Tech leaders urge resilience as funding tightens

At the opening of the 2026 Moonshot Conference, held in Lagos, tech leaders emphasized the importance of resilience and local adaptation in Africa's digital economy, particularly as venture capital becomes increasingly scarce. OPay's COO and CTO, Dotun Adekunle, addressed the challenges of navigating regulatory shifts, currency devaluations, and social media rumors, asserting that stubbornness is a necessary business model in Nigeria.

The conference, themed "Courage and Conviction," featured discussions on designing for worst-case operational days, treating regulators as partners, and the need for African startups to focus on profitability and acquisitions in a shrinking funding landscape. The National Information Technology Development Agency's Director-General, Dr. Kashifu Abdullahi, called for Africa to shift from being a consumer of foreign technologies to becoming a creator of homegrown intellectual property, highlighting the agency's upcoming Builders Festival to foster collaboration between startups and investors.

Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Nigeria Country Director, Uche Amaonwu, cautioned against the widening of inequalities through AI deployment, emphasizing the importance of building trust through equitable outcomes.