Moderated by Cynthia Chisom, programme manager of the MTN Cloud Accelerator, the panel featured:

• Babalola Oyeleye (Babs), chief strategy & innovation officer, MTN Nigeria
• Victor Asemota, a technology investor and founder, Keita Wealth Advisory (joining remotely)

The conversation explored emerging innovation trends, corporate participation in tech ecosystems, and the evolution of Africa’s investment landscape.

Startups Are Expanding Beyond Fintech

Responding to a question on innovation trends across the continent, Asemota said African founders are increasingly tackling critical gaps in health, logistics, energy, and sustainability.

He cited Trashcoin, a waste-management rewards platform, as an example of the emerging wave of impactful innovation.

“Funding will begin shifting into these new sectors,” he said. “Founders are building where the gaps are clear, and investors will follow the impact.”

Corporates Must Embrace Co-Creation, Not Transactions

Oyeleye emphasized that the traditional corporate–startup relationship, primarily transactional, is no longer sufficient.

“Co-creation is now essential,” he said. “Corporates bring infrastructure, customers and scale. Startups bring innovation and speed. When we build together, we shorten time to market and create real impact.”

He stressed that accelerators serve as outsourced R&D engines, enabling corporates to innovate faster while reducing risk.

MTN’s Evolution: From Vendor-Driven to Innovation-Driven

Reflecting on MTN’s transformation, Asemota noted that the company has made “one of the most significant shifts on the continent.”

“I’ve worked with MTN for over two decades. What I see now is different, they’re backing collaboration with real resources: cloud infrastructure, data centres, partnerships. This is not promise-driven; it’s execution-driven.”

Why Corporates Remain Cautious

Oyeleye pointed out that risk aversion remains a major barrier for many Nigerian corporates.

“When capital is limited, companies choose certainty over experimentation,” he said. “But our demographics and challenges demand deeper involvement.”

He revealed that MTN is already exploring what a more structured investment fund could look like, a natural evolution from accelerators to full corporate investment.

What Must Change in Africa’s Investment Landscape

The panelists agreed on the urgent need to expand corporate involvement in funding and acquisitions.

Asemota noted that in Silicon Valley, corporates drive majority of M&A activity, while African corporates still attempt to build everything internally.

“We need corporates to buy, invest, acquire and partner,” he said. “That’s how mature ecosystems grow.”

He also called for reduced ecosystem fragmentation through unified collaboration across investors, founders, corporates and accelerators.

Oyeleye added that access to corporate assets, especially infrastructure and regulatory support, must become easier for startups.

“Telcos have opened up. Banks and other sectors must do more. Collaboration is the way forward.”

A Call to Action

Moderator Cynthia Chisom closed the session by highlighting that Africa’s innovation future depends on coordinated action across technology builders, regulators, investors and corporates.

The panel concluded with a shared message: Africa must build boldly, invest locally, and collaborate deeply to unlock the next decade of innovation.

Remedial Health is on a mission to build tech-enabled, pharmacy-centred healthcare networks across the continent. The funds, as well as its participation in Y Combinator, will accelerate the fruition of its goal. 

“We are not only making it easier for neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs (patent and proprietary medicine vendors) to access affordable and authentic medicines from leading manufacturers. We are also rolling out our PMR (patient medical records) platform that will make them more efficient and profitable, and give them access to consolidated data on customers to support the delivery of better healthcare services across the continent,” Remedial Health wrote.

Transforming Africa’s pharmaceutical sector with technology solutions

In Africa’s $45 billion pharmaceutical industry — projected to reach $70 billion by 2030, PPMVs are responsible for 80 percent of sales. They are basically businesses without a trained pharmacist that sell pharmaceutical products on a retail basis for-profit and they provide the main source of medicines for many common illnesses. 

However, they have to navigate an opaque supply chain and a fragmented marketplace to access the stock they need for their stores which can make them very unprofitable. 

This also means manufacturers have limited visibility into their performance, leading to inefficient decision making on forecasting, production and distribution.

Remedial Health has created a digital procurement platform that makes it possible for store owners to source all the medicines, consumables and small medical devices for their practice via a mobile app or mobile responsive web store at open-air medicine market prices and have them delivered within 24 hours. All products are vetted before distribution to verify their authenticity.

The startup’s proprietary Patient Medication Records and Inventory Control (PMR) software, Remedial Rx also enables these store owners to build and access a consolidated database of customer information that will drive the delivery of improved healthcare services across the continent. 

“With our platform, it will be easier to make informed decisions on which products are best suited to a customer based on their medical history. It will also enable us to provide consolidated, real-time data on market behaviour to manufacturers for increased profitability and better decision-making across the value chain.”

Remedial Health’s PMR platform helps pharmacies and PPMVs manage their inventory and day-to-day operations so that they can focus on patient care. 

The healthtech has also incorporated a Buy-Now-Pay-Later service which means store owners can stock up and maximise the sales opportunities available to them. They only pay after the stock has been dispensed to customers.

Pharmacies and PPMVs have been the frontline of healthcare in Africa for many years and Remedial Health is innovating for them and connecting them more effectively to manufacturers, ensuring that their data is reflected more accurately in decision making across the pharmaceutical value chain.

“We are starting in Nigeria but this is just the beginning. We are just getting started on our mission to drive the digitisation of Africa’s pharmaceutical sector.”

Appreciating its investors, Remedial Health wrote: “We want to thank our investors Global Ventures and Ventures Platform, as well as Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, Flutterwave’s Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Victor Asemota, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund and other investors that participated in this round.”

“We are also looking forward to the support and network of partners that Y Combinator will expose us to, and the impact it will have on our business.”