The Next Wave

The Next Wave: Vive la résistance!

By Victor Ekwealor Oct 12, 2020

On Friday 9th of October, #EndSARS was trending worldwide on Twitter with millions of impressions, and across other social media platforms. Deciding today’s topic was easy.

Nigerian youths have gone from the timelines of Twitter into the streets of cities and towns across the country, in the multitude of their thousands, and the
message is clear and somewhat uncompromising; “No reforms, just end SARS!”

[READ: Complete TechCabal coverage on the SARS menace]

While TechCabal has covered the irregularities of this rogue police unit as far back as 2018, with the help of our data department; TC Insights, today’s story is peppered with data.
Data does not lie, so while we proceed to show you this picture of numbers and words, subscribe to
and catch up on older editions of this newsletter.

The menace disproportionately affecting
Nigeria’s growing tech industry.

While taking a stroll one night on the Lekki-Ikoyi bridge in Lagos, West Africa’s largest city, Adegoke Olubusi was shot at by two SARS officers.

Olubusi is
the co-founder of Helium Health; one of Nigeria’s innovative healthcare companies. Helium Health provides a suite of technologies to
healthcare organizations in Nigeria and other emerging markets to help them deliver services more efficiently.

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is notorious for harassing its young people. It is a Nigerian Police Force unit under the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, originally tasked with fighting crime.

Police officers profile young people, including those in the country’s burgeoning tech industry. Laptops, dreadlocks, premium smartphones and or tattoos are a major bait for this group that originally was intended to protect the youths but has fully morphed into what some foreign observers have described as a “terrorist
organisation”, and rightfully so.

In Olubusi’s case, the officers tried to get him into an unmarked van, as is their modus operandi.

“I was petrified, even confused by how intoxicated they were,” he narrated in his account. “I remember thinking about my mother’s reaction to finding my body lifeless on the streets of Lagos,” he added.

Olubisi’s story is similar to Yele Bademosi, another influential member of the
tech industry who is a VC and CEO at fintech startup, Bundle. Bademosi was kidnapped and extorted by SARS officers while heading home in
October 2019.

Across Nigeria on the 9th of October, 2020, young people took
to the streets from Lagos to Delta in the country’s oil-rich region to protest police brutality, demanding that the government scrap the notorious group. The #EndSARS hashtag was trending on Twitter as young people online including members of the tech community supported those on the streets.

Apart from almost a decade of kidnap, robbery, and torture, their anger is understandable and also justified by data* gathered by TC Insights, TechCabal’s data and research unit.

Whether the government should #EndSARS is no longer the question. It’s now an indictment of its commitment to see its tech industry and its young population flourish. It has become an economic decision, and until their conditions are met, these protesters are not leaving the streets of Nigeria.

***********
This data story was written with support from TC Insights’ interns Boluwatife Sanwo and Abdul-Quadri Odeshina.

Editor’s note: *Our dataset currently has far less than 50 SARS incidents, please help us enrich our dataset by sharing this form everywhere you can so we can provide a data-backed perspective of the menace. This will show further evidence that SARS needs to be banned.

Also, please fill in the form if you or anyone you know that works in Nigeria’s tech industry has been harassed by
SARS. We will update this data story as we enrich our dataset.

“Technology is playing a crucial role in improving inefficiencies in supply chains across Africa and
will be vital to the continent’s development and growth post-pandemic.

The ongoing pandemic has highlighted more than ever that businesses need to build resilience into their supply chain, as well as the key role informal retailers play in the African economy. While more shoppers are going online, informal retailers continue to play a vital role in supplying essential household goods to neighbourhoods and they must not be forgotten in the innovation conversation. Leveraging technology to connect them directly to leading manufacturers is essential. The sector also needs innovative access to credit.

With most informal retailers lacking the collateral that banks demand, many are often unable to access the funds they need to scale
their business and generate more revenue. With more small retailers using technology to access the funds they need to grow their business, they will be better equipped to take advantage of the opportunities that will become available in the new normal.“

– Karen Adie, Director of Merchant Services, TradeDepot

Every week, we will ask our readers, stakeholders, and operators in Africa’s tech ecosystem what they think the new normal will look like, and will share their thoughts here. You can share yours with victor@bigcabal.com with ‘The Crystal Ball’ in the subject line.