By Eche Emole, Co-Founder at Afropolitan
The diaspora sent $20 billion to Nigeria last year.
$19.5 billion went to consumption. Not creation.
We’ll wire money for parties but not products. Build houses we visit twice a year but won’t back the startups our cousins are building.
Ike Eze saw this paradox clearly. Three Silicon Valley exits worth $130M. Could’ve stayed comfortable in Palo Alto. Instead, he’s in Lagos backing Nigerian founders.
“The diaspora thinks technology in the US makes sense but technology in Nigeria is risky,” he told me. “They’re measuring African opportunity with foreign rulers.”
I’ve watched this movie too many times:
• Diaspora doctor invests $500K in Lagos real estate, gets 20% returns
• Same doctor won’t put $50K in the healthtech startup fixing Nigerian healthcare
• The startup becomes a unicorn. The apartment stays an apartment.
Real estate isn’t the enemy. But if we want to build real wealth, we can’t ignore the companies turning Africa’s biggest challenges into billion-dollar opportunities.
We’re not just missing returns. We’re missing the chance to solve problems only we understand.
The Nigerian who coded at Google knows what Flutterwave needed to build.
The nurse in Houston understands why Helium Health matters.
The banker in London sees why Moniepoint could work.
But we keep choosing dead assets over living companies.
Here’s what changes everything: The problems we ran from are the opportunities we should fund.
Every broken system is a billion-dollar startup waiting to happen. Every frustration that made you leave is a solution waiting to be built.
Paystack proved it. Andela proved it. Three unicorns (Moniepoint, Opal & Palmpay) in three years proved it.
Your village doesn’t need another empty mansion.
It needs the company that brings electricity to every mansion.
What African solution are you funding today?
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