Out of 1.3 billion Africans, there are 477 million unique mobile subscribers, with the mobile industry contributing $155 billion to the continent’s GDP in 2019, according to data from the Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSMA).
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has 90 tech hubs — the most on the continent. In 2019, one report found startups in Nigeria raised nearly $400 million, more than double the amount from the previous year.
In recent years, the West African nation has become an incubator for some of the continent’s biggest startups — including online marketplace place Jumia and Andela, a talent accelerator.
The result is a generation of tech entrepreneurs or “techpreneurs” whose startups and innovations are helping to improve the lives of people in Nigeria and beyond.
CNN spoke to three startup founders to understand how they are shaping the country’s technology ecosystem.
The innovation pioneer
Bosun Tijani, Co-Creation Hub founder & CEO