This year, Kano has made its debut on the list of the top 1,000 startup cities globally. Over the past four years, this commercial hub of northern Nigeria has experienced a surge in startup activities, fueled by the successes of trailblazing tech entrepreneurs and a dynamic tech community.
In 2016, four visionary young individuals came together with a shared dream: to join the burgeoning tech revolution. Little did they know that their effort would lay the cornerstone of Kano’s tech ecosystem. Today, eight years later, their brainchild, Startup Kano, stands as one of the largest tech incubation hubs in northern Nigeria. Serving as a gateway to the tech world for over 50,000 youths, Startup Kano has also been instrumental in helping early-stage entrepreneurs secure more than $1 million in funding for their tech-driven ventures.
Kano’s tech ecosystem is vastly different from those in other parts of the country, like Lagos or Enugu. While the growth of these ecosystems might have inspired Kano, it didn’t make building any easier.
According to Aisha Tofa, co-founder of Startup Kano, there was no blueprint for them in the beginning as the environments were significantly different. There was zero tech awareness in Kano communities, and despite its deep entrepreneurial culture, the concept of investing in technology rather than brick-and-mortar businesses was largely absurd.
“People understood technology only to the extent of using social media platforms like Facebook,” she said. “Anything outside that and they didn’t trust it.”
It took years of radical tech evangelism to draw the interest of young people and, subsequently, investors. Now, the state has become one of the top six tech ecosystems in the country, with the highest number of startups in northern Nigeria.
Tofa believes the recent push for tech entrepreneurs in Kano is due to witnessing the potential of technology for their counterparts in the north.
“At first, people didn’t even try. They simply believed that their startups wouldn’t get enough funding or traction because they were from the north and not Lagos,” she said. “But when they started to see other founders in the northern region who worked hard and got rewarded, they woke up.”
In 2022, a mobility startup founded by Kano-born Khalil Halilu won $8,000 in the mobility and smart city category during a GITEX Pitch competition. That same year, another northern startup, Sudo Africa, raised $3.37 million in pre-seed funding. From 2021 to 2024, the number of tech startups in Kano jumped from five to about sixty.
Funding has always been regarded as the principal obstacle to growth in the Nigerian tech space, especially in emerging ecosystems like Kano. In 2023, it was reported that only about 6% of tech founders from the entire northern region had access to venture capital funding.
Tofa has a differing opinion. She believes that for an ecosystem like Kano, there are still foundational challenges that need to be addressed, such as education, mentorship, and creating the right market.
“There’s a huge gap between the training and impact we see in the ecosystem at the moment. A lot of us are still using templates from other places to train Kano youth, and it’s not the right fit,” she said. “Funding is important, but the things we do before getting to where we need funding should also be focused on.”
According to another co-founder of Startup Kano, who wished to remain anonymous, Kano is different and the ecosystem must adapt to the cultural context of the city to be successful.
“When we pitch tech startups as something entirely separate from the regular businesses they’re used to, it’s even more difficult to work with,” they said. “Startups are basically businesses, which is what we know here [in Kano] and how we ought to operate.”
The co-founder, who now bootstraps their own tech-enabled business, shared that funding isn’t as important to them now as finding the market for their product.
“Before thinking about raising money from investors, I’m already thinking about how to sell and make my profits directly from my customers, which is exactly how my own fathers did business,” they said.
A lot has changed in Kano over the past few years. Beyond an increased number of startups, there are also more incubation hubs, willing investors in the city, and increased interest.
“While building is still difficult, it is definitely not as difficult as it was four years ago because there are more resources to help you now,” the anonymous co-founder said. “Global organizations, the government, and even private individuals have seen what’s possible in Kano and want to be a part of it.”
Ahmed Idris, founder of Enovate Labs, a non-profit focused on driving innovation, warned that the buzz in the ecosystem shouldn’t be confused with a big change and that there’s still work to be done.
“The ecosystem is largely still as small as it was years ago, but we’ve seen some unique cases of people and startups who’ve managed to do great stuff,” he said.
TechCabal
