Nigeria

Nigeria has over 220 million people and the continent's largest tech ecosystem, anchored in Lagos with growing hubs in Abuja and Ibadan. GDP is diversified across oil, fintech, telecoms, and a fast-growing services sector. The market rewards speed: adoption cycles are shorter than in most African markets, but competition for enterprise contracts is intense and payment terms can be slow.

Mobile penetration exceeds 100 lines per 100 people with heavy multi-SIM use, and mobile money has grown quickly since the CBN's 2018 licensing reforms, though it trails Kenya's M-Pesa maturity. Broadband access is concentrated in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, with lower reliability upcountry. Power remains the binding constraint on always-on AI infrastructure outside major commercial hubs.

Fintech leads AI adoption, with credit scoring and fraud detection already in production at banks and lenders. Telecoms use AI for churn prediction and network optimisation. Agriculture and logistics are the next frontier, driven by pressure to cut post-harvest losses and delivery costs.

The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA) established the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and formalised obligations for data controllers and processors, replacing the earlier 2019 regulation. Enforcement is still building capacity, but fines and audits are becoming real. AI-specific rules do not yet exist; NDPA compliance is the practical baseline for any deployment.

Kwish sees the entry point in mid-sized banks and fintechs that need NDPA-compliant AI credit and fraud models but lack in-house data science teams. A focused pilot with a Lagos-based lender, paired with a compliance audit, opens the door to the broader financial services market.