Oswald Osaretin Guobadia is the managing partner at DigitA, a digital advisory firm in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2022, Guobadia helped create the Nigeria Startup Act while working as the president’s senior special assistant on digital transformation.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What’s the biggest challenge startups face when dealing with government policies and regulations?
One of the valuable lessons is that getting things done in government is indeed possible. It’s really about having that drive to pull the different entities together and to show why the objective is in everyone’s best interests. With this kind of approach, you will get things done. A lot of things in government tend to happen in silos, and that’s the biggest problem.
What’s the most valuable lesson you learned working on the Nigeria Startup Act?
There’s apathy and a lack of trust between the private sector and the public sector. You could announce a gold rush from the government and most citizens wouldn’t believe it or pay attention. I think the place to start is paying attention — to learn about the things that are happening, embrace them, and find ways to participate. Once we start doing that, we’ll get a sense of how we can help mold forward-thinking policies that help our businesses.
What excites you the most about tech innovation in Nigeria in the next five years?
The potential is amazing. We have young people that can be trained. We have real problems that can be addressed using digital technology innovation. We have a massive market to release those ideas into for testing.
Our markets test ideas for us and make them better for global release. Here’s where a tiered approach will work. First, you sell to your city of maybe 2 million people. Then you sell to the whole country of 200 million people. Then you sell to the whole continent of 1.3 billion. And then you can sell to over 8 billion people in the world. That’s the growth potential for every African business.
