OATS Africa Becomes Cloudways First Official Agency Partner in Nigeria
OATS Africa becomes Cloudways’ first Nigerian agency partner, highlighting the...
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Commerce-focused digital agency OATS Africa has secured a new milestone after becoming the first Nigerian agency partner of Cloudways, the managed cloud hosting platform used by developers and digital agencies around the world. <br />
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The partnership is the latest step in a journey that started as freelance work and gradually grew into a digital agency building tools and infrastructure for online businesses. <br />
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From Freelance Beginnings to a Digital Agency <br />
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OATS Africa started in 2019 as a freelance operation founded by Olaniyan Abdul-Gafar, who began building websites and online stores while studying at the University of Lagos. <br />
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At the time, the goal was simple. <br />
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“I really just want to be able to think and build stuff and make a living off the internet.” <br />
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Like many young founders in Nigeria, the first focus was survival. Building Shopify stores and helping businesses get online quickly became a way to do that. But as they began to expand and work for more international brands, it became clear that many Nigerian businesses were operating with far less digital infrastructure than companies in other parts of the world. <br />
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That realization pushed the team to focus more seriously on commerce and digital systems, not just building websites. <br />
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Building Momentum in the Shopify Ecosystem <br />
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An early turning point came when OATS Africa began working with school clothing brand SKLD, creators of Skits.ng. The experience exposed the team to a broader side of digital work, from consulting to marketing strategy. <br />
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Around the same time, the agency was gaining traction in the Shopify ecosystem. After building more than 100 Shopify stores, OATS Africa began attracting clients beyond Nigeria. <br />
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The momentum became clearer when the agency reached a consistent $2,000 in monthly revenue, a small but important signal that the model was working. That progress eventually led to another milestone in 2023, when OATS Africa became Nigeria’s first agency partner of Shopify. <br />
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Moving From Services to Prod...
