There is a popular story about Nigerian tech startups: that the brightest founders run away to America because there is no future at home. A new report, presented in Lagos this week, gives that story a number, and the number does something more interesting than confirm it.
The report is called ‘Home & Away: Tracking African Tech’s Global Footprints’, put together by TLP Advisory and presented publicly on Saturday. It examined 100 technology companies across six African markets — Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana and Morocco — and looked at why they chose affiliations with the UK, the US and the UAE, and what those relationships actually enable.
The Headline Number, and the One That Explains It
Seventy-four per cent of Nigerian companies maintain ties with the United States. But look at what kind of ties, because that is where the interesting part sits.
Among US-affiliated companies, 81 per cent of the affiliations are strictly for holding structures. Only 3 per cent of US-affiliated companies hold regulatory licences there. The picture in the UK and UAE is almost the reverse: 84 per cent of UK-affiliated companies incorporated there, 47 per cent have an operational presence, and 19 per cent hold regulatory licences. Among UAE-affiliated companies, 4 per cent hold regulatory licences.
Read those together and the story changes shape. The US is where Nigerian startups park a holding company. The UK and the UAE are where they actually run operations, get licences and trade.
Why: The Naira Does Not Sit Still
The report does not pretend this is a cultural preference. It is arithmetic.
Following the Central Bank’s exchange-rate reforms and unification of windows from June 2023, the naira moved from roughly N461 to the dollar to about N1,540 by early 2025, before closing that year around N1,450. With 76.5 per cent of funded Nigerian startups raising capital in US dollars while earning revenue in naira, currency volatility has become a structural cost of running a Nigerian company.
On top of that sit limited domestic exit options and investor mandates. When the money comes in dollars, the dollars are what you have to keep. Incorporating in the US is a financing decision, not a lifestyle one.
The Context: Nigerian startups pulled in $572 million in 2025
That figure comes from the same report, and it works out to roughly 14 per cent of the continent’s total venture funding. Read carefully, the sentence is about depreciation of the funding currency and constrained exits, but the underlying number is a serious one: Nigerian founders raised $572 million in a single year, and a meaningful share of that capital sat outside the country.
What This Should Change For You Specifically
The report is useful to a Nigerian founder not because the 74 per cent is alarming, but because it tells you something about which structure fits which stage.
If You Are Raising Foreign Capital, the Structure Is Not Optional
Investors who commit dollars generally expect a dollar-denominated entity they can transact with. If you are taking venture funding, a foreign holding structure is close to table stakes, and trying to run the whole thing locally with a foreign cap table is a fight you will lose. Understand this before you build the structure, not after the term sheet arrives.
Do Not Confuse a Holding Company With a Business
This is the trap in the 3 per cent figure. Incorporating somewhere is cheap and quick. It does not by itself give you licence to operate, access to that market’s customers, or the ability to move money across borders without friction. The founders who genuinely built something international in that report are the ones with operational presence and regulatory licences — which is a much harder thing than a certificate of incorporation.
Your Nigerian Entity Should Be Built For Operating, Not For Raising
Most successful Nigerian tech companies run two structures: something local that employs people, signs contracts with Nigerian customers and pays Nigerian taxes, and something foreign that holds the investment. Get the local side properly registered and properly governed, because that is the side regulators, banks and enterprise customers will look at. We have walked through registering a business with the Corporate Affairs Commission, step by step.
Currency Risk Is a Design Constraint, Not an Excuse
The naira swing is real and it is not going away. But a company that prices in naira while paying for infrastructure in dollars is running an unmanaged exposure. Plan for it, price for it, and understand how the naira’s recent appreciation against the dollar changes your arithmetic.
The Exit Question Nobody Is Asking
The report lists limited domestic exit options as a factor pushing founders outward. If you are building something the local ecosystem cannot yet buy, then an international exit is not a failure of ambition. It is the market telling you something about its own depth. We looked at that argument from another angle in our guide to winning government tenders in Nigeria, which is where a lot of local scale comes from while the exit question is still unanswered.
Where the Money Should Go Instead
Notice what the report does not say. It does not say Nigerian companies should stop looking outward, and it does not say the local ecosystem is broken. It says capital is going where the structures, the currency and the investor mandates point. That is a description of incentives, and incentives change.
The most useful shift for founders reading this is to stop treating the foreign affiliation as the default and start treating it as a decision with a price. You pay in compliance, in administration and in distance from the market you actually serve. If the price is worth it because you are raising dollars for hypergrowth, pay it. If you are building a profitable local business, keep it simple and local, and do it properly.
It is also worth remembering that a proper Nigerian setup is what makes a foreign structure work in the first place. We have covered how to make money with a blog in Nigeria in 2026, and the same principle applies — the foreign wrapper helps, but it is the Nigerian operation that has to actually be worth wrapping.
Conclusion
Seventy-four per cent is a striking number, but it is not a verdict on Nigerian tech. It is a map of where financing sits, and it tells you that a holding structure in Delaware is a fundraising tool, while the operating substance has to be built at home.
Decide which one you actually need. Build the local side properly, price in the currency reality, and treat the foreign entity as an instrument rather than an identity. The founders in that report who hold real licences and real operations are the ones doing this deliberately. The rest are just incorporated twice.
