Construct for African issues, not well-liked tendencies

African startup founders should resist the temptation to import options and as an alternative construct platforms tailor-made to native wants, Israel Ololade, Chief Product Officer at Roqqu, mentioned at Moonshot by TechCabal on Thursday, October 16. Talking on constructing momentum in Africa’s tech ecosystem, Ololade argued that the continent’s most profitable improvements emerge when founders remedy issues they’ve skilled firsthand fairly than chasing well-liked tendencies.

“Nobody can construct for Africans like Africans. Our style bud is simply very completely different,” Ololade mentioned. “Many of the platforms that have been serving Nigerians within the cryptocurrency house have been mainly imported. We noticed that this was a spot.”

Roqqu, Nigeria’s largest indigenously owned crypto platform, has reached practically 2 million customers throughout Africa with out elevating exterior funding, Ololade mentioned, a exceptional achievement in a difficult funding surroundings the place enterprise capital offers in fintech dropped by 52% between 2022 and 2024. The corporate’s development stems from fixing a basic downside in Nigeria’s crypto market, which ranks second globally in adoption and processed roughly $59 billion in cryptocurrency worth between July 2023 and June 2024. By unifying alternate charges and consolidating charges right into a single clear fee, Roqqu addressed a ache level that founders understood intimately as a result of that they had confronted it themselves.

“After we began Roqqu again in July of 2019, when you wished to enter into the cryptocurrency house, it was virtually arduous so that you can anticipate what the end result of each transaction goes to be,” Ololade defined. The platform’s method, eliminating separate purchase and promote charges for USD, shortly proved its product-market match.

Ololade urged African founders to view opponents as allies fairly than threats, pointing to how financial institution branches cluster collectively as a result of focus drives development. “There may be solely a lot a single participant can remedy in an trade,” he mentioned. “The competitors that we outline as threats is definitely the assistance to easing the burden.” He cited Microsoft’s 1997 bailout of Apple regardless of their rivalry, noting that collaboration strengthens whole industries fairly than weakening particular person gamers.

“Don’t comply with what’s well-liked. Comply with issues,” Ololade mentioned. “The byproduct of fixing an issue effectively is profitability.” He challenged founders to construct for unique use circumstances fairly than get-rich-quick narratives, noting that Roqqu focuses on cryptocurrency’s foundational goal, funds, no matter market volatility. This method aligns with broader market conduct, as stablecoins accounted for 43% of all digital asset transactions in Africa in 2024, pushed by sensible use circumstances like funds and cross-border transfers fairly than hypothesis.

The stakes for constructing African options stay excessive. From cloud infrastructure latency attributable to knowledge facilities situated outdoors Africa to cost programs that also wrestle with scale, Ololade argued that the continent’s tech ecosystem should take possession of issues that instantly influence its customers fairly than ready for imported options that will by no means absolutely tackle native realities.