Nigeria’s Itana, formerly known as Talent City has secured $2 million in pre-seed funding to develop Africa’s first Digital Free Zone. It aims to enhance the ease-of-doing-business index, attract foreign direct investment, and boost employment.
Itana, which plans to establish an eco-friendly startup district in Alaro free zone by 2027, will serve as an online jurisdiction for the digital economy, offering the necessary policies, services, and technology for global digital and service businesses to operate and expand across Africa. Itana will enable tech and service companies to establish their African operations in Nigeria and benefit from competitive business policies and incentives.
Leading global venture capitalists LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital, and Future Africa have led a pre-seed round of US$2 million for the company. This collaboration brings together partners with extensive industry knowledge and technical expertise, who have previously supported successful digital societies like e-Estonia and developed scalable products.
Luqman Edu, the founder and CEO of Itana said “We are thrilled to announce this round of funding. It validates our efforts, and reiterates the aligned vision with our investors and partners to make it easy to invest and operate in Africa’s digital economy.”
“The African market is still largely untapped and Itana will provide the ideal business environment that will be fully online, for global and pan-African digital and service companies to use Nigeria as an anchorage to operate with ease across the continent.”
Aboyeji stated that Itana would provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to establish a highly regarded business in Nigeria’s inaugural digital free zone. This would allow them to access the advantages that are currently exclusive to the traditional manufacturing or oil and gas sectors, which have traditionally operated in Nigeria’s free zones.
“Within the Itana digital free zone startups will have the benefit of a stable policy environment, tax and capital repatriation incentives and the freedom to operate remotely without the need for an expansive physical presence within the free zone. I’m looking forward to the global businesses from Nigeria that will emerge from this,” Aboyeji added.