During a recent Tech Safari webinar, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji dropped details about his most ambitious project yet. The serial entrepreneur who co-founded unicorns Andela and Flutterwave is building Itana . Africa’s first digital special economic zone that lets companies register and operate from anywhere in the world.
Speaking live on the Tech Safari webinar, Aboyeji revealed how this seven-year project has presidential backing, $100 million in funding, and could finally solve the problem that forces African founders to incorporate in Delaware.
The conversation, hosted by Caleb Maru from Tech Safari with Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Nkechi Oguchi (Itana’s Chief Community and Marketing Officer), unveiled the behind-the-scenes work of building infrastructure that most governments should provide. But this time, it’s privately led and government-backed.
After building billion-dollar companies, Aboyeji noticed a pattern. Fast-growing tech companies kept hitting the same walls: rigid regulations, complex banking, and lack of proper infrastructure.
The idea started when Andela was scaling rapidly from 15 people to 40 people in just seven months.
“Most people probably know Itana as a concept that came into consciousness in the last few years. But it’s been a burden we’ve been carrying around for seven years now,” Aboyeji explained during the webinar.
“When I started at Andela, we had about 15 people in May. By December, we had 40 people. Typical businesses in Nigeria don’t grow that way. Tech companies have to scale very fast just to make ends meet.”
The breaking point came when successful founders realized Delaware’s hidden costs. “A lot of founders don’t understand the challenges with Delaware. When it’s time for you to take out that big exit from America, you got to pay 30% of it to the American government. Nobody tells you that until it’s time,” Aboyeji revealed.
Failed Deals and Pivotal Advice
Aboyeji shared details about Itana’s rocky early days that haven’t been public before. “We first started out trying to buy an abandoned special economic zone in Calabar called Tinapa for $100 million. Let’s just say that deal didn’t go well,” he admitted during the live discussion.
An advisor gave crucial feedback that changed everything: “You’re trying to do this an hour away from Lagos, and I admire your courage. But consider that Lagos is where most of your customers are. If anybody did it in Lagos, it wouldn’t matter whatever you did anywhere outside of Lagos.”
That advice brought the team back to Lagos, where they partnered with Alara City. “Over time, as the vision evolved and grew, we started to realize that the lowest hanging fruit, and in some ways the highest hanging fruit, was working on policy,” Aboyeji explained.
Presidential Committee Reports Every 90 Days
The policy work has reached the highest levels of Nigerian government. Aboyeji revealed that President Bola Tinubu personally chairs the Presidential Committee on Digital Free Zones, which includes Central Bank Governor, SEC Director-General, and multiple ministers.
“That committee has to report to the president every 90 days. We send a written report every 30 days, we meet every 90 days,” he said. “After the last meeting, there’s now a speed up on creating the right infrastructure within the zone for holding companies and fund managers.”
The results are already showing. “Before the end of the year, you’re going to be able to as a fund manager set up a licensed entity in Itana,” Aboyeji announced during the webinar.
Digital Residency Hits 4,000 Waitlist
Oguchi shared impressive community numbers during the discussion. “We have over 300 people in that community now, and even a larger waitlist of over 4,000 people,” she revealed about Itana’s digital residency program.
The digital residency serves people who aren’t ready to set up businesses in the zone but want access to the ecosystem. “These are people that want to be a part of the ecosystem, want to start accessing the support that Itana has even now,” Oguchi explained.
Diaspora Leading Adoption
One surprising trend emerged during the conversation. “A majority of the people that are leveraging Itana are people in diaspora,” Oguchi noted. They see it as a way to stay connected to continental opportunities while operating globally.
Aboyeji outlined three main diaspora use cases he’s seeing on his current roadshow:
First, smart real estate investment. “A lot of diaspora invest in real estate. But the one thing many don’t understand is it’s hard to get your money out. And it’s hard to sell, except you do it in the zone.”
Second, talent arbitrage. “We’re seeing a lot of diaspora not just invest capital in startups, but actually bring their talent and hire on the ground, even though they’re wherever they are.”
Third, leveraging Nigerian talent for global businesses. He shared an example: “Very famous founder came to me the other day. He’s like, ‘I’m building like a technology enabled carwash.’ He has a tech team and support team in Nigeria, within the zone, that’s going to help him support that carwash business.”
Not Actually Fintech-Heavy
Contrary to assumptions, Itana isn’t dominated by fintech companies. “The biggest surprise is that we’re not actually seeing that many fintech companies,” Oguchi revealed. “We’re seeing lots of SaaS companies, an interesting trend that we’re noticing now is AI companies.”
Hardware companies find particular value because they can import equipment duty-free. “If you’re building like a small server cluster of H100s and you just need a space to put them in the zone, that makes more sense because those things are really expensive – you don’t want to pay duty on them,” Aboyeji explained.
Talent Wins Over Policy and Capital
When asked to choose between talent, policy, or capital as most urgently needed, both founders picked different answers, sparking an interesting debate.
Oguchi leaned toward policy: “People need the government backing that creates an enabling environment. You also need that in place to be able to attract the capital.”
But Aboyeji was unequivocal: “I believe unequivocally it is talent. It’s very hard to have policy conversations in a vacuum. When talented people make a decision and say, ‘I’m coming from the UK, I’m coming from the US, I’ve seen how things are done there, and I’m here, and I want to make this work’ – the government is far more receptive than you think.”
He emphasized talent’s multiplier effect: “For example, if Jeremy Johnson didn’t come to set up Andela in Nigeria, I wouldn’t be here, period. Until Jeremy was like, ‘here’s how you build a real big company’ and literally walked me through it in apprenticeship.”
On capital, Aboyeji was blunt: “Capital is a prostitute. It just goes where talent is. I’ve seen people invest in countries where you’re like, ‘hmm, okay, what are you thinking?’ Because the talent is there.”
Zone Works as Portfolio Company Support
For companies that register, Aboyeji and his team provide hands-on support. “The way to think about it is Nkechi, myself, Lukman, we work for your company, literally. Like we’ve been in situations where Nkechi calls me up and says, ‘I need you to call this regulator because a company has a problem,'” he explained.
“When we negotiate something for one company, we negotiate it for all the companies in your sector. For example, we’re negotiating stuff now for VCs that want to move into the zone. When we negotiate that, that applies to every VC that moves into the zone.”
Global Partnerships Taking Shape
The webinar revealed several international partnerships in development. Aboyeji mentioned talks with the US government so “Delaware is going to play very nicely with Itana.”
He’s also exploring innovative programs with Barbados: “We’re having conversations about possibly wrapping in some sort of work stamp visa with digital residency. So if you want to work from Barbados a few months a year, like I do, you can do that and earn your citizenship as opposed to buy a passport.”
Through Nigeria’s Ministry of Digital Economy, Itana companies will get global support: “Every Nigerian embassy in the world literally becomes your office address. And people can verify who you are from there.”
Physical District Launches 2027
While Itana operates digitally now, the physical infrastructure has clear timelines. “We should have our phase one out by 2027,” Oguchi announced during the webinar.
The physical district will span 72,000 square meters in Alaro City with 24/7 power, dual fiber internet, and what Aboyeji called “the fastest internet in Lagos” at 1 gigabit per second. “By the way, Itana has the fastest internet in Lagos. We have 500 mbps and we’ve upgraded now to 1 gbps,” he noted.
Accelerate Africa Moving to Itana
One major announcement came during the discussion: “Next year, we’re moving Accelerate to Itana completely. So it’s going to be a physical program and it’s going to be at Itana,” Aboyeji revealed.
This creates a full ecosystem where “you already have some, we have like about 576 units of housing. We have some makeshift event space. The idea is just get people talking to each other and meeting each other.”
Companies Already Operating Successfully
Several portfolio companies shared their experiences during the webinar. Gaurav Sudhanshu from InCash highlighted regulatory benefits: “Our biggest challenges and fear are regarding regulatory approval and licenses. Free zones are not new to Nigeria; unfortunately it was only available to manufacturing and was never available to the tech sector.”
Ifeoluwa Awodein from Future Africa emphasized currency advantages: “Converting to Naira to pay our employees is a stressful process, and people want to earn in USD. Additionally, we have expatriates from different parts of the world – not only is there a limited expatriate quota, the cost is quite high. I’m pumped that Itana is helping to solve all of these problems.”
The Bigger Vision
During the live discussion, Aboyeji outlined Itana’s continental ambitions: “The vision for Itana is not just for Nigeria. The idea is basically, how do you build the ideal and optimal conditions for you to continue to grow digital economies across the world, not even Africa?”
He sees this as leveling the global playing field: “As more work moves from the global economy to the digital economy, given the challenges we’re currently having with globalization, what you’re going to find with digital economy and AI is that the playing field is going to level up. Silicon Valleys can be built almost anywhere.”
The goal is creating a replicable model: “If we build the YC of Africa in Itana, everyone’s going to do it. So accelerate actually is a partnership with Itana. And that partnership is going to become much tighter.”
The live conversation revealed the depth of work happening behind the scenes to build infrastructure that could reshape how African startups scale globally. With presidential backing, international partnerships, and companies already operating successfully, Itana represents a privately-led solution to problems that have held back the continent’s tech ecosystem for years.
The next phase will test whether this model can actually replace Delaware as the go-to jurisdiction for African entrepreneurs, and whether other countries will adopt similar approaches to support their digital economies.
