Lagos Startup Week 2025 Previews Africa’s Next Decade of Innovation

Agnes Ekebuike

Lagos Startup Week 2025 kicked off with an exclusive, high-impact preview event, setting the stage for what is expected to be the year’s biggest and most transformative innovation summit. Themed: “Disrupting the Next Decade,” this year’s event shifts focus from retrospective celebration to future-facing strategy, spotlighting the evolving role of Lagos as the engine room for African innovation.

The preview session brought together key players from Nigeria’s tech and startup ecosystem founders, funders, regulators, policymakers, and corporate partners, all aligned on one goal defining how technology, talent, and collaboration will shape the next ten years of Africa’s innovation story.

Senior Product Consultant at Prime Startups, Olumide Olayinka, one of the community’s long-standing ecosystem builders, opened the session by reflecting on how far the Lagos startup scene has come. “A decade ago, many of the names we now celebrate didn’t exist. Lagos Startup Week was born out of a need to build community and spotlight local innovation. Today, we’re not just building products, we’re shaping culture, policy, and economic growth,” Olayinka said.

Rather than marking an anniversary, this year’s edition was designed as a strategic outlook, an invitation to stakeholders to participate in shaping the next decade of progress. Olayinka emphasised that Lagos, while a city, represents a nationwide movement of innovation. “Lagos is the heart of it, but we’re building momentum that reaches every state. We’ve moved from startup events to ecosystem strategy.”

The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) Graphic Member Board of Trustees, Sinari Daranijo, reiterated its commitment to supporting innovation through access to funding, mentorship, and capacity-building.

“Our partnership with Lagos Startup Week isn’t symbolic, it’s strategic. We’ve supported over 240 startups through our Idea Hub, awarded hundreds of workspace vouchers, and trained thousands of Lagosians in future-of-work skills. Our presence here signals that government can be a facilitator not a barrier to innovation,” Daranijo said.

Daranijo also announced upcoming AI training programs aimed at equipping youths for globally competitive jobs, while reaffirming its inclusive mission to support underrepresented founders, especially women and those in rural communities.

Global mobility platform inDrive, brought a unique perspective, focusing on fairness and impact. “Mobility is a matter of justice,” Country Representative at inDrive, Oladimeji Timothy said: “Our pricing model is based on fairness, and we’re pushing the same values through gender equality initiatives like the Aurora Tech Award. Nigeria continues to lead in female founder participation, which proves the ecosystem is maturing in the right direction.”

Representative from Harvard Technologies highlighted the growing role of AI in reimagining financial tools for startups.

One of the most compelling themes of the day was inclusion, not just in terms of gender or geography, but in ecosystem design. Lagos Startups Week Organisers announced new plans to introduce deeper mentorship structures, marketing support, and business compliance services to address the less-visible struggles early-stage startups often face.