About this record
A public record of the organisations building Nigeria's startup ecosystem: the hubs, funds, programmes, agencies and networks a founder might need, with the source and the date behind every entry.
What it is for
To answer three questions a founder, a funder or a journalist can ask without already knowing the ecosystem: who works with people like me, who helps with the problem I have, and who is doing it in my city. The record is built to be relied on rather than browsed, which means every answer carries its source and the date somebody last checked it.
In the language development funders and policy programmes use, these are enterprise support organisations: the hubs, incubators, accelerators, training providers, funds and agencies that exist to support somebody else's enterprise. This record covers Nigeria's, in public, with the evidence attached.
The standard for inclusion
Two requirements decide whether an organisation can be recorded at all.
- Its own words. A description the organisation published about itself, quoted and attributed to the page it came from. Never a summary written in its voice by us.
- A sourced location. A city established from the organisation's own site or a named document. Where a location cannot be established, the organisation is left out rather than placed approximately.
Nothing else is a barrier. A missing contact, a missing logo or a site that has not changed in years is recorded on the page rather than used to exclude an organisation. Incomplete entries are the normal state of this record.
How entries are evidenced
Each entry carries a stack of evidence rather than a single description. Records are added and never overwritten, so the history of an organisation remains readable as it changes.
Every piece of evidence carries two separate dates: when the thing happened, and when somebody checked it. A programme that ran in 2019 and looked at this month is a recent check of an old fact, and a single date cannot express that.
A check is one recorded act of looking. Somebody opened a page on a date and wrote down what was there. It is not a judgment that the thing is true, and it is not a review of the whole entry. So "last checked 15 September" means nobody has looked at anything on that entry since then, not that the entry was gone over and found correct.
Levels of verification
1 of 111 entries have been confirmed by them. The remaining 110 are compiled from public sources and are marked as such on every page. The distinction is stated on each entry rather than summarised in a single badge.
Confirmation requires proof of control, established from what the record already holds rather than from what a claimant states: a one-time link sent to an address at the organisation's own domain, a code published from an account that constitutes its entire presence, or review by a person. The method used is named on the page, because three routes of differing strength should not be reported as one.
How claims are marked
Each thing an organisation says it does carries a mark for how far this record can stand behind it.
- You can see it yourself
- Something dated backs it
- Their word for it
The top of that scale means a named specific you can go and look at without asking us or the organisation: a published cohort list, a named portfolio company, a policy document carrying their name. The middle means a dated record that something happened, without particulars you can follow. The bottom means the only source is the organisation describing itself, which is the ordinary state of almost everything here and is not an accusation.
Whatever stands behind a claim is listed on that organisation's page, dated, with its source. A claim marked amber has nothing listed because there is nothing to list, not because it is hidden.
Coverage and its limits
Every entry is read from the organisation's own site. What it says about itself is quoted from there, linked, and dated on the day somebody looked, and the sectors it works in carry the line they were read from. Nothing here is reproduced from another directory, and an organisation with no working site of its own is not published.
How they are found is a separate question from how they are recorded. Public listings, the partner and sponsor pages of organisations already here, and direct submission all lead us to an organisation; none of them is ever the source for what its entry says.
Coverage is uneven, and the pattern is predictable. Organisations that belong to networks and appear in other organisations' listings are better represented than those that do not. Funds, newsrooms, corporate programmes and organisations operating outside the major directories are underrepresented. Absence from this record is not evidence that an organisation does not exist, and direct submission is the fastest correction to it.
What is not recorded
- Individuals. Organisations only. A record of people carries different obligations and is a different undertaking.
- Organisations outside Nigeria. The boundary is not widened to accommodate organisations found during research elsewhere.
- Scores and rankings. Cities are not ranked against one another and organisations are not rated. Counting what is recorded is not the same as judging what is there.
- Unverifiable claims. Where an organisation publishes a figure that cannot be checked, the record notes that the organisation claims it. It is not restated as fact.
Empty categories and cities with nothing recorded are displayed rather than hidden. A record that shows only what it holds says nothing about what is missing from it.
Independence
The record is maintained by SENPAI FUTURES LTD (opens in a new tab) (RC 9746107), a design and technology company registered in Abuja. SENPAI works commercially with organisations in this sector. Where a commercial relationship exists with an organisation in the record, it is disclosed on that organisation's page.
Listing is free. No organisation pays to appear, no placement is for sale, and there is no ranking to influence.
Corrections and removal
If the entry is yours, claim it to correct it directly. Otherwise write to hello@senpaifutures.com . Corrections are read by a person and nothing is published automatically. Reporting an error in an entry about your own organisation is sufficient; no evidence is required from you.
Any organisation may have its entry removed on request.