Jacob Thulo, an alias for a South African national who at one point spent four years in Nigeria and got up close with the budding local tech scene, is convinced that Nigeria, despite its plethora of interminable self-inflicted struggles, is “far ahead” of his homeland and very likely the future of the continent.
That’s not a popular opinion to have as a South African given the contemporary multidimensional rivalry between both countries and the fact that Nigeria is grossly underperforming in many aspects.
Notwithstanding, Thulo’s view is probably shaped by his experiences as a perennial casualty of the intractable inequality issues in South Africa, which he strongly believes have hampered his entrepreneurial pursuits. He reckons Nigeria is in better shape because it’s free from the grip of ‘White monopoly capital.’
“Nigeria has no ‘White man problem,’ or at least not the one we have here. The ecosystem there seems to bridge the clique mindset, where value can be supported and...
