By Royal Ibeh

Copyright businessday

Nigeria is asserting itself as a powerhouse in Africa’s venture capital landscape, with 22 startups featured among the continent’s Top 100 most funded ventures since 2019, as revealed in ‘Africa: The Big Deal’s latest report.’

Collectively, these Top 100 startups have claimed over two-thirds (69 percent) of all funding raised by more than 2,300 startups on the continent since 2019: $12.8 billion out of $18.7 billion.

The tally puts Africa’s most populous nation just behind South Africa, which leads with 23, but Nigeria outshines its peers by placing the highest number of companies in the top 20.

“Nigeria’s startup ecosystem holds exciting opportunities for the future,” noted Llew Claasen, managing partner of South Africa-based venture capital firm Newtown Partners, highlighting the country’s talent pool and youthful population as key drivers.

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Seven Nigerian-born ventures, including household fintech names Opay, Flutterwave, Interswitch, Moniepoint and PalmPay, as well as mobility player Moove, sit in the elite Top 20. Andela, a talent-matching firm with US-heavy leadership, rounds out Nigeria’s tally, although its Africa focus is less prominent today than when it launched.

Olugbenga Agboola, CEO of Flutterwave, emphasised Nigeria’s pivotal role in fintech innovation during a panel at the Money20/20 conference in Riyadh, stating that public-private partnerships are “expanding financial inclusion for women and youth, enabling cross-border payments, supporting CBDC adoption, and reducing remittance costs by 1.5 percent.”

The rankings underscore Nigeria’s centrality in Africa’s technology ecosystem, despite the dominance of the ‘Big Four’ startup hubs: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt. Together, these four markets account for four out of every five startups on the list.

South Africa’s presence is skewed heavily toward fintech, with 15 out of its 23 companies operating in the sector.

Nigeria and Egypt show more balance, with roughly half their startups in fintech, while Kenya stands out for its diversification, only two of its 17 ventures fall into financial services, with others rooted in energy, agriculture and retail technology.

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director-general of Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), spotlighted the country’s fintech boom at the same conference, noting that, “Nigeria’s booming fintech sector now hosts 217 start-ups and four unicorns,” crediting initiatives like NITDA’s innovation programmes for producing five of Africa’s eight unicorns.

Looking beyond the Big Four, Ghana emerges as the most represented, fielding five startups including mPharma, CarePoint and Zeepay. Eleven other African markets each claim at least one representative, ranging from North Africa’s Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to smaller West African and Central African economies like Benin, Senegal, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In all, West Africa is the single most represented subregion, with 31 startups on the Top 100 list. Cross-border fintech unicorn Chipper Cash remains harder to pin down, straddling Ghanaian and Ugandan roots.

Sectorally, fintech still leads the pack, making up 42 of the Top 100. Yet the rankings show that big-ticket funding is not confined to payments and digital banking.

Energy startups like Sun King, d.light and Burn continue to draw major rounds, as do transport and logistics players such as Nigeria’s Moove, Algeria’s Yassir and Egypt’s Swvl. Agriculture-focused ventures like Apollo Agriculture and ThriveAgric also feature prominently, alongside retail disruptors MaxAB, TradeDepot and Omnibiz, and healthtech names including LXE Hearing, CarePoint and Pharma.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reinforced this momentum in a recent meeting with Flutterwave and Alami Capital leaders, declaring, “Nigeria is open for business! By supporting home-grown digital platforms, we are driving job creation, diversifying our economy, and solidifying our position as Africa’s largest economy.”

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Notably absent is a strong showing from education and jobs: only Andela, once the face of Africa’s edtech and remote talent story, makes the list in that category. Climate-related ventures, however, are gaining traction. When grouped together across sectors, 26 of the Top 100 can be classified as climate tech, half of them in clean energy and the rest spanning agri-food, green transport and waste management.

Nigeria’s ability to place more startups in the Top 20 than any other country highlights the country’s growing weight in Africa’s innovation economy. While South Africa still holds the lead in absolute numbers, Nigeria’s fintech champions and rapidly scaling ventures are driving a narrative that Africa’s startup future will be shaped as much in Lagos as in Johannesburg, Cairo or Nairobi.

Nigeria is committed to regulatory harmonization, AfCFTA-aligned policies, and mobilising diaspora capital to strengthen MSMEs, boost digital trade, and tap into Africa’s $3 trillion fintech opportunity, under Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, Abdullahi added.