Top tech disruptors in Nigeria

We will be collating a list of top tech disruptors in Nigeria in this article. Many innovators have emerged in the Nigerian tech scene over the years. The Nigerian tech industry is still relatively young, even with the vast amount of improvement it has seen in the last decade.

In the last three years, we have continued to see new tech innovators come to provide answers to various challenges that the conventional banking system or commercial industry has not been able to provide. With funding from different international countries, these changes are coming rapidly.

We have seen certain Nigerian tech companies that have changed the game, from E-commerce to fintech and crypto exchange. These online companies have jointly raised billions of dollars.

Below are Top tech disruptors in Nigeria:

1. Paystack

Paystack was founded in 2015 by software developers Ezra Olubi and Shola Akinlade and it became the first Nigerian company to be accepted into the Y combinator. The Y combinator is a start-up hub that serves as an incubator for emerging tech companies. Paystack was officially launched in 2016 and was acquired by Stripe for a whopping 200 million dollars just five years after its creation. The payment platform provides a secure avenue for individuals and businesses to receive payments from anywhere in the world.

2. Flutterwave

This fintech company was founded in 2016 by Nigerian software developers Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji. The California residents developed the platform to solve the problems of commercial banking in Nigeria, though its platform offers the same payment services as Paystack, Flutterwave has raised 170 million dollars in 2021 and is currently valued at 1 billion dollars.

3. Co-Creation Hub

Popularly known as Cc hub, this is one of Nigeria's first tech incubators. Founded in 2010 by Bosun Tijani and Femi longe in Lagos State, Co-Creation Hub provides mentorship and guidance to young tech enthusiasts and provides funding for their project.

Co-Creation Hub is a home for entrepreneurs who want to use technology to solve various social and commercial issues. Over the years, Cc hub has helped in launching a series of tech innovations such as Budgit, Gomyway, and Lifebank amongst many others. They hosted the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg during his visit to Nigeria in 2016.

4. Piggyvest

This is one of Nigeria's first online savings and investment platforms and one of the top tech disruptors in Nigeria. Piggyvest launched its services in 2016 and has since become one of the leading online savings and investment service providers. The platform originally began as a savings platform but was updated in 2019 to accommodate investments.

The platform offer a certain annual interest on savings and also provide multiple investment options for those who would like to invest their money. Users can also set target savings and lock their savings away till a specified period. With over a million users, The Piggyvest platform has been helpful to a lot of people who want to imbibe a good saving habit and also engage in safe investments. Piggyvest has an app that can be downloaded on the google and apple store.

5. Jumia

Jumia was founded in 2012 by Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec and it is regarded as Nigeria's leading E-commerce platform. The platform serves as an online marketplace that provides users with the ability to purchase a variety of products from their website and have them delivered to their homes. Since its launch in 2012, the platform has been launched in over 14 African countries and has added many other services to what it originally provided.

Services such as Jumia foods and Jumia travel have been added to the services provided by the platform. The platform allows other merchants to create a seller's profile and sell directly to users on the platform, their Jumiapay service allows users to purchase airtime and pay other bills directly from the app. Valued at over 1 billion dollars and currently listed on the New York stock exchange, it is Africa's first unicorn.

6. Roqqu

With the growing popularity of crypto trading in Nigeria, it became important to have a Nigerian platform that provides the same services as international crypto trading and storing platforms like Binance. Roqqu was founded in 2019 by Uche Nnodim.

Roqqu allows users to purchase, sell and store cryptocurrency. The platform also allows users to purchase airtime and pay for other services directly. With over five hundred thousand users, Roqqu has been able to process over 20 million dollars worth of transactions and it's one of the top tech disruptors in Nigeria.

We keep seeing replication of apps that provide similar services

Though the tech space has been witnessing consistent growth over the years, what it seems to lack is a form of creativity. We keep seeing replication of apps that provide similar services even though there is an ocean of waters still uncharted by software developers and founders in Nigeria.