BD Insider, Letter 131: Africa’s next unicorn—who and when?

Last week Saturday made it 62 years since Nigeria became an independent nation.

Since its independence, oil has been the nation’s major gross domestic product (GDP). Sixty years after, the ICT sector is contributing more than oil to Nigeria’s GDP. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector contributed 18.44% to the country’s GDP in Q2 2022—while the oil sector contributed 6.33% within the same period.

The performance of the technology sector has seen an increased desire from the government to tax the sector in order to shift their attention from oil-generating revenue. In the Finance Act 2022, Nigeria introduced a 5% excise duty on non-alcoholic beverages including, telecommunication services—which was recently suspended.

Last updated: February 5, 2026