‘Startupsouth’ ideas shake Port Harcourt

The message seems to seep deeper into the south-south and south-east that the future of enterprise in Nigeria and Africa is start-ups.

This is where the annual ‘startupsouth’ series seems to hold strong value and force in the two zones that share same economic and socio-political fate.

According to the Convener of ‘Startupsouth’, Uche Aniche, who is also a start-up coach, angel investor, fund manager, and venture capital strategist, the first and most important thing is for the governments and business communities to understand that startup is not necessarily SME (small and medium enterprise).

He explained that whereas startups look for new business models to scale up and skill up their ventures, SMEs are alright with existing business models.

“Ordinarily, the startups help to solve problems with big market opportunity. They would want to scale up as fast as possible. In the process, they get to employ highly skilled workers, employ many people, and when they do this, those persons they employed live in neighbourhoods. They are the ones that patronize the SMEs. That is the link.”

Aniche said the moment governments in Nigeria realize this critical relevance of startups, they would create time, attention, and resources to promote it.

He said that was what the startupsouth series seek to achieve. He described it as the largest startup conference in South​-​South/South-East. The seventh edition took place at Novotel Hotels ​in Port Harcourt, and focused on consolidating the regions’ position on the international startup radar.

The 2022 theme is ‘Remotely Global:​ ​Advancing Sub-national Economies from Talents to Corporations​’. He said it was aimed at exploring ways to accelerate the transformation of economies​ in the region and upskill talents​ in a sector currently dealing with the complexity of broad range of new technologies.

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The conference slated high-profile speakers including Funke Opeke, founder and CEO of MainOne, Tomi Davies, President of the African Business Angel Network, Chimezie Amadi, Commissioner for Digital Economy and E-Governance in Imo State, Iroghama Ogbeifun, CEO Starzs Investments Company Ltd; Ebele Enunwa, founder and CEO Sundry Markets Ltd, Kingsley Eze, founder & CEO, Tenece and more. The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), an investor and business magnet, attended one of the days and had deep talks with young investors.

Aniche said: “We are a community of communities with affiliations spanning across 11 States in the South and beyond. StartupSouth members are building some of the most iconic venture-backed projects you probably have encountered.”