Mayowa Olugbile, the CEO of Itana, a Nigerian-based company building the first Digital Free Zone in Africa, is leading Itana’s push to position Nigeria as a gateway for global startups entering Africa’s digital economy. In this interview with Business A.M.’s Onome Amuge, he explains how Itana helps UK startups establish operations in Nigeria amid growing £8.1 billion trade ties, while addressing market-entry barriers, localisation challenges and the common mistakes foreign businesses make when scaling into the country. Excerpts:
The UK–Nigeria trade relationship is now valued at around £8.1 billion. How does Itana position itself within this growing corridor?
The £8.1billion trade figure is a strong signal, but what’s more important is the structural shift behind it. You have two increasingly interconnected economies, London as a global financial centre and Lagos as one of the fastest-growing tech ecosystems globally, supported by strong historical ties and diaspora populations. Itana sits at the intersection of that flow. Our role is to provide the infrastructure that makes cross-border expansion practical. As capital, talent, and companies increasingly move between the UK and Nigeria, we reduce the friction — whether that relates to incorporation, compliance, or operational setup — so founders can take full advantage of the opportunities that now exist in the UK-Nigeria corridor.
Why is Nigeria becoming an increasingly attractive destination for UK-based startups at this time?
Timing is a big part of it. Nigeria has gone through a difficult but necessary period of economic reform, particularly related to the liberalisation of the naira, which has come alongside a broader push to restore investor confidence.
What that has done is create a more attractive and competitive market for foreign businesses. Combined with a large, digitally native population and significant unmet demand, Nigeria now presents a compelling growth opportunity. For UK startups, many of which are struggling with relatively low growth rates domestically, it’s a chance to enter a market that is both high-growth and increasingly investable.
What sectors are you seeing the strongest interest from UK startups looking to enter Nigeria?
Fintech continues to lead, particularly around payments, remittances, and financial infrastructure, which is unsurprising given the scale of the UK–Nigeria remittance corridor. It is working in both directions, with Nigerian firms also expanding to the UK. During President Tinubu’s recent state visit to the UK, LemFi announced that it would be investing $100 million in London over the next five years, while Moniepoint also confirmed that it would be significantly growing its UK workforce.
At Itana, we have seen broad interest from UK tech firms in sectors such as healthtech, edtech, logistics, and AI-enabled companies exploring how their solutions can be adapted to emerging market contexts.
In your experience, what misconceptions do UK startups typically have about doing business in Nigeria?
Most conversations about doing business in Africa stay at the level of opportunity, focusing on the big trends such as market size, demographics, growth projections. Those are all real, but they’re not what determines success at the level of a specific business.
Where founders often struggle is translating that macro narrative into operational reality. Nigeria is full of opportunities but it is also complex and fast-moving. Customer behaviour, purchasing power, and regulatory dynamics can vary significantly depending on the industry and geographical location.
What changes perspective very quickly is direct exposure. We’ve seen this consistently through our “Doing Business in Africa” tour, where we bring founders interested in Nigeria to the country. Founders tend to arrive with a theoretical understanding, and within days, that view becomes far more grounded. They start to see not just the risks or the theoretical opportunity, but how this can be translated into practical success.
What are the most common regulatory or compliance hurdles UK startups face when entering Nigeria?
The challenge is less about any single regulation and more about navigating the system as a whole. Incorporation, licensing, and compliance requirements can feel very fragmented and difficult if you’re entering the market without local context.
For many UK startups, the difficulty is more about visibility: understanding which regulators matter, what the sequence of steps looks like, and how long things actually take. That’s why access is so important. When founders are able to engage directly with regulators, operators, and advisors, rather than trying to piece things together remotely, the process becomes significantly more manageable. That is one of our jobs at Itana.
What are the most frequent mistakes UK startups make when attempting to scale into Nigeria?
The most common mistake is treating expansion as a replication exercise rather than a redesign exercise. Founders try to port a UK model into Nigeria without fully adapting to local realities, whether that’s pricing, the go-to-market strategy, or the product or service itself.
The second mistake is underestimating the importance of relationships. In markets like Nigeria, networks are foundational.
What we’ve observed is that founders who take the time to immerse themselves, meeting partners, customers, and regulators early, tend to avoid both of these pitfalls. They manage to devise an informed strategy much faster and set themselves up for a stronger chance of success in Nigeria.
How critical is localisation including product, pricing, and customer experience to success in the Nigerian market?
It’s fundamental: localisation is ultimately where success starts. Nigeria is a mobile-first, highly price-sensitive market. For startups coming from the UK or other international markets, products often need to be rethought rather than simply adjusted. Pricing models need to reflect local purchasing power, and customer experience needs to align with how users actually interact with technology.
The companies that succeed are the ones that design with the market in mind from day one, rather than retrofitting later.
How exactly does Itana simplify market entry for UK startups compared to traditional expansion routes?
Traditionally, entering Nigeria meant building everything from the ground up: incorporating in the country, hiring local talent, navigating local regulations and compliance, while building the operational infrastructure. That process is not only time-consuming and expensive, but also very difficult to navigate for companies based in the UK or overseas.
Itana removes much of that friction. Startups can incorporate digitally, operate within a more streamlined regulatory environment, and access a platform designed specifically for cross-border, digital-first businesses.
Can you walk us through the onboarding process for a UK startup using Itana to enter Nigeria?
The onboarding process is designed to be fast and remote, taking as little as two weeks to complete. Startups apply to complete incorporation, with the Itana team fully supporting with the necessary paperwork and documentation, and are then integrated into the Itana ecosystem.
From there, they receive regulatory guidance, operational support, and access to a network of companies, partners, and service providers. What traditionally takes months or even years to get to grips with can be significantly compressed.
How do you ensure startups can access local talent, networks, and customers effectively?
Access is often the difference between entering a market and succeeding in it.
We approach this in two ways. First, through ecosystem design—connecting startups to talent, partners, investors, and customers within the Itana network. Second, through direct exposure.
One of the clearest examples is the Doing Business in Africa experience. It’s deliberately designed to move founders beyond theory. Over a few days, they’re engaging with regulators, meeting founders and operators, participating in business roundtables, and building relationships that continue long after.
That combination, structured access to decision-makers, real market insight, and peer-level interaction, is what allows founders to move from curiosity to execution.
Looking ahead, how do you see Itana shaping cross-border startup expansion between the UK and Africa over the next five years?
We’re moving into a phase where cross-border expansion is becoming significantly more fluid, particularly for digital businesses. The barriers that once made market entry slow and uncertain are starting to fall away. But what will differentiate success is not just access to markets but depth of understanding.
Our view is that the future of cross-border expansion should combine both: digital infrastructure that removes friction, and real-world access that builds conviction. That’s the role Itana is playing.
Over the next five years, I expect to see much stronger two-way flow between the UK and Africa—more UK startups building in Nigeria and African markets, and more African companies scaling globally. Our ambition is to make that exchange seamless and repeatable.
