You have heard about Flutterwave, Paystack, Esusu, and many other top startups in Nigeria by Nigerians to the world. But do you know we have some awesome products by Gen Z too? Here is a list of 10 startups founded in Nigeria by Gen Z. The list doesn’t follow any hierarchy but is random as the writer randomly arranged it.
Generation Z (GenZ) is basically the newest generation. These are those born between the year 1997 to 2012. They are currently between ages 10-26 years old.
GenZers (who are mostly teenagers) are majorly viewed as reckless, stubborn kids. And as such, they have mostly been shoved aside, dismissed, or not listened to. Honestly, adults shouldn’t be blamed for not trusting members of this generation or disregarding them.
In a typical Nigerian community, it is extremely difficult to find members of this generation thinking of innovation or how to change the world or things like that. I can’t tell if that’s a result of the mediocre community they find themselves in, or just a plain lack of passion, drive, and motivation.
But all that is gradually becoming yesterday’s problem.
Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with social media. This world of advanced technology has proved to be extremely helpful, although hurtful to members of the age who do not make proper of the tech resources. Regardless, many GenZers have been able to take advantage of these resources into creating a more accessible, better, and evolved world to live in.
All over the world, GenZers are making waves. They are rising up to the occasion by getting involved in every sphere of life. We have quite a number of members of this generation not only getting involved but also actively participating in areas like entertainment, business, and tech, to name a few.
In Nigeria, the rate of involvement of GenZers in tech is increasing daily. With 25% of our population falling into this generation, it is not surprising that the percentage of GenZers getting involved in tech is massive.
Okay, so Nigerian GenZers are getting involved in tech, that’s good you might say. But, they are also changing the world one code, one web/mobile app, and one startup at a time.
Let’s look at some cool startups by Nigerian GenZers that you need to watch out for because they are taking the tech space by storm:
KLAS: Free Online Teaching Platform
Klas was co-founded by Nathan Nwachukwu in December 2021. Nathan is 18 years old and has been interested in tech, well according to him, since he was small. Nathan had an accident in his right eye a while after his 15th birthday and that kept him away from school for months.
This allowed him to take tech more seriously since well, he couldn’t go to school. During, this period he got bored and wanted to teach physics online but found no platform that could help him in doing this. Then came the idea for Klas.
Klas is a platform for basically anyone to start up a school online. The software has basically everything needed for online teaching. Ranging from scheduling to payments, video conferencing, and the like. It already has about 2,000 creators on the waitlist. It also recently secured funding of $130,000.
The startup recently partnered with Artickl (a UK-based startup that helps in application processes and job seeking) to better help learners to connect with job opportunities on a global level.
Creators on Klas can teach basically anything- languages, programming, designing, school subjects, musical instruments, and many more.
Klas will help in providing education remotely and can help professors and lecturers deliver their lectures using the platform.
FRELAPAY: Managing Freelance Process
Eniola Osabiya is a 17-year-old cloud engineer and full-stack developer. He is the creator of GenZ techies (an online community for GenZers in tech) as well as the co-founder of Frelapay.
Frelapay is a platform for freelancing. With Frelapay, you choose or design your templates, and set your working terms for projects. You also create contracts from your dashboard that you easily share with your clients.
You easily create your own invoices and you can get paid in multiple currencies and even in crypto. You get paid into your wallet and you can withdraw your money anytime.
Frelapay is the solution for clients and freelancers alike. As a freelancer or even as a client hiring, you’ve most likely experienced one problem or the other. You’ve probably had problems with late payments and the like.
Eniola and his co-founder have looked into all these and created a smart solution for all problems associated with freelancing in the form of Frelapay.
LAZERPAY: Get Paid Across Border
Lazerpay is founded by 19-year-old Njoku Emmanuel. Emmanuel is one of the most sought-after blockchain engineers in Nigeria.
Lazerpay is a gateway payment for cryptocurrency. Lazerpay helps to solve cross-border payments. With lazerpay, you don’t get to worry about receiving or making business payments from customers abroad. Even though our traditional currency can’t cross borders, crypto can.
It is an innovation that will speed up the adoption of crypto in Africa. It does not only help in solving business payments but also provides a pathway to Defi (decentralized finance) which is more secure, efficient, and transparent than traditional financial services.
With Defi, there will also be access to some features like lending and staking.
REVETPAY: Borderless Payment
Jonathan Olayinka founds Revetpay. He is a 17years old frontend developer.
Revetpay is a blockchain payment infrastructure company. It was designed for local and international payments. It helps to bridge the gap between crypto and fiat.
Revetpay helps you to get paid with crypto, fund a virtual with crypto or fiat and you can buy goods and services directly with cryptocurrency.
ZEDDPAY: Shop and make purchases online
Zeddpay is created by 16 years old Pleasant Balogun. Pleasant had the idea for Zeddpay when he had difficulty receiving and making payments because he doesn’t have a bank account due to age restrictions.
Zeddpay, one of the fintech startups in Nigeria is solving a major Gen Z problem of not being able to purchase anything online due to age restrictions in having a credit card. With Zeddpay, you don’t need a bank account to make online payments.
You just need to have a good amount of airtime and you start shopping.
With Zeddpay you can make countless transactions with one single app. You can convert your airtime to ZeddCoin and then with your ZeddCoin you can do basically anything.
You can convert it to crypto, pay it out to a bank account purchase airtime and data subscriptions (5% cheaper than what you get from your bank)and even make online purchases.
AEROSEEDS: Automate Reforestation
Aeroseeds is created by Pleasant Balogun (the 16-year-old creator of Zeddpay ). It is an afforestation company aimed at regenerating the ecosystem globally.
Pleasant is aiming at solving a problem that the majority didn’t even know existed.
The rate of release of carbon iv oxide increases as industrial growth increases. The effects of CO2 can be extremely dangerous to our ecosystem. Imagine CO2 as a warm blanket continually trapping heat in the atmosphere and thus warming up the earth.
This prevents the earth from cooling and eventually results in global warming. With the many problems, the world is faced with not a lot of people realize the effect of the release of CO2. The easiest and cheapest way to get rid of this problem is by planting trees.
Who will plant the trees? Manually planting trees will take so much time definitely but of course, this is the 21st century. Aeroseeds uses UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to plant trees at strategic locations.
Although this project is still in the early stage you can make donations to support Pleasant and his team in saving the planet.
ULTEREX: Future Powered by Nature
The 16years old John Oseni is the founder of UltereX (although previously called FutureX). John is recognized as a tech prodigy.
UltereX is a nature-powered company. It plans to produce machines that run on natural elements like solar energy, wind, and water instead of carbon-containing fuels to reduce the drastic increase in global carbon production and thus ensure a safer planet for us to live in.
The young CEO employs the help of foreign companies and a wide team of researchers and engineers. John envisions an improved Tesla because Tesla products emit toxic elements.
DEVTRANET: Network for Developers
Ibrahim Opeyemi Salami, 18 years web developer is the founder of Devtranet.
Devtranet is a network where developers and technologists can connect and build opportunities. With devtranet, you meet and connect with people, and you even get to show your work and get constructive feedback.
You can find jobs or compete in hackathons. Even as a beginner you can get mentored by more experienced developers.
Devtranet is a global village consisting of like-minded people in tech. If you need a co-founder, open source contributors, or even a little help, devtranet has got you covered.
EDDIFY: EdTech Startup
Eddify is an educational technology startup founded by Michael Nwuju (18 years old). It aims at improving the educational sector of Nigeria.
Eddify has everything a student needs. It provides JAMB-related services like uploading O’level results, printing admission letters, and even more, post UTME screening registrations, payment of school and acceptance fees, and the like. You can also get past questions and answers to aid in a good performance in exams. You can also get online tutoring from professionals.
You can also be a vendor on Eddify. You sell educational goods and services to students.
AFROWATCH: Watch African Movies
year-old Clinton Imaro, a web/blockchain developer, is the founder of Afrowatch.
Afrowatch is a live TV platform. With AfroWatch, you can watch over 100+ African and international channels for free. It enables you to watch more for fewer data.
AfroWatch Is a Netflix-like platform but more like Dstv Now because you watch live shows. The amazing thing about AfroWatch is that it is free and uses a reduced amount of data.
FEATURED STARTUP: Homesilo Africa
Homesilo is a prop-tech startup that is building a solution to connect vetted home seekers or potential property buyers directly with verified property owners and their vetted properties.
Homesilo Africa will let you avoid dubious agents who are ready to squeeze you dry financially. All you have to do is to register on the website either as a property owner, manager, or seeker and follow the onboarding process.
Check out what we are doing and join the waitlist to be informed when we launched. Go to www.homesilo.africa to get started.
Takeaway: Top 10 Startups in Nigeria by GenZ to Watch out for
These are all amazing startups that every Tom, Dick, and Harry should be excited about.
However, these are only some of the many startups in the cooking stage by Nigerian GenZers. That’s right we’re becoming more than just lazy Nigerian youths. Many more are on the way as we hope for a generation of potential leaders that will develop solutions to the many problems still available in Nigeria and the world at large.
This is only the beginning of what will be accomplished in technology even by the newest and youngest generation.
As a GenZ (or probably you’re not) there’s absolutely no excuse to not start doing something. No one should allow the age tag to hinder him/her from doing what they think you can or should start.
It is not uncommon to be told to lay off your dream till you get to a certain age or for accomplishments and success to be defined in a mediocre term to you. Those are normal things to be told but the abnormality in it is if you don’t take it up as a challenge to prove the notion wrong.
If you succumb to pressure from the masses you might not be doing yourself any favor. And if as a Nigerian your hands are folded in waiting for a change it is definitely not the best thing to do. Be the change you want to see. Build the world you want to live in. One step at a time.
You don’t need to write codes before you get into tech, not everybody has to do that. Just make sure you have digital and technological skills.
And yes, just in case you’ve been wondering you can add technology to whatever it is you’re passionate about. Who says you can’t be a baker and a techie at the same time? You don’t want to be left behind.
