The tech Ecosystem in Africa is mainly dominated by fintech. This is not a surprise since the sector also dominated last year’s total funding from Africa. In all, fintech accounted for 63% or $3 billion of the entire funding received last year. In that same year, African startups raised $5.2 billion (per Partech data).
As predicted by the investment tracking platform, Africa: The Big Deal. It also predicted that Africa is well on its way to raising $7 billion in 2022. So far, they raised $2.1 billion, according to data from TechCabal’s funding tracker, with fintech still leading the way with $660 million.
However, there are other sectors on the continent getting significant attention. This is evident in how startups in the sectors are raising funding. Nigeria is blessed to have startups playing in all sectors. While actively competing with others in the African tech Ecosystem. Most of them have raised funding while others are in the process. Here are the sectors and Nigerian startups to watch.
Artificial Intelligence
Nigeria is an important regional player in Africa. It accounts for about half of West Africa’s population, at 202 million people. Again, it has one of the largest youth populations of 43% in the world. Despite being disadvantaged in terms of limited access to AI training and infrastructure, Nigerian youths have managed to still drive AI activities. Nigeria is home to several AI-driven startups competing for a space in Africa and the global world. Some of them include Reliance HMO(cloud-based insurance health platform), Reliance Health (online health insurance solution), Indicina(loan life cycle management platform), Edves (integrated management for schools), and Octamile(AI-based insurance claim management solutions for insurance & other businesses) etc.
Edtech
Recall that the covid-19 pandemic of 2020 disrupted many activities in the whole world. And the education sector was not spared.
However, there was hope for the sector due to the solutions provided by “edtechs”. All it did was find ways for people to learn but in a more improved, efficient and effective way. Generally, Africa has always struggled in terms of providing education to out-of-school children across different educational levels. This is why there is a gap in the edtech market. Nevertheless, some Nigerian startups are already competing for the gaps in the market. They include Ulesson(an Affordable Learning platform for students), Edukoya (which connects African students with the digital curriculum content and on-demand teachers for real-time online learning), AltSchool Africa(Which trains tech talents for free), Stranerd (Platforms for students to learn and earn at the same time) etc
Cleantech
Seventy-five per cent of the world’s population has limited or no access to electricity. While Nigeria’s electricity grid has 12 GW of installed capacity. Only about a quarter of it is available to consumers. Though there is the option of self-generation through fossil fuel generators which is about 15GW. Its emission causes harm to both humans and the environment. However, with the renewable energy sources available in Africa, one would think that energy will cease to be a problem.
But the reverse is the case. Thus it lies in the hand of “cleantech” to provide renewable or alternative means of energy. Nigerian companies playing in this sector include Arnegy, SalphaEnergy, Starsight Energy, Recylepoint, Rensource Energy etc.
Agrictech
Africa has constantly battled food scarcity. Yet in the last 10 years, Africa is still facing its worst food crisis. It has been so horrible that 27 million Africans in Nigeria, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are experiencing extreme hunger. Again, 11 million more are being projected to join them in 3 months if care is not taken. Overall, conditions such as the high cost of food, recurring droughts, conflicts on the continent, and the Ukraine-Russia war is further increasing this problem. More is expected from African agritech companies to solve this problem. And as usual, Nigerian Agritech startups are playing in this market. They include Thrive Agric, Farmcrowdy, Groupfarma, Farmsponsor, FarmKart, Ezfarming, Payfarmer etc.
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