The innovators building Africa's thriving tech scene | Peace Itimi

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_04]: TED Audio Collective

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Africa is rapidly emerging as a vibrant technology and innovation hub where entrepreneurs are driving significant change.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a growing number of tech startups and increased investment in the region.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Tech conferences are being hosted across the continent.

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Access to mobile technology and the Internet is becoming much more widespread.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, African innovators, many of them representing Africa's young population, are solving local challenges with creative technological solutions.

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_01]: This is TED Tech, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host, Sherelle Dorsey.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Our speaker today, business storyteller Peace Itimi, tells us the story of founders transforming the African continent,

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_01]: from fintech and e-commerce to agritech and health tech.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Africa's entrepreneurial ecosystem is thriving, positioning the continent as a key player in the global tech landscape.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01]: This momentum is transforming economies, creating jobs, and paving the way for a new era of growth and opportunity in Africa.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Listen in as Peace explains how new tech is bringing real solutions to places like Nigeria and beyond.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: And investors are taking note.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_01]: But before we dive in, a quick break to hear from our sponsors.

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[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_04]: What does the AI revolution mean for jobs, for getting things done?

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[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And now, P. Sutimi takes the TED stage.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So, we all love a great startup story, right?

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Good.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I too.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And we particularly love the underdog ones.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, where a small idea makes it big, despite all the odds.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Where many giants are slayed before a resounding success.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm convinced that there's nowhere where this narrative is more captivating, or where it echoes more profoundly than in the countries and communities of Africa.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Africa has been portrayed over and over again through the lens of outdated myths.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_00]: The world only sees us as a continent that's plagued by poverty, insecurity, and stifled innovation.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, a land of endless potential that forever remains unrealized.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: But yet, underneath these tired stereotypes, a new reality has emerged.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: One where ambitious Africans are writing their own stories as builders and as innovators.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: We have the youngest population in the world, with over 60% under 25.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And this youthful energy, combined with increasing access to technology as we see today, has become the perfect recipe for a tech revolution.

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_00]: We are no longer waiting for the future.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: We are actively constructing it.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: See, our greatest resource is not the gold, the oil, the diamonds, the platinum.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It has always been the people.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: How do I know this?

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I spent the last couple of years bringing African tech talent, founders, and funders together through events I organized.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And also hosting a series on YouTube called Founders Connect.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Through Founders Connect, I have interviewed over 80 African tech entrepreneurs who share their stories with me, their lessons, their challenges, their victories.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'll tell you some of those stories.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: One of that is one of Nigeria's tech matriarchs.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Her name is Funke Okpeke.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: We call her Auntie Funke.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: She's the founder of Main One.

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And in 2008, she decided to tackle the issue of internet connectivity in Nigeria.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And she ended up laying with them the first privately owned undersea cable in West Africa, stretching 7,000 kilometers all the way from Portugal in Europe to West Africa.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: This bold move resulted in a surge of internet speeds in the country.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: For context, the India cables had 800 gigabytes in capacity, but the one laid by Main One came with 10 terabytes.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: That was over 1,000 percent increase in capacity.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The result?

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: An explosion of tech startups in Nigeria that have now become the lifeblood of our economy.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: This initial trickle that started at the time of Auntie Funke kept growing into a massive current of new startups by mid to late 2010s.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: An example is another of my favorite stories, Pigiverse.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It's the first online service and investment app in Nigeria, and it was founded in 2016 by Somto Ifuize, Odunayu Iwini, and Yoshachiburize, and they're serial entrepreneurs.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Pigiverse has helped over 4.5 million Nigerians to save well over $1.4 billion.

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: That's a lot of money.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine the impact they have made in the lives of people.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And the momentum kept going and going and going even further in 2020,

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: when Paystack, a company that helps businesses get paid easily online,

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: became one of Africa's biggest startup stores.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_00]: The founders, Ezreal Luby and Shola Kilade, were the first Nigerians to get into a Y Combinator.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And in 2020, when they sold their company to Stripe for $200 million,

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they made a lot of money for themselves, obviously.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: But also, they returned 1,400 percent ROI to their early backers,

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: many of whom were local investors in the country,

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: thus giving money back to the ecosystem that has allowed them to invest in more companies.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And they sparked a renewed belief in just how big Nigerians' companies could go.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that if the earlier pioneers like Antifunke lit a spark,

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_00]: what Paystack did was that it set a raging fire across the entire Nigerian ecosystem.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Because their acquisition did not just raise headlines.

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It also resulted in the Paystack mafia.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It's similar with the PayPal mafia, right?

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Very similar, as they've gone to create iconic companies,

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: there are now at least 10 former Paystack staffers that have spawned out their own ventures.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: They're building fantastic solutions in open banking, tech talent outsourcing.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: They're building fintech neobanks.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: They're building on-demand food and grocery solutions.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: They're basically pushing the boundaries of what is innovation in Africa.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: 15 years ago, the text in Nigeria was so nascent that people say it was practically non-existent.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: But I kid you not, if you walk through the streets of Lagos today,

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_00]: you see a ton of young people who are attending tech conferences,

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: who are collaborating in co-working spaces,

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_00]: who are brainstorming ideas in cafes.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And let me be clear, right?

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's not make a mistake.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: This entrepreneurial awakening I'm talking about is not a localized event.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a pan-African revolution.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Because what is happening in Lagos today, it's happening across the entire continent.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: In East Africa, there are companies like Tigua Foods that's connecting consumers,

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: vendors and suppliers to high-quality products, food and retail services.

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: There are fintech businesses like Kopo Kopo that's helping other businesses

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: accept digital payments easily, while also providing access to credit.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: In South Africa, companies like Stitch are pushing the frontiers in areas like open banking.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: The world views Africa from a place where our struggles are amplified,

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: but then our victories are minimized.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The result is everyone is missing this reality of a continent,

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00]: of doers, of creators, of builders.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not just talking about local players who are only building regional solutions.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Because the builders of my generation, we have the boundless ambition,

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_00]: but also the ability to give you technological powerhouses that will put Africa on the global stage,

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: just like our music alphabet is doing.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So, raise yourselves.

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it will be long anymore before we stop comparing African startups

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_00]: to their Western counterparts.

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_00]: But our Western companies will begin to benchmark themselves against the wave of unicorns

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_00]: that's coming out of the African soil.

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: That was Pisa Timmy at TED 2024.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: TED Tech is part of the TED Audio Collective.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_01]: This episode was produced by Nina Lawrence,

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_01]: edited by Alejandra Salazar,

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and fact-checked by Julia Dickerson.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Special thanks to Maria Latias,

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Faraday Grunge,

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Corey Hajim,

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Daniela Balaresso,

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and Michelle Quint.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Sherelle Dorsey.

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening,

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and talk to you again next week.