The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned that Nigeria’s tech hub position is under real threat unless government moves faster on regulation and digital infrastructure. Africa’s biggest economy is losing ground to Kenya, South Africa and Egypt at a pace that industry leaders say can no longer be ignored.
Speaking at the opening of the 12th ICTEL Expo 2026 in Lagos, LCCI President Engr. Leye Kupoluyi said Nigeria’s tech hub position has been weakened by policy uncertainty and falling investor confidence, even as the digital economy remains the fastest growing driver of the non-oil sector. He said connectivity gains are real, but they are outpacing the country’s ability to turn access into economic value.
According to Kupoluyi, the information and communication technology sector contributed 10.07 per cent to Nigeria’s real gross domestic product in 2025, up from 9.79 per cent the year before. Telecommunications alone accounted for 7.29 percentage points of that figure, underlining how central mobile and data services have become to the wider economy.
Nigeria recorded 154.7 million active internet subscribers and 188 million mobile connections as of April 2026, Kupoluyi told the Lagos gathering. Broadband penetration climbed to 55.67 per cent, up from 48.81 per cent a year earlier, figures that on paper suggest a country still expanding its digital footprint at speed.
Yet those numbers sit awkwardly beside the investment data. Nigeria’s tech hub position took a direct hit in 2025 when the country dropped out of the continent’s top spot for startup funding for the first time in four years, slipping to fourth behind Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.
Data compiled by Africa: The Big Deal and reported by AllAfrica showed Kenyan startups raised about 984 million dollars in 2025, a 52 per cent jump on the previous year, with debt financing making up 582 million dollars of that total. Egypt followed with roughly 618 million dollars, South Africa raised around 600 million dollars, while Nigerian startups managed only 345 million dollars.
Energy ventures such as d.light, Sun King, M-Kopa, Burn and PowerGen drove much of Kenya’s surge, according to the same data set, pulling capital toward off-grid power and climate solutions rather than the fintech deals that once defined Lagos as the continent’s startup capital. That shift in investor appetite is one of the clearest markers of how far Nigeria’s tech hub position has slipped in a single funding cycle.
Kupoluyi argued that Nigeria’s tech hub position cannot be rebuilt through connectivity statistics alone. He told the ICTEL Expo audience that infrastructure without access to capital and policy certainty will not produce globally competitive technology companies, however impressive the subscriber numbers look.
He urged the federal government to treat broadband as a strategic public utility, speed up last mile connectivity and fully implement the Nigeria Startup Act, which was designed to give founders and investors a clearer regulatory path. Greater coordination among regulators is also needed, he said, warning that multiple taxes and inconsistent foreign exchange rules continue to discourage long term investment.
The LCCI’s intervention lands at a moment when Nigeria’s tech hub position is being tested from several directions at once. A currency crisis, a slowdown in large exits and a pause in the fintech deals that once carried the market have combined to push capital toward markets seen as more stable.
Still, Nigeria retained the highest number of funded startups on the continent in 2025, even as the average size of each deal shrank. Analysts who track the sector say that spread of activity, paired with a young population and expanding data infrastructure, leaves room for Nigeria’s tech hub position to recover if policy uncertainty eases.
For now, Nigeria’s tech hub position remains the clearest signal of how quickly investor sentiment can shift on the continent, and how much is riding on the government’s next moves on regulation and infrastructure spending.
