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IMAGES
▲ Protesters in
southwestern Nigeria
rally in October against
the Special Anti-
Robbery Squad◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek November 9, 2020Nigeria in 2019 to meet with the founders of several
tech startups. (The government disbanded SARS
on Oct. 11. Two days later the police announced
the unit would be replaced by the newly formed
Special Weapons and Tactics Team, or SWAT.)
Although Nigeria has struggled for years with
endemic corruption, members of the country’s
tech industry complain they’re now being singled
out. They’re seen as easy targets, because they tend
to carry expensive laptops and other gadgets and
there’s a perception they may be well-off, says Oo
Nwoye, founder of Lagos advisory firm TechCircle.
The situation could take a toll on this booming
Nigerian sector. Some would-be entrepreneurs are
considering whether to emigrate to safer countries,
Nwoye says. The country’s tech companies raised
about $122 million last year, compared with almost
$500 million for the whole continent, according toa reportbyDisruptAfrica, a techstartupnewssite.
AdedejiOlowe,CEOof TriumNetworks,a
venture capital firm in Lagos, has been active in the
technology sector for almost two decades. Olowe
says he was stopped and searched by SARS in
January. “I feared for my life, knowing that getting
shot would see no one held accountable,” he says.
The scale and duration of the upheaval has put
pressure on the stock and international bond mar-
kets.TheInternationalMonetaryFundhadfore-
castthatgrossdomesticproductwasalreadyset
tocontract4.3%thisyearbecauseoftheCovid- 19
pandemic, and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce
and Industry has estimated lost output as a result
of the protests of at least 700 billion naira ($1.8 bil-
lion). The information and communication technol-
ogy sector generates 10% of the country’s economic
output, making it one of the fastest-growing