E-Business
Alerzo Believes they Can Build Another Lagos in Ibadan
By Sam Adeoye
At this moment in time, long, hot traffic jams are becoming a thing in Ibadan. The folks who live in that city are half-proud of this congestion because it sorts of presents them with a shared experience with the too-cool-for-school Lagosians. On the other hand, however, they desperately hate it because the whole point of Ibadan is that it’s less insane than Lagos — hustle-wise.
But my point with this article isn’t about the hustle or the bustle. It’s about the likelihood of replicating the vibrant tech ecosystem of Lagos in another Nigerian city. In this case, Ibadan.
You might think I’m only being delusional with this idea, but one brilliant start-up is suggesting that it is indeed possible to build a tech giant from over there. This start-up, ladies and gentlemen, is called Alerzo.
If you’ve never heard of Alerzo, consider yourself forgiven. I myself only knew of it last week when I had a conversation with the serial entrepreneur and start-up mentor known as Opeyemi Awoyemi. As you may recall, Mr Awoyemi has been a cofounder of some tech juggernauts, namely Jobberman, Whogohost, TalentQL, and Moneymie.
In the course of our chat, I asked Opeyemi this question: Now that Lagos has attained this reputation as Africa’s most vibrant start-up hub, is it possible to replicate the success of Lagos elsewhere within Nigeria?
As it turned out, this was a question he’d been giving a lot of thought. So, to me, he immediately said, Well, it depends. “Name a city and let’s talk about it.”
To which I said, “Ibadan.”
“Brilliant,” he said.
See, Ibadan has a lot going for it. One, it is West Africa’s largest city. It is also close to Lagos — just about 120km. Besides, one of Nigeria’s most active universities, as far as tech entrepreneurship is concerned, is only 75km away from Ibadan. I’m talking about the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, aka OAU. Some of Nigeria’s best-funded tech companies were founded or cofounded by OAU alumni. Nomba (formerly Kudi), Farmcrowdy, 54Gene, SlimTrader, and PropertyPro are some of those companies.
Two, operating in Ibadan is considerably cheaper than it is Lagos. For instance, a four-room duplex in suburban Ibadan will rent for N1.8 million per year. Take a similar location in Lagos and the same property won’t cost you less than N3 million.
Then, there’s the new rail line that makes it easy to be headquartered in Ibadan and never miss ecosystem meetups and corporate meetings in Lagos. When the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is finally completed, it too should further shorten the distance between the two cities.
In the meantime, no other company is making better use of Ibadan’s remarkable standing than Alerzo.
Founded by Adewale Opaleye in 2018 to help small retailers stock their shops directly from manufacturers, Alerzo has raised more than $20 million in its seed and series A rounds. And it got some pretty savvy investors behind it, too. Big names such as the Africa-focused accelerator, Baobab Network; the Singapore-based Signal Hill; the London-based Nosara Capital; FJ Labs; and several family offices from Europe, Asia, and the US have put major money behind Alerzo, according to reporting by TechCrunch.
Opaleye, who is himself a native Ibadan man and the son of a mom-and-pop shop owner, has said his big idea for Alerzo came from watching his mother’s “many challenges”. The old lady, he said, ran two stores while raising four kids. So, Opaleye told TechCrunch, “I decided to start a business that uniquely catered to the needs of retailers just like her.”
While solving a problem close to home might sound pretty cool, the coolest part of this man’s idea is that it doesn’t even bother to recruit clients from Lagos, at least not yet. Yes, it does have a “Lagos Hub” in Victoria Island, but it has concentrated its business on Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ekiti and other towns like them in Southwest Nigeria. The company refers to these locations as Tier-2 to Tier-4 cities.
In just three years, Alerzo says its customer base has now expanded into about 100,000 small business in these towns. Through Alerzo, these retailers receive supplies from mega consumer goods manufacturers like Dangote, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and PZ Cussons.
Isn’t that something? Who would have thought that a billion-dollar tech-enabled logistics and FMCG supply company could spring from slow-paced Ibadan? I mean, for years, if you’d asked any of the thousands of young people relocating from Ibadan why they were hightailing it to Lagos, Nigeria’s most crowded metropolis, their answer was always direct and fast: “there’s no money in that town.”
Now, thankfully, it appears that things can be different. It’s just that for things to actually change, people would have to make them… change.
This is what Opeyemi Awoyemi was talking about. “Each State [of Nigeria] can look at the situation of the economy and decide what they want to be,” he said to me.
That’s indeed true. And pretty straightforward, too. There’s just so much that Lagos can do for Nigerian entrepreneurs. Because its resources are limited, competition for those resources will continue to drive up the cost of starting, and running, a business here. Which then presents an extraordinary opportunity to neighbouring States — for a start, Ogun and Oyo (which has Ibadan as its capital). These States can choose what role they’d like to play in this flourishing tech economy.
In this new era of WFH and remote employment, for example, all barriers to talent location are crashing down. Both TalentQL— the tech staffing recruitment portal, and uLesson — the on-demand tutoring company — have proven that, if you can set up Wi-Fi there, you can situate your software engineers and designers there. It doesn’t matter if it’s the pristine locality of Ile-Ife down in the south or the chilly hills of Jos, near the country’s centre.
And with Alerzo, the eye of the government should open to the truth about enabling environments for tech enterprise. Sometimes all it takes to encourage new ventures is an acceptance of new thinking. That and a transportation system that works, dedicated real estate layouts, and (or) tax breaks. When you make your place conducive for creators, and make sure they hear about it, and they’ll come.
Today, we talk about Nigerian start-ups being Delaware (USA) companies. There’s a reason Delaware became the go-to American state to register new corporations. As Mr Awoyemi said, Delaware decided what it wanted to be and it went straight for it.
Hopefully a Nigerian governor or one of his aides will read this article. Hopefully, it will start a conversation in their cabinet. Hopefully, they will do something life-changing with it.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in partnership with the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), has convened a one-day workshop in Abuja to advance dialogue on the draft Online Harm Protection (OHP) Bill to confront harmful online content.
The bill, a rights-based, locally rooted, and multi-stakeholder initiative, is aimed at addressing the challenges of the digital age.
The event, which held yesterday, brought together government officials, civil society, academics, digital platforms, and legal experts to shape a policy framework designed to combat online ills such as cyberbullying, disinformation, hate speech, digital exploitation, and gender-based violence, while safeguarding democratic freedoms and digital inclusion.
In his keynote remarks, Kashifu Inuwa, director general, NITDA urged a paradigm shift in the way society engages with digital technologies.
“For almost two decades, we have viewed digital technology through a consumer lens. But these technologies are not just products and services. They are transforming how we live, work, and interact. They shape our politics, our society, and our democracy,” he said.
Warning against unaccountable digital power in the hands of private corporations, the DG likened the digital journey to the tale of Alice in Wonderland, where initial fascination with innovation has given way to deeper concerns about privacy, autonomy, and manipulation by big tech platforms.
“We thought we were using Google, but now we realise Google is using us. Social media, once a tool of expression, has become a tool of surveillance and influence,” Inuwa noted.
He, therefore, emphasised the urgency of developing a democratic and accountable framework. He explained that following the 2021 Twitter ban, NITDA facilitated dialogue between the government and platform operators, leading to a Code of Practice that stressed Nigeria’s sovereignty and legal standards.
According to him, the same process birthed the multi-stakeholder steering committee and the OHP White Paper in December 2024, laying the foundation for the current legislative push.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Victoria Manya, co-founder, API, observed the moral and civic necessity of the bill.
Her words: “The internet did not break society, it merely revealed its unfiltered version. Every day, Nigerians are exposed to harassment, disinformation, exploitation, and even algorithmic violence. The OHP Bill is not a war on the Internet. It is a peace offering to its users, a social contract for a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and democratic.
“We cannot answer the question of algorithmic power with unchecked state control. We must answer it with shared, rights-based governance. This bill must not be written for the people, but with them.”
These days, people rely heavily on their mobile phones for talking, texting, banking, social media, and storing important personal information. Because of this, scammers and spammers often target phone users.
Mobile fraud, like fake SMS messages and scams, is becoming more common and putting millions at risk of losing money or having their private details stolen.
Airtel’s new AI-powered Spam Alert Service offers a smart and timely way to fight back, marking a major step forward in protecting mobile users in Africa.
A brief look at mobile fraud and spam
Mobile fraud and spam are problems around the world, but they hit harder in places where mobile phone use is growing fast, and safety measures haven’t caught up.
A 2024 report from GSMA Mobile Economy shows that more than 20% of mobile users globally have experienced some kind of mobile fraud, with spam texts being one of the most common.
In Nigeria, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has noted a sharp rise in scam messages and fake calls, leading to yearly losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
These spam texts often include fake links, harmful ads, or tricks to steal personal details. Many people get caught without knowing, which can lead to stolen bank money, identity theft, or damaged devices.
Older spam blockers only work on certain phones or apps, leaving many people, especially those using basic phones, without protection.
Why Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Service stands out
Airtel, a top telecom company in Africa, has launched a new and free service called the AI Spam Alert Service. It’s the first of its kind in Africa and aims to protect mobile users from spam text messages as they come in.
What makes this service different is that it doesn’t read or check the actual message content. Instead, it uses advanced artificial intelligence to quickly study the sender’s behaviour using over 250 signs or patterns, all within a fraction of a second.
Some of those parameters, according to Airtel, includes:
- How frequently the sender changes SIM cards.
- The volume and frequency of messages sent by the message initiator to different recipients.
- The geographical spread of the recipient numbers, whether messages are targeted locally or dispersed nationwide.
- Whether the sender receives replies or only sends messages.
- A cross-reference of numbers previously reported for spam activity.
The AI completes this analysis in just 2 milliseconds, faster than the blink of an eye, allowing real-time alerts to subscribers as suspected spam messages arrive.
How Airtel’s Spam Alert Service improves mobile safety and trust
Airtel’s new AI-powered spam alert system is set to make a big difference in mobile security across Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Instead of depending on users to block spam themselves, the service works directly through the network to stop suspicious messages before they reach people’s phones.
This kind of technology helps users feel safer and more confident using mobile networks—especially as more people rely on their phones for banking and other money-related services.
A 2025 report by McKinsey Digital shows that many Africans worry about mobile security when using digital financial tools. By reducing the risk of spam and fraud, Airtel is not only protecting its users but also helping to build a safer digital space where more people can take part in the growing mobile economy.
According to Airtel, within two months of its launch, the spam alert service system has identified 9,667,008 messages as potential spam.
Why this is a game changer
By building a service that is first-of-its-kind in Africa, Airtel is leading the way in offering spam alerts, powered by AI directly on its network, for over 150 million subscribers across the continent.
In addition, the service is quick, spotting suspicious sender activity in just milliseconds without reading users’ messages.
Finally, the service is free and requires no app downloads or extra setup. Airtel says the turns on automatically, making it easy for everyone to stay protected, even those using basic phones.
By sending signals to users before problems happen, Airtel boosts trust and encourages more people to safely use mobile money and other digital services.
Scammers are always finding new ways to trick consumers through the ubiquitous mobile phones, so increased demand for security improvements is, understandably, shifting to telecom companies.
Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Service is a strong and timely move toward better, smarter protection for users. As more people start using the service, it should help cut down fraud, keep personal information safe, and make mobile use more enjoyable.
As African economies continue to grow more digital, users of telecom services will need more secure and reliable ways to communicate, and Airtel is leading the way towards that safe future.
A widespread cyberattack targeting Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) server software used by thousands of government agencies and businesses for internal document sharing was likely orchestrated by a single actor, a cybersecurity researcher said on Monday.
Microsoft issued an alert on Saturday warning of “active attacks” on on-premise SharePoint servers.
The company clarified that SharePoint Online, part of the Microsoft 365 cloud suite, was not affected by the exploit, which is considered a “zero-day” vulnerability due to its previously undiscovered nature.
“Based on the consistency of the tradecraft seen across observed attacks, the campaign launched on Friday appears to be a single actor. However, it’s possible that this will quickly change,” Rafe Pilling, director of Threat Intelligence at Sophos, a British cybersecurity firm.
That tradecraft included the sending of the same digital payload to multiple targets, Pilling added.
Microsoft said it had “provided security updates and encourages customers to install them,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
It was not clear who was behind the ongoing hack. The FBI said on Sunday it was aware of the attacks and was working closely with its federal and private-sector partners, but offered no other details.
Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Washington Post said unidentified actors in the past few days had exploited a flaw to launch an attack that targeted U.S. and international agencies and businesses.
According to data from Shodan, a search engine that helps to identify internet-linked equipment, over 8,000 servers online could theoretically have already been compromised by hackers.
Those servers include major industrial firms, banks, auditors, healthcare companies, and several U.S. state-level and international government entities.
“The SharePoint incident appears to have created a broad level of compromise across a range of servers globally,” said Daniel Card of British cybersecurity consultancy, PwnDefend.
“Taking an assumed breach approach is wise, and it’s also important to understand that just applying the patch isn’t all that is required here.”
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