Are African innovators doomed to sell airtime?
When Nigerian startups end up selling airtime, it is usually taken as evidence of innovation gone wrong when in fact, it reflects a rational adjustment to unforgiving market economics.
<br />
Last week, LemFi announced that it was launching multicurrency accounts for users in Nigeria. The startup says it is targeting freelancers and digital entrepreneurs who need to receive money from outside the continent. After seeing the news, I commented on WhatsApp, “I expect to see airtime and DSTV by Q2 2026.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
If you’re not Nigerian or don’t closely track the local tech ecosystem, the airtime reference may not immediately land. I’ll get back to that in a bit.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Around the same time, Terrahaptix CEO Nathan Nwachukwu tweeted that he would be sharing some company updates in the coming days. He ended the tweet with an interesting aside — Nigeria’s best minds cannot be stuck building fintech and SaaS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
It may have been said in jest, but it captures a growing disenchantment with the country’s innovation status quo.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ask anyone with even a passing familiarity with the ecosystem what they think about fintech, and you’ll likely hear a version of the same thing: it’s oversaturated. But a more damning line, one often used by insiders, goes like this — in the end, we all sell airtime.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Why do we sell airtime? <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Last month, Mono’s CEO, Abdulhamid Hassan, explained why startups often default to selling airtime in a blog post.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“The brilliance of airtime,” he wrote, “is that it’s both habitual and universal. It’s not sexy, but it’s guaranteed demand. Everyone with a phone needs it. That means distribution and engagement are already built in. When you sell airtime, you’re not introducing a new behaviour, you’re just capturing a piece of an existing one.” (emphasis mine).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
That point is crucial to understanding the behaviour of many Nigerian fintechs. Airtime is one of the most reliable ways to make money. You don’t have to generate demand; it runs on autopilot. Margins may be thin, but usage — and by extension revenue — is predictable.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Which brings me to the point: selling airtime is not so much a failure of innovation as it is a response to ...
