Introduction – Reality Check

If you know me by now, you probably would have noticed that I have cautious excitement about Nigeria’s tech space. I have seen interesting, not so interesting and unimpressive business propositions. I believe that there are real problems to solve, but we are turning a blind eye to a lot of them.

And I know why! It is not exciting to solve hard problems. That’s why most startups want to enable online payment just for the few who are willing or able to pay online, rather than help that farmer in Taraba pay for fertilizers and receive payments from his offtakers.

This farmer does not use a smartphone; Smile, Swift and Spectranet do not find those locations viable. Also, the farmer does not have a bank account, let alone a debit card. He doesn’t understand OTP, but he has to participate in commerce in a certain way. That is a real (hard) problem to solve. You can’t solve that from Lagos and Abuja – not from your newly refurbished office in Yaba. These types of problems require grit!
There are a lot of such problems. How do you ensure that Alhaji Bashir takes health insurance for his immediate family? Or how do you open an online market for Mama Risi in Balogun market? These are really big problems to solve and they are not for small children.

I am not in any way saying that the challenges faced in making online payments have been fully solved; I am saying that there are other real problems to solve.

My Criteria

In selecting my startups, one major question I asked is, “What problem is the startup solving?” Is it a real problem or tech for tech’s sake? Is it a need-to-have or a nice-to-have (painkiller or multivitamin)? I need to know if it is a great idea on paper, but very tricky to implement. I will like to find out, whether the market is ready for the product or if the product is way ahead of its time.

Additionally, I will like to find out how large the potential target market is. And more importantly, do I believe that the team can execute in this market?

In no particular order, here are my startups to watch in 2018.


READ MORE: https://nairametrics.com/5-nigerian-startups-watch-2018/


Cc:@lalasticlala