At the recent Doing Business in Nigeria Conference, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave, delivered a striking message: for Nigerian businesses to succeed on the global stage, they must master the art of storytelling and embrace deeper collaboration.

Drawing from his experience building two of Africa’s unicorn companies, Aboyeji emphasized that the difference between local relevance and global influence lies not just in innovation, but in how entrepreneurs present and position their ideas. “We commoditize everything,” he said during his keynote address. “That auntie with factories across Nigeria but no website? She’s losing global contracts daily. In a digital world, you need professional presence, not just Instagram.”

For Aboyeji, storytelling is not merely about marketing, it’s about shaping perception, attracting the right partners, and expanding market reach. He explained how both Andela and Flutterwave were born from deeply local insights but succeeded because their stories were compelling to investors, partners, and customers worldwide. Andela identified a need for aspiring Nigerian developers to “get paid to learn,” which led to the now globally recognized Income Share Agreement model. Flutterwave solved the chaos of fragmented payment systems, creating a unified platform that now powers businesses across multiple continents.

“Don’t downplay what makes your solution uniquely African,” he told the audience. “That quirk you think is just ‘how we do it in Nigeria’ could be the seed of a billion-dollar business.”

Beyond storytelling, Aboyeji pointed to collaboration as the second major ingredient missing in Nigeria’s scale-up journey. He challenged entrepreneurs to move beyond competition for limited local market share and start working together to access global opportunities. “Stop fighting over 2 million local customers when 7 billion exist globally. Pool resources to hire overseas sales agents instead of relying on middlemen who take 70% margins.”

He also warned against the overemphasis on short-term margins, urging founders to adopt a scale-first mindset. “If China produces cheaper, your customers will go there,” he noted. “You need to invest in technology and operations that drive your unit economics down.”

Speaking in his role as a member of Nigeria’s Presidential Council on Industrial Policy, Aboyeji called for smarter demands from government. He encouraged entrepreneurs to advocate for access to dormant industrial spaces and push for policies that support exports and infrastructure—not just funding. “Stop asking government for money they don’t have. Demand the things that require political will, not budgets,” he said, citing the Nigerian Startup Act as a successful example of ecosystem-led policy change.

On inclusion, Aboyeji addressed progress in the tech sector, noting that women now represent 39% of participants in Nigeria’s 3MTT technical training program. “Tech is more balanced than most industries, but we’re pushing for 50-50. In Northern Nigeria, we’ve moved female participation from 3% to 14% through targeted programs,” he said.

Aboyeji concluded with a message of urgency and possibility: “The world isn’t waiting for Africa. But if we tell our stories right, collaborate fiercely, and build for scale, they’ll have no choice but to buy what we’re selling.”

His words served as a clarion call to Nigerian entrepreneurs to not just build great businesses, but to craft great narratives and build strategic alliances that can take them beyond borders.