The United States has said that Nigerian startups raised the most money in tech funding in Africa for 2021.
Speaking at the Nigeria Tech Summit on Friday in Abuja, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said African startups raised about $2.9 billion in total, whereas Nigerian based companies raised $1.7 billion.
She said, “Africa-based tech startups have raised more than $2.9 billion. Nigerian startups, which are creating new products, services, and platforms, raised $1.7 billion of this total or about 60% of it. Africa boasts a total of seven tech ‘unicorns’, or companies valued at over $1 billion.
“I find it very exciting to note that three of these companies — OPay, Flutterwave, and Interswitch – are born and bred of Nigerian talent. We firmly believe that Nigeria, with the proper support, has enormous potential to do even more.”
Leonard, however, reiterated the US’ commitment to offering support to Nigeria’s burgeoning technology and innovation space.
She expressed the hope that an enabling environment would help create more global businesses birthed in Nigeria adding that the COVID-19 pandemic did not hinder the support the US government offered.
“The U.S. Mission will continue to do its part to support Nigeria’s burgeoning tech scene and encourage the creation of enabling environment necessary to foster a sector that will, in turn, launch still more global businesses and contribute to a more prosperous future for all its citizens.
“I also want you to know that our commitment and support to such key populations within Nigeria was not hindered by the pandemic,” the ambassador added. (Punch)