Hard knocks to high hopes: Fatu Ogwuche weighs African Tech's 2024 plot twists
Andile Masuku
There's something disarmingly cordial about Fatu Ogwuche, the founder of Big Tech This Week (a new-ish media outlet chronicling Africa's tech ecosystem), and regarded by many as low-key the industry's head of intelligence.
Her trajectory from Nigerian law school to Howard University's public management programme, through policy consulting and digital transformation work at Nigeria's electoral commission (INEC), to a four-year stint leading government partnerships at Meta, showcases a knack for positioning herself handily at the confluence of technology, policy and media.
As host of Big Tech This Week's 2024 edition of The Crossover Show—a Naija-leaning annual retrospective of African tech—Ogwuche's thoughtful facilitation led to several illuminating moments. For instance, when discussing MoneyPoint's recent unicorn status, panellist and former Meta colleague Osarumen Osamuyi of The Subtext noted how the founder had evolved from being "very opinionated about why founders didn't need to raise venture capital" to embracing VC funding—a trivia tidbit that illuminated the shifting dynamics of what it takes to build a market-leading fintech in Nigeria in 2024.
The all-Nigerian panel's animated discourse offered outsiders an entertaining glimpse into what makes the country tick as arguably simultaneously Africa's most interesting, dynamic (and intimidating) of the continent’s ‘Top Four’ startup ecosystems. Beyond the obvious macro attractions of population size and GDP, it's the distinctive market cadence—that uniquely Nigerian blend of pace, drive and earned scepticism—that came through in their analysis of 2024's wins and wobbles.
Fresh off The Crossover Show 2024, Ogwuche brings her trademark optimism, wit and informed knowingness to bear in this week's TechTides Africa column hijack, distilling some of last year's biggest lessons and suggesting what we might expect for the rest of 2025.
Here’s what's on Ogwuche’s mind, in her words:
Nigerians say, "If weekend go sweet, na from Wednesday you go know."
It's Pidgin language for "if a weekend will be great, you'll know from Wednesday"—a cultural truism about how early indicators predict future outcomes. Wednesday is an essential indicator.
This expression played in my head when we shot the first edition of The Crossover Show in December 2023 – our annual recap of the year in tech. We started by curating the wins and challenges of founders and startups powering Africa's tech ecosystem. To no surprise, the challenges far outweighed the wins!
To keep the show under an hour, my team and I decided to highlight only the weightiest challenges. The full catalogue of 2023's trials would have demanded a two-hour runtime!
2023 wrapping like it did brought the Pidgin expression to life, signalling that 2024 would be daunting for the ecosystem.
Founder woes
The year saw several high-profile startup shutdowns. FTX-funded Nigerian cryptocurrency startup Mara closed its doors after burning through $23 million (R423m) in funding, while payments infrastructure provider ThePeer shut down after struggling to find product-market fit.
In Kenya, e-commerce player Copia Global and retail-tech startup Market Force couldn’t stand the rain despite raising millions of dollars from investors.
Meanwhile, Nigerian real-estate startup Spleet, which had been working to solve Lagos' rental market challenges, lost its CEO amid allegations of mismanagement.
The big question during the taping of the second edition of The Crossover Show was whether these startups failed due to leadership issues or if market forces and volatility doomed them from the start.
But, some founders did try. They sacrificed mental health and family obligations chasing profitability. Still, hard work could not outrun a global economic meltdown.
In many African markets, inflation drove operating expenses through the roof, forcing startups to cut costs through layoffs and ruthless prioritisation of their best-performing verticals.
In Nigeria, the story got even messier – startups were raking in hundreds of millions in Naira revenue, only to see significant losses after foreign exchange conversion due to the Naira's freefall.
Moniepoint celebrated becoming a unicorn, then got slapped with ₦1 billion (R12 million) in Central Bank fines a few weeks later.
So, if there's one sense I came away with in 2024 – the bad outweighed the good.
Turning tides
2024 hit its "Wednesday” moment in December – with TymeBank becoming Africa's 9th unicorn, LemFi securing a $53 million (R974m) Series B raise, and internet service provider Tizeti teasing initial public offering (IPO) ambitions.
If the Pidgin expression is as effective in predicting great years as it is in predicting great weekends, I'd say 2025 will be a stellar year for growth in Africa's tech ecosystem.
And with that – let's look at what's being predicted for 2025…
So far, Africa's tech analysts are betting on:
– More venture capital flowing in as global interest rates drop.
– Startups testing the waters with local IPOs.
– Scale-ups finally hitting profitability.
– AI’s dominance and uptake on the continent.
– Increased M&A activity also topped most lists.
During the latest Crossover Show taping, Tosin Olaseinde, the founder and CEO of MoneyAfrica, predicted that we'll see mergers and acquisitions across different sectors, whether founders choose that path or market forces decide for them.
There will be a significant wave of cross-border M&As as investors push startups struggling to turn a profit to combine forces rather than compete for limited funding.
Meanwhile, other startups still hunting for product-market fit will need to explore new ways to drive growth and revenue.
We'll also see a regional shift in funding, with investors backing more startups outside the West African market and focusing on East and North Africa. Data, not sentiments, will fuel these decisions.
As Africa's startup ecosystem continues to develop, investor activity is expected to surge, driven by a quest for exciting growth opportunities.
The light at the end of this tunnel gives ventures that struggled through 2024 a fresh slate to establish their value proposition and win.
The road will be tough, but if there's a year to win, it's 2025.
Andile Masuku is Co-founder and Executive Producer at African Tech Roundup. Connect and engage with Andile on X (@MasukuAndile) and via LinkedIn.
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