The NSE's path to global competitiveness

March 10, 2021, was a good day in Nigeria's corporate finance world. Flutterwave, the Africa-focused payment startup, announced that it had raised $170 million in a Series C round; (the fourth stage of startup financing, and typically the last stage of venture capital financing). The newly raised capital drove the company's value above $1 billion. And just like that, it became just one of a handful of tech unicorns. As the name "unicorn" implies, billion-dollar tech startups are rare in Africa. 

But the announcement had other layers. The funding round is usually a route for most companies to list on a stock exchange, and Flutterwave's CEO and co-founder Olugbenga Agboola confirms it. He told Reuters, "We may consider the possibility of listing in New York or a possible dual listing in New York and Nigeria." 

Thirteen kilometres away from Flutterwave's Lekki office, this revelation must have felt like a "double