention capital all gone"

The problem is Nigeria is still a huge market, how do you overlook such in search of greener pastures somewhere else?

Huge market filled with poor people. Nigeria's market is at most 10 million people. People who have the money to actually pay for actual services. Brazil has the same population with Nigeria and Less poorer people. Their government is also very receptive to innovation.

tensazangetsu20:

Huge market filled with poor people. Nigeria's market is at most 10 million people. People who have the money to actually pay for actual services. Brazil has the same population with Nigeria and Less poorer people. Their government is also very receptive to innovation.

I see your point

But then successes like paystack, flutterwave, interswitch are proof that there's a market here despite what seems like a never-ending apocalypse
Why else would stripe pay a whooping $200M for an African expansion?.... despite already having shares

The fact is Brazil or some other country might have the same population and an even higher GDP but is it a growing market?. Can you survive the competition there?
In Nigeria, there's virtually zero local competition for most IT sectors. Game dev? Automation? IoT?

But again I see your point, despite the allure of the Nigerian market, all it takes is an ill-planned policy to end it all
If only we had better leaders and policy makers, if only

Donpre:

I see your point

But then successes like paystack, flutterwave, interswitch are proof that there's a market here despite what seems like a never-ending apocalypse
Why else would stripe pay a whooping $200M for an African expansion?.... despite already having shares

The fact is Brazil or some other country might have the same population and an even higher GDP but is it a growing market?. Can you survive the competition there?
In Nigeria, there's virtually zero local competition for most IT sectors. Game dev? Automation? IoT?

But again I see your point, despite the allure of the Nigerian market, all it takes is an ill-planned policy to end it all
If only we had better leaders and policy makers, if only

Honestly while the paystack acquisition is very impressive, it actually won't move any heads in other climes. Brazil has at least 10 new unicorns every year. That's 10 new startups to billion dollar status every year. I read an article that showed that it's agric tech startups generated around 96 billion USD In revenue yearly.

Other IT sectors won't even work here. E commerce failed miserably because of the low purchasing power of Nigerians and it's game development or IOT that will work. Enterprise software doesn't even work here but it does work in Brazil and other Latin American nations. Brazil is the 9th largest economy in the world. I like to compare Nigeria to Brazil because Nigeria used to be a much better country overall than Brazil at least in the 60s and 70s.


I think a lot of programmers are just dogmatic and patriotic to Nigeria but Nigeria isn't patriotic to them
The Nigerian state will destroy ones business in the twinkle of an eye. Time to try other climes.

Donpre I found this article for you. https://medium.com/@drola/the-mystery-of-market-size-in-nigeria-a7c863f537bb

Of course not.

One major problem with startups in Nigeria is funding and customers.

Let's even forget the shitty policies for a moment.

In developed countries, funding is easy.

I can open a patreaon account, goFundMe, I can even walk you to people and sweet talk them into investing in my startup and lots more and the company will kick start.

You don't even need to wait for million of dollars from giant tech to make head ways.

But here, na wash! If outsiders don't invest in you, your business might likely die.

One idiot even said he'd rather start his own tech company than invest in tech startups. This is someone who is supposed to be knowledgeable financially.

As for customers, for every tech company. Their main customers comes from Lagos. Then Abuja, Port Harcourt, and some other cities.

What many don't know is that the statistics of internet subscribers being shown by NCC can be hugely confusing.

If you remove various offices from these statistics, it becomes very low. From these subscribers left, how many can spare $1 in a month to pay for your e-service.

There lies the problem.

In advanced countries, there is stable and fast internet and their money circulates.

Karleb:
Of course not.

One major problem with startups in Nigeria is funding and customers.

Let's even forget the shitty policies for a moment.

In developed countries, funding is easy.

I can open a patreaon account, goFundMe, I can even walk you to people and sweet talk them into investing in my startup and lots more and the company will kick start.

You don't even need to wait for million of dollars from giant tech to make head ways.

But here, na wash! If outsiders don't invest in you, your business might likely die.

One idiot even said he'd rather start his own tech company than invest in tech startups. This is someone who is supposed to be knowledgeable financially.

As for customers, for every tech company. Their main customers comes from Lagos. Then Abuja, Port Harcourt, and some other cities.

What many don't know is that the statistics of internet subscribers being shown by NCC can be hugely confusing.

If you remove various offices from these statistics, it becomes very low. From these subscribers left, how many can spare $1 in a month to pay for your e-service.

There lies the problem.

In advanced countries, there is stable and fast internet and their money circulates.

This Is the truth. You explain it so succinctly. I see average developers with no backing building out tech products for the Nigerian market and I shake my head vigorously. Someone in this section made a very nice e commerce bot and he was begging to sell it for 5k. So painful and annoying.

Funds for a tech start up alone can kill one's ideas here. Also sourcing for the best Talents to help you may be challenging.
Another challenging aspect in Nigeria is ignorance and low purchasing power of Nigerians, how do people recognized the need for your service and can they pay for it?

tensazangetsu20:
Donpre I found this article for you. https://medium.com/@drola/the-mystery-of-market-size-in-nigeria-a7c863f537bb

Bro you're a Blessing to the tech Ecosystem but you might not know this!!

lordally:


Bro you're a Blessing to the tech Ecosystem but you might not know this!!

Thank you bro. I dey try my best but men our people are too dogmatic.

tensazangetsu20:
Donpre I found this article for you. https://medium.com/@drola/the-mystery-of-market-size-in-nigeria-a7c863f537bb

This was a great read

tensazangetsu20:

Thank you bro. I dey try my best but men our people are too dogmatic.

Na lack of exposure!!

Don't be discouraged, you can't use what happened to crypto to compare other startups, cryptocurrency is not legal in several countries and it's only a matter of time they will ban it, it's not legal in the UK, not allowed in most European countries because they are difficult to monitor. Go ahead with your startup as long as it has nothing to do with something as fragile as cryptocurrency.

Springboot:
Don't be discouraged, you can't use what happened to crypto to compare other startups, cryptocurrency is not legal in several countries and it's only a matter of time they will ban it, it's not legal in the UK, not allowed in most European countries because they are difficult to monitor. Go ahead with your startup as long as it has nothing to do with something as fragile as cryptocurrency.

You are not seriously comparing UK, Europe and Nigeria.

Play the hand that you have.
A startup is a business. So you are asking if it's wise to start a business in Nigeria.
If the only place you have access to is Naija, and you have the skills and know how on how to make money starting a tech business, then it's wise to start one. Businesses depending on govt such as financial transactions or moving goods through the port can be easily thrown amiss by govt. There are many business where you don't have to worry about the govt. You can build a mobile app, desktop app or software as a service. You can create online course etc. Focus on the positive with what you have and make it work for you.

tensazangetsu20:
We have all seen what happened to crypto exchanges today and we know how that will affect crypto startups.

The same thing happened to logistics startups in 2019.

Fintech startups might be next.

With how anti innovative the Nigerian government is, is it still wise for a Nigerian developer to build products to solve problems for the Nigerian populace. To me I feel it's a waste. I rather build products to solve western problems. They have the money to pay for the littlest of services and are very pro innovation.

What do you guys think?

Hey thank you for all the positive writing you do on these boards, I’ve learnt a ton just from reading your comments. It's so refreshing to read someone who doesn't just passively tow the prevailing line of thought. I wholly agree that while the recent wave of fintech startups are impressive, we should still be wary because they all exist within this very anemic macroeconomic environment called Nigeria. I honestly didn’t know Nigeria was now the poverty capital of the world until I read a few of your other comments in other threads. Flutterwave’s recent cash infusion of $175m, while impressive on paper, means nothing until the company can start generating cash flow and a net positive return on said investments. It means sod all until it can start running its operations from the revenues it is generating. Konga raised over 75m at one point and was eventually sold off to Zinox at a cut rate price because it could not pay its bills. IrokoTV and Jumia’s underwhelming scorecards since inception reinforce this trend clearly.

And to your point about programmers being dogmatic to Nigeria, that’s the same view I hold. I'm just as bearish on the Nigerian economy as you. As an aspiring developer, my position is to build tools that solve human problems. It’s all noble and well to direct your focus on Nigerian problems, insofar as you are honest about what you're doing, and that your goals and your missions align with the present reality on ground. The Nigerian market is hugely fragmented and the typical Nigerian spends close to 80% of her income on food. The people who have high discretionary incomes make up at most 10-15% of the Nigerian landscape, so to mislead investors about the potential size of this market is very disingenuous in my opinion. My model Nigerian entrepreneur is Awotona, CEO of calendly, they have built this nifty scheduling app that is doing very well cash flow wise with revenues of $70m for 2020. So even though they got $350m from investors late last year which vaulted them into unicorn status, at least their fundamentals are very sound.

I’m currently in the middle of a career switch to being a dev and would love to connect with you personally if you don’t mind.

tensazangetsu20:
We have all seen what happened to crypto exchanges today and we know how that will affect crypto startups.

The same thing happened to logistics startups in 2019.

Fintech startups might be next.

With how anti innovative the Nigerian government is, is it still wise for a Nigerian developer to build products to solve problems for the Nigerian populace. To me I feel it's a waste. I rather build products to solve western problems. They have the money to pay for the littlest of services and are very pro innovation.

What do you guys think?

If you continue thinking this way, you just might never make it in life except you work for somebody, how come you overlooked over 200 successful startups only to focus on the few that have failed, you didn't see, PAYSTACK, INTERSWITCH, JOBBERMAN, SWIPE, FLUTTERWAVE, RIXINC, and others.

tensazangetsu20:

Thank you bro. I dey try my best but men our people are too dogmatic.

Bro, I have a question. What are the payment gateway method a Shopify developer/partner can use to receive his funds ?

Gbsks:
Bro, I have a question. What are the payment gateway method a Shopify developer/partner can use to receive his funds ?

Nice to see a fellow Shopify Partner, I asked the same question for us Nigerians, we have to reach 1000USD then request for a payout or you can sell on Envato Market. Have you started building with it ? Still learning, but I research on it, I will follow you

Don't even dream of Nigeria... Nigeria and Nigerians will never value your products, or the services you provide.

The highest I made as a writer from Nigerian clients is #5/PW.

Now my customer base have changed and I earn $0.10-$0.20 per word...

Build a Startup but make your target outside Nigeria, that is what I am doing, the more progress i make the more I can share.

Easier to explain with Proof, so till then

qtguru:

Nice to see a fellow Shopify Partner, I asked the same question for us Nigerians, we have to reach 1000USD then request for a payout or you can sell on Envato Market. Have you started building with it ? I just registered few days back, I'm still learning and researching on it, I will follow you

I'm still learning bro, checking out the API documentation too.

Does the payout method allow wire transfer to local bank account or domiciliary account or you have to use payment gateway like flutterwave/PayPal or are there multiple options ?

Gbsks:
I'm still learning bro, checking out the API documentation too.

Does the payout method allow wire transfer to local bank account or domiciliary account or you have to use payment gateway like flutterwave/PayPal or are there multiple options ?

Domiciliary account

qtguru:


Domiciliary account

ok, thanks. Have you started building anything yet ?

Gbsks:
ok, thanks. Have you started building anything yet ?

Not all all, I am in learning mode i have the API, Design Guidelines, Liquid and GraphQL to cover esp with React too. But soon

qtguru:


Not all all, I am in learning mode i have the API, Design Guidelines, Liquid and GraphQL to cover esp with React too. But soon

same here bro, we go make am last last. Lemme send you a pm so we can chat on WhatsApp

While I believe in start ups I never believed in crypto start ups. I have always viewed crypto as a financial conduit for the dark world.
My advise is to be mindful of the start up you build. Make sure it solves reasonable issues and not just something you think people will end up patronizing. I can decide to build a start up around peppers. Just peppers alone. Go to the big cities and see how many baskets of peppers they consume per week or do an estimate based on population alone. Build something that solves real problems and not just some crypto selling and buying platform because G-boys or fraudsters too are using it and there is money in it. Cryptos is what they use to buy most of the bad things that are trades in dark web like guns, porn, contrabands, etc.