Iyin Aboyeji, managing partner at Future Africa and a serial tech entrepreneur, once faced a recurring challenge in his previous ventures: digital businesses were scaling faster than the regulatory and infrastructural environments could support. Unlike traditional businesses, tech companies accelerate growth rapidly, raising pressing questions: where do you build? How do you build within government regulations? And where do you find the talent to sustain that growth?
Out of these questions, in 2018, emerged Itana, an economic zone designed specifically to cater to the unique requirements of tech-driven businesses. Framed as Africa’s first digital economic zone, Itana aims to provide the infrastructure, community, and policy frameworks that digital businesses need to thrive.
In this interview, BusinessDay’s DAVID OLUJINMI sat down with NKECHI OGUCHI, Itana’s chief community and marketing officer to explore the inspiration, operations, and future of what is now regarded as Africa’s first digital economic zone.
Explain Itana in its simplest form
Itana is a special economic zone, a digital and service-based business. To understand it, you have to know what a special economic zone is. A special economic zone is an area designated by a country to boost the economic activity of a sector.
You usually find these for more traditional sectors like oil and gas or manufacturing, where governments lay out incentives that improve ease of doing business and create a competitive advantage. These zones usually come with tax incentives, duty exemptions, and more seamless processes for immigration, among other things.
But there has been no design for 21st-century business, your service-based businesses, tech companies, start-ups, and the like. No zone was deliberately created to improve the ease of doing business for them.
So, Itana is the first special economic zone for that sector, service-based businesses, tech companies, start-ups, and so on. It tacks on different incentives that improve ease of doing business.
For one, being a digital-first zone means that all our processes are digital. We have technology that powers the zone. A person in Germany can set up a legal business entity in Nigeria and start doing business.
What this does is provide companies the option to domicile locally. As you know, many African start-ups are technically Delaware companies because it’s easier for investors familiar with that zone. But in designing a zone for these kinds of companies, we begin to build legal precedents for them and frameworks that make doing business easier. We hope this will encourage more companies to domicile in Nigeria, attract FDI, boost the local economy, and allow them to leverage local talent.
So, in a nutshell, that’s Itana.
What was the inspiration behind Itana?
That’s a good question; people ask a lot. Itana is derived from the Yoruba word Itáná. Technically, it is Itáná, which means this blossoming thing we are creating, like lights and fire.
The whole idea came from the difficulty of building companies. One of our co-founders, Iyin Aboyeji, has built several companies in the past, and from his personal struggle, he saw the need for a more enabling environment for local businesses to thrive and grow.
So Itana was built to provide that framework, that jurisdiction, for those companies. We designed it with three main infrastructures.
One is the actual infrastructure, the buildings. We have the Itana District, a physical zone under construction, with Phase 1 expected to be completed by 2027. This will provide a live–work–build space with constant electricity, good internet, good roads, and security, and a better quality of life.
The second is the community: the people, founders, investors, and operators building Africa’s future. It’s about creating an ecosystem where they can connect, collaborate, and provide value that brings prosperity.
The third is policy and the digital platform. These frameworks govern the zone. They’ll keep improving as companies operate there. The digital technology powering the zone gives companies access to services, support, and the basic tools they need to do great business.
How were you able to leverage Nigeria’s regulatory framework to set up Itana? Laws around special economic zones in Nigeria are mainly tilted toward manufacturing and traditional free trade. How were you able to do this for Itana?
What we’re building is not typical. In most places, special economic zones are government-led. But this is privately owned, so we had to work very closely with the government.
We work with the Nigerian Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA), the governing body for free and special economic zones. They already have an existing mandate and frameworks. Instead of creating new laws, we’re using that framework but tailoring it for the digital economy.
This provides a sandbox for the government to test new policies before scaling nationwide. The alignment has given us legitimacy, speed, and government backing, while still leaving room to innovate.
What are the incorporation fees for digital businesses, and what do they include?
Respondent: There’s a one-time incorporation fee of $2,000. That gives access to business registration, the community, ecosystem services, banking setup, innovation support, tax incentives, and a virtual office.
Then there’s an annual license renewal of $1,150 to keep the company operational in the zone and access all incentives. Compared to other zones, it’s very startup-friendly. The idea is to reduce barriers for startups while ensuring they get the infrastructure they need.
Take me through some of the physical infrastructure that has been developed in the district?
We’re building a world-class business district in Alaro City along the Lekki–Epe Expressway. It’s a city within a city, with larger infrastructure around it.
Phase 1 will have office spaces, co-working hubs for start-ups, residential units for founders and workers, a data centre, and a connectivity backbone. It also includes lifestyle amenities like healthcare, retail, and cafes, things that ensure a good life.
It’s designed like a smart city for tech companies and start-ups, with supporting institutions like accelerators. The idea is to provide an environment where talent can be upskilled and harnessed, with a startup feel and layered programming.
What kind of regulatory support and incentives do businesses in the zone get?
There are several. Tax incentives like 0% CIT and 0% VAT help improve cash flow. Companies also get exemptions on import duties and a seamless import process.
There are immigration incentives, no expatriate quota requirements, so companies can bring in consultants or investors easily. There’s also multi-currency banking, which allows transactions in FX and 100% repatriation of capital and dividends. This reassures investors.
On top of that, we have partners offering recruitment, business process outsourcing, PEO, legal, and audit support. Many companies join the zone just to access local talent.
The incentives will continue evolving with the ecosystem.
When it comes to the AfCFTA market, is Itana enabling services to access it? What initiatives have been put in place?
We’re very plugged in and supportive of AfCFTA. Implementation hasn’t gone as expected, but we see Itana as a testbed for some of these protocols.
We’re working to collaborate with other countries and make intra-African trade seamless. When a company registers in the zone, it can operate across AfCFTA. We’ve also been engaging with the Minister of Trade, who is very particular about AfCFTA implementation. We see Itana as a launchpad into that $3.4 trillion market.
How many enterprises and digital residents do you have right now?
Itana is still new. Most of the early work was on frameworks and government engagement. We only began registering companies late last year, starting small in beta.
So far, we have over 40 enterprises registered and more than 350 digital residents, people who pay a subscription to join the ecosystem. This includes start-ups, VCs, founders, and service providers, both local and international.
It’s a global ecosystem, and many see Itana as more than just our project; it’s a team effort.
The last thing I would mention is our current initiative, the Digital Residency Launchpad. Many companies we speak to see Itana as a gateway to Africa. More than legal entities, they want an ecosystem they can plug into, collaborators, partners, networks.
So, we designed the launchpad for that. It connects Africans on the continent with those in the diaspora who want to stay connected but lack the networks. We’re testing it now, and it’s something we’re very excited about.
