MTN Nigeria at the weekend urged collaboration to overcome the risk aversion that has been pulling back the development of the startup ecosystem in the country.

Chief Strategy and Investment Officer, MTN Nigeria, Babalola Oyeleye, who spoke during a panel discussion at MTN Cloud Accelerator Demo Day and Investor Mixer of 20 innovative startups, the first cohort of the Cloud Accelerator Program, at Lagos Continental Hotel, said a lot of money is going to fintechs, adding however, that Nigeria start-ups are rising to the occasion by solving local problems with innovative solutions.

He said there is need for collaboration among the development agencies, corporations and founders, stressing that initiatives such as the MTN Cloud Accelerator programme is one way of overcoming the risk aversion.

According to him, the telco has over 180 partners on a transactional level, stressing the need for work with startups to co-create solutions for the industry that will endure.

Also speaking virtually, Victor Asemota, said there are exciting trends in the startup ecosystem. He said he has been a partner with MTN over the past two decades, also calling for collaboration as the telco evolves. He said telcos should be buying companies through mergers and acquisition (M&A) instead of buying products, an option he said is not attractive to corporates because of the risk aversion. He said MTN is well positioned to explore the M&A option for growth.

He called for more corporate participation so that more global brands could emerge from the country, adding that regulatory cover remained a major challenge to startups on the continent.

The high point of the ceremony was the presentation of N5million non-equity cheques to all the participants of the first cohort of the programme.

The 12-week hybrid accelerator, backed by N100 million in grants, brought together some of Africa’s most promising startups across fintech, healthtech, agritech, edtech, and cleantech. These startups have demonstrated exceptional potential to scale across the continent by leveraging MTN’s infrastructure, APIs, and strategic partnerships.

Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, said the launch of the accelerator programme is the beginning of a bold new chapter in Africa’s digital transformation story.

“It all began with a dream: to build a world-class data centre and launch MTN Cloud, a solution designed to deliver on world-class capabilities without the usual barriers. Building on that momentum, we made a promise: to create an Accelerator Program that would empower African startups to scale, thrive, and lead globally. And today, we have delivered. For too long, our continent has been described as ’emerging.’ But what we see are markets already bursting with innovation, resilience, and grit. What African entrepreneurs lack is not ideas, but the right environment, partners, and tools to scale globally. And that is exactly what this program provides,” she had said.

Among the Accelerator Program startups are DoktorConnect, led by Joseph Olowe, shifting healthcare from reactive to preventive using FDA-certified IoT devices; and MYITURA, founded by Shina Arogundade, which is building integrated digital health ecosystems across Africa. In fintech, Regxta, led by Bello Rukayat, is targeting 600 million underserved Africans through AI-powered digital banking, while Creditchek, (Kingsley Ibe), is developing machine learning tools for credit assessment and fraud prevention.

The other companies and their leaders are Solarcorp: Oyekanmi Stephen; Hadi Finance: Bidemi Adebayo; Proconnect: EldaDavid Kehinde Samuel; PBR Life Sciences: Ayodeji Alaran; ProDevs: William (Bill) Nwogbo and Faith Dike N; PipeOps: Samuel Ogbonyomi; Uri Creative: Collins Elue and Precious Zino; Bunce: Dami Soladoye; and DebtRecuva.Africa: Peace Obule.

Others are Agrovesto: Bayo Adewoye; TrashCoin: Phebe Ilesanmi; XCHANGEBOX: Abiola Jimoh; Fusion Intelligence Technologies: Kolade Adewoye; Scrapays: Boluwatife Arewa; Prembly: Lanre Ogungbe, MBA; and Sproutly: Pierre Nwoke.

The MTN Cloud Accelerator offers a robust support system, deep integration with MTN’s APIs and cloud infrastructure, access to Africa’s largest telecom network, one-on-one mentorship from industry leaders, go-to-market support, and investor pitch opportunities.