For years, Nigeria’s startup map revolved around Lagos. With seven of the country’s eight submarine internet cables landing there, Lagos claimed the lion’s share of broadband access and talent.
But the mood at the tenth edition of #StartupSouth, held in Port Harcourt, hinted at a new chapter for the South-South and South-East regions.
The unifying theme “connectivity as destiny” electrified the conversations among founders, policymakers, and investors.
“That is about to change,” declared Ikechukwu Mamah, Senior Manager for Network Services Delivery at Equinix West Africa, during his keynote titled “Shortening the Path to Boundless Connectivity in South-South Nigeria.”
His words captured the spirit of an event where innovation, policy, and infrastructure converged. A panel discussion followed, bringing together David Mosaku of Equinix West Africa, Zahira Yerima (representing Bernard Ewah of NITDA), Obinna Onyejeli of MyAddy, and Ahmad Mukoshy of NIRA, moderated by TechNext’s Blessed Frank.
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Their insights revealed a region on the brink of a digital renaissance — if its leaders seize the moment.
For decades, Lagos led because of infrastructure. Broadband penetration there is around 70%, compared to the South-South’s 40–65% and the national average of 48%.
The advantage came down to submarine cables. As Mamah put it, “We have wonderful youths across this region doing a wonderful job, but if you don’t have access to the infrastructure, you won’t be able to do much.”
That imbalance is shifting. Mamah announced that Equinix’s 2Africa project has landed the first submarine cable in the South-South, at Akwa Ibom, with an extension to Port Harcourt underway.
A Tier III data centre — the region’s first — is also nearing completion.
“Infinite capacity is in the ocean,” Mamah told the crowd. “We are transporting it to your region and building you a data centre. The question is: how ready are you?”
The cable, once fully operational, is expected to triple Nigeria’s total internet capacity. For the first time, digital traffic in South-South cities will not need to route through Lagos.
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For startups, this could be transformative: faster internet, reduced latency, lower costs, and the ability for talent to thrive without relocating.
Policy, however, remains a hurdle. Mamah emphasized that governments must step up, noting that right-of-way charges in the region are often double the federal benchmark. “Government should play a very strategic role for us to be able to enjoy a Lagos in the southern part of Nigeria,” he urged.
The panel echoed his call. Mosaku highlighted that the new landing boosts resilience as well as speed: “Today, everything goes through Lagos.
If Lagos is shut down, the whole country stalls. With the submarine systems in the South-South, we get lower latency, more reliable access, and redundancy.”
Zahira Yerima of NITDA stressed that policy still lags behind infrastructure. She pointed to the agency’s forthcoming National Sovereign Cloud Policy as a step toward unlocking more value from the emerging digital backbone.
For Obinna Onyejeli of MyAddy, innovation often means rethinking infrastructure itself. His company developed “Locals,” a digital addressing system that mapped every street in Nigeria, even unnamed ones. “Addresses unlock logistics, healthcare, insurance, even epidemic response,” he explained. “Infrastructure isn’t only physical; it’s also digital.”
Mukoshy, a pioneer in the local hosting industry and now Executive Director at NIRA, called for collaborative action. “Government can’t just stop at policies. They should create SME packages, lower right-of-way fees, and incentivise startups.
Nigerian entrepreneurs compete with the world, and without strong local infrastructure, that’s almost impossible.”
Visibility emerged as another critical issue. “Our infrastructure is substantial, even impressive,” Onyejeli reflected, “but too few people know it exists. And those who do often chase the wrong opportunities.”
Mukoshy argued that deliberate partnerships between government, private investors, and startups can change that.
“Lower fees by governments, private-sector investment in data centres, startups innovating around last-mile connectivity, that’s how penetration reaches the average person in the village.”
For decades, ambitious founders in Port Harcourt, Uyo, or Enugu believed they had to move to Lagos to scale. But with submarine cables now landing in Akwa Ibom, data centres rising in Port Harcourt, and startups like MyAddy reinventing digital infrastructure, that assumption is being questioned.
“Is there still a need to relocate to Lagos?” Mamah asked. “Now is the time for you to start rethinking all those things.”
The South-South’s digital renaissance won’t happen automatically. It will require government resolve, startup ingenuity, and private-sector investment.
But as #StartupSouthX showed, the foundation is already being laid. With boundless connectivity finally within reach, the question is no longer whether the South-South can compete with Lagos, but how soon.
