 Then welcome back is to watching the breakfast right here on plus TV Africa And we have very interesting conversation ahead the information and communications technology Sector is very important in today's world. And of course the countries that are leading The economies of the world today have that sector as very very dominant in whatever they do and one of the important aspects of the information and Communications technology happens to be the tech startups and how are tech startups in Nigeria fairing? How are tech startups in Africa fairing and how have they evolved over time? We have joining us to look at the evolution of tech startups in Nigeria the chief operations officer of tech point Africa if I Indy or may we say also with us is Kola Wale Olu Wani Femi Who is a senior reporter with tech point Africa? Good morning to you and welcome to the breakfast and plus TV Africa Let's start off by by finding out what exactly tech point Africa is. Okay. Thank you so much for having us Tech point Africa is a media company. Like I said, we have the gatekeepers of the technology ecosystem in Nigeria before we realize that it's important that what we do To get that everybody in the ecosystem and show that people are you know, rightly informed people are following the technology trends in Nigeria And also Africa and people are able to find this information where they want them So we are able to provide all of these things to the different players deco stem both the enthusiast but the information Service providers everybody we're connecting everybody together and that's like a very important aspect of what we do as the gatekeepers So so when you say you are a media company is obviously are you do you print or is it a 360 degree media? Organization where you have the website you look at videos you look at Print what's the focus in terms of the media? We're basically online online. We do everything online from From text to videos like we're basically an online media company All right, interesting. I'm so so let's look at tech startups in Nigeria I mean we hear above countries like Kenya, you know, we take up startups. We used to hear of Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda in Africa, you know And the fact that maybe Kenya was a Silicon Valley of Africa. How is Nigeria faring in the tech ecosystem in Africa? Interesting to say I think Nigeria, you know is currently you know topping that Position even if I'm to use that word we've seen the growth of startups we've seen the Activities around the ecosystem in Nigeria by the last two three years when you look at the funding report when you look at the number of talents coming into the you know, you know Coming out every day when you look at you know people, you know, who are trying to get into the tech space You realize that in Nigeria, it's a whole lot, right? So one one indices I can I can use is a funding report. So as a 2019 we had Africa raise a total of 1.3 billion In the last two years 2020 2021 that figure has jumped to four billion Sorry, you take guys the way you call this this is the money, you know billions of dollars no seed funding I didn't hear you. How many billion so in 2019 that figure was around 1.37 billion Okay, that's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot. And then in 2020 2020 we're looking at four billion and Nigeria Nigeria the moon has raised about 1.37, right? So that's about, you know Nigeria like a startup in Nigeria raising At least a million a million dollars every two hours. That's a lot and that's that's really very very exciting And okay, no go ahead. Okay. So and one of the things that is you know That is creating this this drive is because of the you know the innovation You're seeing the kind of solution that you know people are coming up with and these are social that are really solving problems These are social that will wow your mind, right? People are now looking people are now going very deep into like, you know Solving real problems and then going out to them, you know look for the kind of partners the kind of you know Technology platforms are hanging with them to do all of this and this is all you know part of that, you know Should I say? Celebration there are things because people celebrate funding a lot, but there's a lot of work that goes on it Okay, so let's also bring in the senior reporter who's also here and Caller wally. Oh Lua Fanny. Am I correct? Oh Lua Nifemi. Oh Lua Nifemi. Okay. Now let's talk about Tech, you know tech companies and the solutions that provide different tech companies provide different solutions So what is a tech point Africa providing? What solutions are you providing in Nigeria? Yeah, so basically the solution and capacity is all What other tech companies are doing because what we do is shape the narratives of what they do the Problems they see and how they are solving them. So Product our solution is telling people the story make people get aware of what the solutions in Africa are because Africa is is New as it's way into the tech scene compared to what the Western world They are doing right, but when people don't have the knowledge when they are not aware of what they can use the internet for What tech tools they can use for to solve our basic problems like Getting food on the go like getting food on demand for instance, you can connect with a Ketra online via platforms you can order for food via say Jumia food, right? But people might not know this if you don't get the news, that's right And there are some problems that we feel like they are just Our daily problems that we just have to go through but tech is now here getting Both on on the go like getting on demand taxi on the go, right? When I was coming here this money had to do that But if I was not aware of that, I wouldn't be able to do that. So the product we are offering is getting people enlightened about what Tech solutions are capable of doing even though we've not gotten to the length that Western world So that is the product we are offering to Nigerians and Africans at large All right, indeed that takes making life easier. Yes, imagine how we would have gotten to work At 5 a.m. Or 6 a.m. If there was no right healing up, but we'll send you an invoice for I mean you do that they also able to follow the news while on the go like just Making things faster and let's talk about tech point build because we're most out of time. What is tech point build? To take point build for me is West Africa's biggest conference We West Africa's biggest conference. Yes. What kind of conference is it? So it's a technology conference and a startup conference where we where we talk about, you know Topical conversations that borders around, you know People's life and how technology is making it better people's businesses and you know what they need to be doing better, you know You know different areas of technology and how people can also apply them, you know How you know technology ecosystem can, you know, can better understand their Challenges and then come together and find solutions to them, right to take point build for us Is that way of doing that? And we're also supporting, you know stars in our own way to like like we have a pitch competition where we give A startup $10,000, you know the pitch and then we have to participate in the pitch and so on goes on with $10,000 That's that's money that could go into solving, you know Moving the needs, you know when it comes to like operations for the company That's a lot. Yeah, it is. The way he's calling the money is really strong, you know It means that the tech ecosystem is really it's really creative When is this tech point here? Has it happened? So it's happened on Saturday, January 22nd at landmark West landmark, I mean landmark is at Ligalea Ayuridia Victoria Island Okay, so you just go to landmark. Yeah, you register build a tech point of Africa And then you choose it off the available Ticket passes. There's a there's a general Fiscal ticket pass. There's a VIP, which is as I already been sold off. Sorry. And then there's a an online So even journalists online you can also choose that as well And we've had very, you know, very good number of registrations Well, so just as we coasted down for someone who probably might just be in doubt and saying Why do I have to attend this event? What are the benefits? What do they stand to gain? Interestingly our team for this year is the next frontier and that is, you know, like looking at the future, right? When you when you look at the advanced countries, you always you you appreciate what they do because they think ahead And we're also trying to do something similar by saying look We have technology here We have startups doing a lot of stuff interesting stuff here But what is the next thing? How does that affect you? Like do you think your business as is where we'll be absolutely in the next two years? Do you think your technology will no longer be relevant and you no longer have customers in the next two or three years? You don't you want to be here? We're bringing all of the Industries stakeholders to talk about, you know What's what's the state of their industry right now? And where should it be in the next two three four years? Right and that for us is like taking the next frontier leap And of course if you are if you're passionate about technology and you feel like, you know Your business runs, you know on the technology as we know it then you want to be in that kind of a conference You don't want to miss it So it's not just going to be a talk shop of people talking about what they think a few but people will also get Educated exactly get informed exactly really tell us a bit about that information. Okay. So like I said The conversations, you know the future of education the future of you know financial tech in Nigeria the future of travel the future of Um health education Like and these are these are important things because you you you don't want to you don't want to work in silos You don't want to you don't want to be building something and all of a sudden, you know, it's it's no longer existing Right. You want to you want to know that you're on the right track You want to be able to see the next space stack in a different way from our conversation The next space that I think I would love to be cool now On the next space that goes there They're minting money But someone is listening right now and saying no, I'm not a Tech enthusiast and I don't know what I should attend. Who should attend this tech point build Africa holding on Sunday? Um I would say for everybody especially if you have interest in technology But crucially we're looking at you know, um people within the health sector people within the media and entertainment sector people within the Um education sector people within the travel businesses, right as long as you know, you use tech One way or another as long as your business, you know runs on the internet You want to be there, right? And if you and if you also want to just learn like you feel like oh like I'm just curious about what's going on in the technology space I mean, it's it's it's a good learning ground for a lot of people who are in that space right now. All right Okay, so so we're costing it down on I mean just as it is Can you kindly take us through the details of the event again? I mean the event again the date the time And uh, if there's going to be a gate fee or it's just the free access It's a free access. All you just need to do is go to the website build the tech point of Africa and then register Uh, you can easily get it out of the three two ticket pass right now because one has been sold out Which is the VIP and then You can get the general pass ticket to attend Physically or general pass ticket to watch wherever you are probably you're you're in America You're you're the follow-up follows what we're doing. You can also do that The team for the event is the next frontier and this is where we're talking about the future basically All right. Thank you very much. Um, that's about you can take uh, ifani indio may we say is uh the chief operations officer of leading tech media company In africa tech point africa inviting us to be a part of tech build 2022. He was not alone. Of course, we've had A kola wale o luwa nifemi senior reporter at tech point africa. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your time Thank you so much. Thank you for having us All right, we'll be right back. Uh, still ahead. Do we have conversations coming up? Uh on Two on a one very important uh topic right here on the breakfast mercy And of course, we'll be looking at the akity elections ahead of the elections in akity state all of the Stories and all of the actions building up to their elections. We'll continue the conversation when we return