The FX and coverage playbook behind Itana’s push for tech capital

When Nigeria’s foreign money started stabilising this 12 months after months of volatility, many observers have been cautious about calling it a turning level. However for Itana, a privately-run digital particular financial zone designed to draw tech startups, companies corporations, and overseas buyers, the shift grew to become a well timed catalyst for investor dedication.

“As soon as somebody decides to come back into the nation to seek out out for themselves, that’s one of many biggest alerts,” says Nkechi Oguchi, Itana’s chief neighborhood officer. Over the previous 12 months, she says, curiosity has shifted from informal inquiries to founders and buyers bodily visiting Lagos to judge the ecosystem. Enhancements in visa processing have helped; so has a extra predictable FX regime.

Touted as Nigeria’s first absolutely operational digital free commerce zone, Itana’s rising pull affords a distinction to many different zones throughout the nation that stay underdeveloped or inactive. It emerges as a reference level for what coverage certainty and execution can unlock in Nigeria’s broader free zone experiment. 

Itana, which says it now hosts about 50 corporations because it started operations in September 2023, is positioning itself because the Twenty first-century successor to Nigeria’s conventional free zones—constructions which have traditionally catered to grease, gasoline, logistics, and heavy manufacturing. Itana seeks to serve digital companies that prioritise seamless onboarding, digital firm formation, versatile capital motion, and a coverage setting aligned with tech-driven scaling.

Itana’s customers echo this sentiment. “General, it has been a really constructive expertise for us,” says Varun Giridhar, CEO and founding father of Round Power, a sustainable power options firm that focuses on Battery-as-a-Service, which moved to Itana in 2025. “The Itana crew has been helpful and responsive. It makes a giant distinction whenever you really feel like there are actual individuals on the opposite facet attempting that can assist you get issues carried out reasonably than gradual you down.”

A zone designed for brand new economic system corporations

Nigeria has between 42 and 52 licenced free financial zones, however solely round 22 are lively. Many, such because the Abuja Know-how Village Free Zone (2007), Olokola Free Commerce Zone (Ondo & Ogun States, 2004), and Centenary Financial Metropolis (FCT, 2014), have been launched in periods of robust financial progress however now face challenges resembling stalled infrastructure, low exercise, or weak governance. Between 2000 and 2014, Nigeria’s economic system grew at a median actual GDP charge of 6–7% yearly, with some years even reaching double-digit enlargement, creating the optimistic setting wherein these initiatives have been initially conceived. This historical past raises a typical query: Is Itana one other flash within the pan?

Oguchi acknowledges the considerations however says evaluating Itana to older zones misses the purpose.

“A lot of the common particular financial zones have been designed for conventional companies like oil and gasoline, manufacturing, and heavy trade,” she explains. “Itana is designed for a distinct set of companies: startups and service-based corporations that want intentionality in constructing an setting that’s appropriate for them.”

Itana’s mannequin is especially advantageous for corporations like Round Power, Giridhar notes. Although his firm is registered within the zone, it isn’t required to function bodily from it. “We run most of our day-to-day work from Lagos Island,” he says. “In a metropolis like Lagos, that makes life loads simpler and saves big quantities of time on commuting.”

Nkechi Oguchi explains that whereas Itana is privately owned, it operates beneath a 35-year-old Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) framework, which has endured by way of a number of administrations and can’t be simply overturned by any authorities.

What’s driving the surge in curiosity

Itana’s rising attraction is being pushed by a surge of curiosity from three key teams: African diaspora founders, overseas founders and buyers, and native Nigerian startups in search of extra predictable working situations. In keeping with Oguchi, practically half of the businesses within the zone are owned by members of the diaspora, whereas roughly 1 / 4 are led by overseas founders or buyers. 

“Individuals go away, however persons are additionally coming again,” Oguchi says. “They’re seeing indicators of stability and projections for what Africa may very well be.”

International corporations like Round Power say the construction addresses friction that usually deters funding. “From a enterprise perspective, the foreign exchange entry and repatriation framework is a giant plus for us,” Giridhar says. “We’re deploying greenback capital into Nigeria. It provides our buyers extra consolation and removes loads of the uncertainty round shifting cash out and in.”

Itana has amplified this momentum by way of its “Doing Enterprise in Africa” excursions, which carry buyers into Lagos for curated deep-dive periods. The primary tour welcomed a single customer, whereas the latest in October—organised as a part of Moonshot by TechCabal—hosted 15 individuals, with one other group scheduled for December.

The excursions are already yielding actual outcomes, based on Oguchi. She disclosed that one overseas investor who attended employed Nigerians to make up 80% of his world crew after seeing the standard and value effectivity of expertise firsthand.

Inside Itana’s incentive stack

One of many key incentives Itana affords is its FX flexibility. Firms working within the zone can legally maintain multicurrency accounts, gather income in {dollars} or any foreign money they like, retain capital for so long as they select, and repatriate 100% of their funding when exiting. In an ecosystem the place startups are sometimes constrained by FX shortages, these provisions are extremely important. 

“You’ll be able to gather your income in USD, maintain it in USD, and repatriate your capital when you must,” Oguchi explains. “It makes corporations extra enticing to buyers.”

Companies working throughout the zone profit from a collection of company tax reliefs and exemptions from chosen federal and state levies, reducing working prices and bettering long-term viability. These incentives usually embody waivers on:

• the usual 30% Firms Earnings Tax (CIT), 
• the 7.5% Worth Added Tax (VAT) on items and companies—together with imports into the customs territory,
• withholding tax (WHT) of about 2.5–10% on funds resembling companies, hire, curiosity, and dividends, 
• the ten% Capital Beneficial properties Tax (CGT) on asset disposals, federal stamp duties, and 
• the three% tertiary schooling tax on assessable earnings.

They will additionally import tools and instruments duty-free, a lift that improves money circulation and makes early-stage scaling much less capital-intensive. These incentives assist create a extra predictable and supportive setting for growth-oriented digital corporations.

In Nigeria’s broader enterprise panorama, founders typically need to navigate a maze of regulatory our bodies—from the Company Affairs Fee and Federal Inland Income Service to immigration companies, the Central Financial institution of Nigeria, Nationwide Data Know-how Improvement Company, and several other others. Itana simplifies this complexity by centralising these interactions right into a single interface. 

“You solely want to interact with Itana,” Oguchi explains. “We take the operational complications and take care of the companies to make sure you’re compliant.” This streamlined course of is especially helpful for fintech corporations, lots of which require quite a few licences that usually take months—typically over a 12 months—to acquire. Itana says it’s actively advocating for coverage reforms to shorten regulatory approval timelines.

The zone can also be growing a bodily district designed to supply the infrastructure important for contemporary, high-performance companies. This district goals to offer steady energy, high-speed web, safety, and a community-focused format that helps collaboration and progress. Oguchi likens the imaginative and prescient to what made Silicon Valley profitable: a deliberate mixture of robust academic roots, dependable infrastructure, and a focus of expert individuals. “That’s what we’re attempting to construct,” she says.

Can the Itana mannequin outperform conventional zones?

Nigeria’s free zones have attracted greater than $30 billion (₦43.5 trillion) in funding and delivered ₦650 billion ($448 million) in authorities income. They contribute meaningfully to industrial output, however their impression stays largely confined to manufacturing and oil-driven exercise.

Two startup founders, who requested anonymity to talk freely, argue that the manufacturing focus is exactly the priority: free zones are optimised for capital-heavy industries—export factories, refineries, and logistics hubs—not for startups whose core belongings are laptops, expertise, and cloud infrastructure. 

“It’s very formidable,” stated one of many founders. “I’ve not seen it work wherever earlier than, and I don’t know the way Nigeria/Lagos holds as much as such guarantees, particularly when a change of presidency (in Lagos) will occur in 2027.”

In addition they level to Itana’s location, noting that commute occasions might change into a deterrent for employees whose corporations select to function from the district.

Babatunde Akin-Moses, co-founder and CEO of Sycamore, a peer-to-peer lending platform, echoes this view, suggesting that free zones have been by no means constructed with digital-first corporations in thoughts.

“The free zone idea was initially meant to encourage exports,” he says. “For digital corporations, it feels counterintuitive.”

Whereas he acknowledges the tax benefits on provide, he questions whether or not the broader incentives translate into significant worth.

“The FX advantages will not be very clear. It’s nonetheless the identical CBN—it’s not just like the zone has its personal central financial institution,” he explains. “And whenever you think about the price of organising there, your tax invoice needs to be large enough for the reduction to matter. In any other case, the incentives don’t really feel tangible.”

Akin-Moses provides that many Nigerian tech employees already function remotely for overseas employers with out counting on any free-zone construction.

“For bodily companies, free zones make loads of sense—near a port, decrease duties, fewer levies,” he says. “However for digital companies, the advantages will not be but clear or well-communicated. And people nonetheless pay private revenue tax until the zone says in any other case.”

His considerations replicate a broader sentiment amongst some founders: till the incentives change into usable, verifiable, and cost-efficient, widespread adoption will stay restricted.

Giridhar affords a contrasting perspective grounded in his firm’s capital-intensive mannequin. Round Power builds distributed energy-storage and battery-as-a-service methods for telecoms, information centres, cold-chain logistics, and healthcare. Nigeria’s unreliable electrical energy provide, he says, makes the nation a great setting for innovation.

“Being primarily based on the bottom in Nigeria permits us to design options that truly work right here,” he notes. “And the digital free-zone construction lets us elevate capital and construction the enterprise in a means that additionally works for worldwide buyers.”

Oguchi argues that Itana is being constructed round metrics that matter in a digital economic system—income progress, job creation, expertise export, and improved startup survival charges.

“We wish your possibilities of survival to be higher in Itana than wherever else,” she says. “Funding must be simpler, licences quicker, partnerships extra accessible.”

She provides that Itana is designed as a dwell–work–construct district that helps a extra balanced way of life for groups primarily based on the positioning.

“For individuals selecting to commute from different components of town, there are alternatives,” Oguchi says. “And ongoing upgrades to the highway community will considerably lower journey occasions.”

Threat mitigated, not eradicated

Oguchi is clear-eyed in regards to the limits of what Itana can management. When requested which dangers the zone can genuinely eradicate, she is fast to make clear that no enterprise setting is solely risk-free. 

“No threat may be eradicated, however they are often diminished,” she says. Regulatory uncertainty, as an example, is softened by Itana’s grounding in NEPZA’s decades-old framework and by the zone’s ongoing engagement with authorities stakeholders. Infrastructure-related dangers are being addressed by way of the event of the Itana District, which is designed to offer dependable energy, connectivity, and safe amenities. Forex publicity is mitigated by permitting corporations to function multicurrency accounts and repatriate capital freely, whereas operational dangers are diminished by way of Itana’s one-stop compliance mannequin, which removes a lot of the executive burden from founders.

Nonetheless, Oguchi acknowledges that some challenges stay firmly exterior Itana’s attain. Coverage shifts, financial volatility, and fluctuations in world tech funding cycles proceed to form the broader enterprise panorama. These are dangers the zone may also help cushion however not eradicate.

Conventional FTZs typically operated as enclaves with weak home linkages. Itana insists its mannequin is totally different.

“There aren’t any restrictions,” Oguchi says. “Firms within the zone can do enterprise with anybody in Nigeria.”

Finally, Itana’s success shall be judged not by ambition or headlines, however by whether or not it may well flip stability into sturdy firm survival, capital inflows, and jobs, whereas embedding digital companies into Nigeria’s wider economic system reasonably than isolating them from it.