FUNDING | Nigeria’s Itana Raises $2 Million to Build a Digital Free Zone for Local and International Businesses

Itana, previously known as Talent City, has successfully secured $2 million in a pre-seed funding round.

This investment was led by prominent global venture capitalists, including:

• LocalGlobe
• Amplo
• Pronomos Capital, and
• Future Africa

Itana, founded by Nigerian entrepreneurs, Luqman Edu (CEO) and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (Founding Investor), alongside Coco Liu (COO), aims to establish an online jurisdiction, essentially a virtual city, akin to:

* Delaware in the United States

• E-Estonia in Europe, or
• Dubai in Asia

This virtual city would enable international companies to incorporate and conduct business within a Nigerian Free Zone without the necessity of a physical presence in the area.

According to Itana, the Itana Free Zone is being developed with a particular focus on catering to both local and global startups, as well as technology and service enterprises seeking to expand their presence throughout Africa. It aims to provide a solution for these businesses, allowing them to scale their operations on the continent without grappling with the hurdles posed by unstable policies, infrastructure deficiencies, and other business-related challenges.

The virtual city offers a comprehensive online platform for accessing business and government services. Companies will have the opportunity to leverage globally competitive business policies and incentives, particularly as digital free-zone enterprises. This platform aims to streamline and facilitate various aspects of business operations and government interactions.

Incentives offered in the virtual free zone include those related to:

• Taxation
• Business visas
• Banking
• Capital repatriation
• Supportive legislation for businesses
• Access to the local and international business community

Itana aims to provide an environment that will allow companies to operate a global business in Nigeria from anywhere in the world, and have access to the largest markets in Africa.

“We are thrilled to announce this round of funding. It validates our efforts, and reiterates the aligned vision with our investors and partners to make it easy to invest and operate in Africa’s digital economy,” says Luqman Edu, Chief Executive Officer of Itana.

“The African market is still largely untapped and Itana will provide the ideal business environment that will be fully online, for global and Pan-African digital and service companies to use Nigeria as an anchorage to operate with ease across the continent.”

Technology and service companies interested in launching their operations virtually in Nigeria can register on www.itana.africa to be added to the waitlist for obtaining an Itana Digital Free Zone business license. This license will grant businesses the opportunity to establish and operate their ventures remotely, streamlining the process of setting up and conducting business operations.