Its 2021, and you are a tech entrepreneur always looking to innovate right out of the box. With industries such as fintech, agrotech, insuretech, etc fast growing, there is more work for tech entrepreneurs to do, but do they have to think about politics too? Maybe
You are the CEO or owner of a tech business especially in the third world countries where the government can literally crumble your business over night and all you do is release rapid solutions that meets the demands of the eco-system in which you play. Isn’t it important for you to know someone in the government or have a backing from the government ? Here is why
For example, the popular Dangote Industries owned by the richest man in Africa Aliko Dangote is alleged to have used his influence and popularity with government officials in Nigeria to make his wealth and solidify his mark in Africa. Today, Dangote controls the entire commodity market for things like Cement, Sugar, Flour, and now crud oil to the extent that his competitors can no longer at that scale. I won’t call him a tech entrepreneur outrightly, but he sure is in this space too and know how to play his politics right.
Here is OPAY, a promising startup in Nigeria; we could go on and on with all their services from payment to hailing and riding but it all went into shambles from one law from the Lagos state in Nigeria, what a sad way to end an innovation idea.
Recently, the CBN banned fintech companies like Flutterwave, paystack from using the BVN service. They sure have their reason why they did this but did they consider what that could do to small businesses?
How about the abroad?
On the other hand, Facebook since 2018 – 2020 has been thoroughly scrutinised for its involvement in the last two elections in the USA. More and more allegations have been levied on a man who just wants to connect the world together; Mark Zuckerberg. Could we say it is because he doesn’t have anyone in government that he is facing all these issues?
To buttress this, take a study of how President Trump supported Apple all the way when he was in power. During this time, Apple never suffered any severe hit from congress so much and in-fact, most or if not all the government staff use apple products; their OS, phones, messaging service to mention but a few.
It is quite interesting how one policy, or a statement from the government can drive a tech company into extinction. This is why I advise tech entrepreneurs to get into politics or at least have friends or representative in the political class.