Nigeria’s Itana, formerly Talent City, has raised US$2 million in a pre-seed funding round that supports its bid to develop Africa’s first Digital Free Zone, which aims to improve the ease-of-doing-business index, drive foreign direct investment, and catalyse employment. Itana will be a fully online jurisdiction for the digital economy, with the ideal policies, business services and technology for global digital and service businesses to remotely operate and scale with ease across Africa. By 2027, Itana will also be coupled with an eco-friendly startup district in Alaro free zone (Epe, Lagos). Its US$2 million pre-seed round was led by global venture capitalists LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital, and Future Africa. “Within the Itana digital free zone startups will have the benefit of a stable policy environment, tax and capital repatriation incentives and the freedom to operate remotely without the need for an expansive physical presence within the free zone.
