A million reasons to believe in Africa

The Itana Digital Zone is designed to enable tech and service-based businesses to easily access Africa’s largest markets

Africa is the sleeping giant, the emerging tech hub of the world.

By the turn of the century, a third of people will be African. Africa’s population will grow from 1.2 billion today to 4.5 billion in the next 80 years. By then, Nigeria’s population alone will surpass that of China. Coupled with the growing population is the ever-increasing investment in tech.

In 2020, the ecosystem raised over $1.4 billion dollars in capital. The figure jumped to $6.5 billion in 2021, doubling every year. However, Africa suffers from huge infrastructure challenges and an unpredictable business policy environment. Therefore, we recognize the critical need for a business jurisdiction that enables dreamers and innovators to build and scale their businesses with confidence, knowing their investments are secure.

Out of the five unicorns built on the continent, Iyin has helped build two.

Itana's (formerly Talent City) story began with Iyinoluwa Aboyeji. Between 2014-2016, he co-founded Andela (now a unicorn), he and the team had to move offices multiple times in a short period, due to the restrictions in infrastructure and the rate of scale. Every time, they spent a fortune renovating and retrofitting the offices and living quarters.

He then moved to start Flutterwave (now also a unicorn), where the problems were different. The regulations and policies governing tech companies challenging which made it difficult to run a business and raise FDI investment.

Building from Nigeria is hard; businesses also require constant power, high-speed internet and a stable policy environment. Unfortunately, these resources are considered are still a challenge in the country.

To japa or not to japa, that is the question

There is the notion of Japa in Nigeria: it means to run swiftly, to retreat, to remove from a situation. In this case, to run from Nigeria to a more stable environment, with better access to infrastructure and stable policies.

This was when the crazy idea was born – What if we built a startup city of our own? A place where we can live, work, collaborate with the right digital governance framework and be inspired by a like-minded community, where Nigerians no longer need to leave Nigeria for a better life.

Iyin met with his good friend Luqman Edu to convince him to take on the challenge - How do we build the ideal environment for tech in Africa? Luqman and Iyin, having worked together in the past to solve big problems, and Luqman's extensive background in delivering business services and leveraging technology to provide solutions to address the needs of cities and critical functions of state governments in both Nigeria and the UK, set the stage for a team ready for the task:

Building a haven for the builders of tomorrow.

Our Vision

Taking learnings from around the world, we look to replicate the success stories of Estonia, Shenzhen, and Dubai, and become the global jurisdiction of choice on the African continent for the Internet citizens of the world.

Itana is committed to building the ideal environment for the tech ecosystem in Africa, where the best talents build together. We envision a connected community with the ideal governance, digital services and physical infrastructure for builders of the continent to thrive.

Supported by a consortium of global and local partners

Itana, as a key member of DiFZIN (Initiative for the Promotion of Digital Economic Zones in Nigeria), has collaborated with AFC, PwC Nigeria, Future Africa and Charter Cities Institute to engage the Federal Government of Nigeria to improve the policies and regulatory framework for tech and service-based businesses to operate with ease in Nigeria and to scale across the continent. Read more about DiFZIN →