If you’ve ever tried to launch a startup in Nigeria using a Silicon Valley playbook, you probably ended up frustrated, confused, or broke.

And it’s not because you’re not smart.
It’s because our market isn’t broken. It’s just different.

Africa isn’t a copy-paste continent.

VCs land in Lagos and say things like:

“We’re looking for the Uber of Nigeria…”

Or worse:

“This is like Stripe, but local.”

Respectfully — Africa doesn’t need a clone.
We need contextual innovation.

Because while we share global problems (payments, logistics, education), the way they show up here is completely different:

  • People don’t trust apps, they trust people.
  • Addressing is broken, so last-mile delivery is an extreme sport.
  • Mobile data is a luxury, so nobody’s downloading your 75MB fintech app.
  • Cash is king, but agents rule.

So what do you do?
You don’t force the model. You respect the terrain.

When Great Products Fail Here

Many times, Nigerian builders give up not because the product was bad, but because the market didn’t respond “like the books said.”

But guess what?

Silicon Valley books were written for people with steady electricity, stable IDs, and three generations of credit scores.

That’s not us — and that’s okay.

We are building for a population that skips email verification, but trusts WhatsApp voice notes.

We are designing for an economy where hustle culture is stronger than banking culture.

And it’s not a disadvantage — it’s an opportunity.

Builders Who “Get It” Are Winning

The few founders breaking through are those who dropped the rulebook and picked up a new one:

  • Moniepoint didn’t fight POS agents — they empowered them.
  • Flutterwave didn’t just build Stripe for Africa — they started where payments were fragmented and built infrastructure first.
  • Sabi understood that informal trade is the real B2B goldmine.

These builders aren’t copying blindly.
They’re building with local intuition + global excellence.

We Need More “Original Playbooks”

The real win isn’t cloning Western success, it’s decoding local behavior:

  • Why does your customer refuse to update your app but listens to 15 TikTok skits daily?
  • Why does a trader need a dashboard when all she wants is to confirm delivery and receive payment?
  • Why are we spending ₦5 million on onboarding funnels, when a simple phone call would convert faster?

Sometimes, the best UX isn’t slick UI. It’s human design logic.Sometimes, the best UX isn’t slick UI. It’s human design logic.

How to Actually Build for “Here”

  • Study people, not just problems
  • Build for adoption, not awards
  • Don’t overspend on what the market doesn’t value
  • Find the cultural shortcut, not the global template
  • Build with constraints, that’s where creativity hides

Final Thoughts

Africa doesn’t need saviors.
It needs students.
People who are willing to learn from the streets, the kiosks, the agents, the unbanked, the hustlers.

So stop asking “Why doesn’t this work here?”
Start asking “What does work here — and why?”

Because the market isn’t broken.
It just requires builders brave enough to understand it on its own terms.