Obi Eguagua

Pioneer of Nigeria's tech entrepreneurship ecosystem in the 1990s

Obi Eguagua (b. 1965) is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur who founded Africa's first software incubator in 1992. Growing up during Nigeria's oil boom, he witnessed the lack of tech infrastructure in Lagos. After studying computer science at the University of Lagos, he created the Technoserve Nigeria initiative that trained over 3000 youths in programming and entrepreneurship by 2000. His flagship project, the African Software Development Platform (ASDP), provided free IDEs and servers for startups before cloud computing became mainstream.

Eguagua's 1995 book Code the Future became the continent's best-selling tech manual, translated into 5 African languages. He established the first Nigerian tech hub in Port Harcourt (1998), which later inspired Kenya's iHub and South Africa's Cape Innovation. His work with the Nigerian Government's IT policy reforms in 1999 laid groundwork for today's NITDA agency. Read his full story here.

Less known is his role in creating Africa's first open-source project, the Yoruba Language Compiler (1997), which enabled software localization for Yoruba speakers. His advocacy for digital rights led to Nigeria's first cybercrime laws in 2001. Eguagua's legacy is reflected in Lagos' current status as Africa's tech hub, with over 40% of Nigerian startups citing his initiatives as inspiration.