Bhluemountain is effective, reliable, and easy to work with. Schedule a free consultation and we’ll show you why we were named one of the top IT firms in Nigeria
start Now
We are a team of top-accredited professionals who are unceasingly committed to delivering trailblazing solutions that ensure your maximum productivity. We help our customers build the core foundation for a successful and secure digital transformation journey
Quality is at the heart of everything we do, and we continuously challenge ourselves to improve our services to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of our customers, while always complying with regulations and specifications.
Whilst we have a big smile on our faces about our recognition, we never forget that our team and our clients work together as one, so thank you for all of your support.
Together with our team of accredited experts, we assist businesses in navigating their current IT estates and digital future through informed and cost-saving IT models.
At Bhluemountain we help small and large enterprises, run their mission-critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. We deploy our technology solutions and services to enable businesses drive performance, competitiveness, and customer experience.
Whatever your industry area, we provide full-spectrum IT support services to help you meet changing business needs.
Effective Cloud Solutions and strategies that help you drive overall efficiency and scale effortlessly.
Gain key insights from data to drive impactful outcomes for strategic objectives.
Technology and industry consulting expertise to help you drive your digital transformation journey.
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. The Naira Life Conference is almost here! We’re down to the final days. On August 22, professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, and creators will gather at The Jewel Aeida, Lekki, Lagos, for a full day of honest conversations about making, growing, and protecting money. Want to earn more, build wealth, or grow a business? Learn how to increase your market value, get practical advice on stocks, mutual funds, and cryptocurrencies, build your first portfolio, and discover what it really takes to turn a hustle into a wealth engine. The room only has a few seats left. Don’t leave it too late to secure a ticket. Get your Naira Life Conference ticket. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read previous editions here first and subscribe below. Subscribe Absa eyes Nigerian entry Terra Industries taps former SpaceX executive DStv adds sports channel WhatsApp Business is no longer free in SA World Wide Web 3 Events banking Absa wants a bigger piece of Nigeria’s banking market Image Source: Tenor You’re probably used to seeing Nigerian banks announce their next African expansion every other month. This time, a South African bank is looking in the opposite direction. What happened? Absa Group, South Africa’s third-largest lender by assets, is considering turning its Nigerian representative office into a merchant bank, which could give it a larger role in financing Nigerian businesses. Absa will be able to receive corporate deposits, provide loans, and offer investment banking and project finance. Explain like I’m new here: Absa already has a presence in Nigeria, but it currently operates through a representative office and separate subsidiaries covering capital markets and securities. Its Nigerian operations offer trade finance, investment banking, and market products. Absa’s chief executive officer Kenny Fihla said the group is exploring converting the representative office into a merchant banking operation. A big fish entering a busy ocean: Absa is not exactly a small player testing the waters. The group operates across Africa, with banking operations in markets including South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius, and Seychelles. It serves more than 13.4 million customers and reported R58.79 billion ($3.61 billion) in total income for the six months to June 2026. Between the lines: Nigeria’s banking sector has grown, with its market capitalisation reaching ₦10.5 trillion ($7.7 billion) in 2025. Absa would be entering a market already crowded with tier-1 Nigerian banks such as Access Holdings, Zenith Bank, and First Bank, while also facing South African rivals Standard Bank and FirstRand. The playbook: South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana generated more than 80% of Absa’s profit in the first half of 2026. Nigeria gives it another large corporate and financial market to tap into. Merchant banking is a separately licenced business in Nigeria, so Absa would need regulatory approval before it can start taking deposits and offer loans as a merchant bank. For Absa, this is bigger than changing the sign outside its office in Ikoyi, Lagos. Every business owner needs to watch this. The business questions you Google, answered by experts. Watch for free. startups Terra Industries taps ex-SpaceX executive to help expand into new markets Image Source: Tenor When you have just raised a huge pile of money, there will be signs. For Terra Industries, the Nigerian defence-tech startup, one of those signs is hiring a former SpaceX executive to help take its defence technology into more countries. What happened? Terra has appointed Ben MacWilliams as vice president of strategy. MacWilliams joins from SpaceX, the Elon Musk-owned space-tech company, where he led Starlink’s market-access efforts across Africa. At Terra, he will lead market entry, licensing strategy, and government partnerships. Explain like I’m new here: At SpaceX, MacWilliams’ job was getting governments to say yes to Starlink. That meant working through licencing requirements, regulators, ministries, and government officials in countries where Starlink wanted to operate. MacWilliams helped navigate that process across Africa and previously worked on market access in the Middle East and Central Eurasia. His remit covered all 54 African markets, and he helped launch Starlink in more than 20 of them. What is Terra building and why does it need MacWilliams? Terra develops autonomous systems that help governments and infrastructure operators monitor critical assets, such as power plants and mines. Its products include long- and mid-range autonomous drones, interceptor drones, sentry towers, and unmanned ground vehicles. The company closed $52 million in seed funding this week, opened a London office, and is building a manufacturing facility in Ghana. Terra said it plans to extend its manufacturing footprint across the Gulf, South America, and South Asia. MacWilliams has likely spent years dealing with the sort of bureaucracy Terra will encounter, including negotiating with regulators and governments, securing drone-operating licences, and navigating other market-entry rules. He will now contribute to the company/s next growth and expansion drive. Naira Life 2026 is here! The Naira Life Conference 2026 is bringing together Nigeria’s top finance minds, industry leaders, creators, and business strategists for a full-day of specialised sessions and masterclasses designed for ambitious Nigerians who want to make, keep, grow, and pass on real wealth. Happening on August 22 at the Jewel Aeida, Lekki, Lagos. Secure a seat in the room. companies DStv launches another sports channel Image Source: Tenor MultiChoice, Africa’s largest pay-TV company, is aggressively clearing out the dusty corners of its linear TV library to build a bigger moat around its crown jewel: live sport. The Canal+-owned operator isoverhauling its channel line-up, cutting underperforming entertainment slots, including local content channels, to make more room for a sports-first future. What happened? On Wednesday, MultiChoice launchedSuperSport Extra 2 (channel 217) to handle overflow sports events, while rebranding generic Variety slots into sport-specific homes likeSuperSport Football Plus and SuperSport KickOff. However, the expansion comes at a cost to general entertainment: DStv isshutting down four channels on September 16, including M-Net Movies 1 and Mzansi Bioskop, bringing its total channel cuts
Read More
How do you prepare millions of young people for an economy that cannot provide enough salaried jobs? Over the past two decades, university enrolment in Nigeria has risen from roughly 448,000 students in the 1999/2000 academic session to more than 2.15 million in 2019. For generations, higher education has been viewed as a pathway to better economic prospects. A degree could open the door to professional, white-collar and salaried employment and, ultimately, a more stable middle-class life. But Nigeria’s labour market cannot absorb most workers into formal, salaried employment. In Q1 2024, 92.7% of employed Nigerians were in informal employment and about 84% were self-employed, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That reality changes what higher education has to prepare young people for. A university education cannot be built only around the expectation that graduates will find salaried employment. Young people also need the ability to identify economic opportunities, build and sustain ventures, adapt to changing markets and, where possible, create jobs for themselves and others. Nigeria’s higher-education regulators have embedded entrepreneurship education within tertiary curricula, with universities and other tertiary institutions developing entrepreneurship centres, innovation hubs, and incubators. According to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Landscape Within Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria report by EyeCity Africa and the National Universities Commission (NUC), 45% of surveyed institutions have supported entrepreneurship education for six to ten years, while another 40% have been doing so for more than ten years. Only 15% have been doing so for less than five years. In other words, 85% of the institutions surveyed have had at least six years to build, implement and refine their entrepreneurship programmes. Unfortunately, compliance does not tell the full story of effectiveness. Despite the high rate of adoption, concerns remain about the quality and practical impact of entrepreneurship education. What is preventing entrepreneurship education from translating into viable ventures? The first challenge is the gap between being taught entrepreneurship and being able to practise it. The report finds that while entrepreneurship education is widespread in Nigerian universities, most programmes provide research and training, with only 31.58% providing hands-on support for developing and testing early-stage research or innovation ideas. To learn and apply, students need the opportunity to test ideas, build prototypes, work with customers, fail, iterate, and understand what it takes to move an idea beyond the four walls of a classroom. The same challenge appears further down the pipeline. Innovation hubs are becoming more widespread, with about 70% of institutions surveyed reporting that they have one. However, some hubs are primarily physical spaces with limited curricular integration and student engagement. 55% of surveyed institutions reported incubating fewer than five student enterprises. And even incubation does not necessarily mean commercialisation. The report found that only one institution reported student enterprises being formally registered as businesses. Many ventures remained at the prototype stage, became small-scale self-employment activities, or stalled during early development. The idea-to-market pipeline is strained at every stage. Education does not automatically become the ability to build, building does not immediately convert to venture creation, and venture creation does not automatically become a marketable business. What would it take to make entrepreneurship education convert? If Nigeria has already spent nearly two decades embedding entrepreneurship into higher education, the next phase should be about strengthening the systems that move students and researchers from ideas to economic outcomes. Research incentives need to move beyond publication. Publications should not be the only meaningful outcome of research. The report finds that among the institutions surveyed, a lot of the research in Nigerian higher education institutions is publication-driven. Universities need to start recognising a broader range of outputs—including patents, prototypes, industry partnerships, licencing agreements and successfully commercialised research—within their research and promotion systems. This way, there would be stronger incentives for research to move beyond academia and into industry. Nigeria has invested in entrepreneurship centres, innovation hubs and research infrastructure, but the report shows that the harder problem is often what happens after an idea is generated. There needs to be dedicated support for prototype development, including prototype grants, shared facilities, access to technical expertise and industry validation. This way, funding can have greater leverage and support the transition from idea to commercialisation. If students are expected to create economic opportunities, they need more than a compulsory entrepreneurship course. They need support through the stages that determine whether an idea survives. The next frontier for the Nigerian higher education system is measuring how effectively students can turn the knowledge they have gathered from studying entrepreneurship into real-world entrepreneurial solutions, and the support that can be given to them to achieve this effectively. About the report: The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Landscape Within Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria report, produced by EyeCity Africa and the National Universities Commission, draws on quantitative survey data from 20 higher education institutions (HEIs) across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, alongside interviews and focus group discussions with industry, policy and HEI stakeholders. For further insights into the state of innovation and entrepreneurship across Nigerian HEIs, access the full report here. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
Read More
Kenya’s startup boom has produced celebrated founders, billion-shilling valuations, and hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. It has also produced some spectacular failures. Over the past five years, startups across logistics, e-commerce, agriculture, fintech, food delivery, clean energy, AI, and auto manufacturing have shut down, entered administration, or abandoned their core businesses. The 10 companies on this list raised more than $500 million combined. Copia raised $123 million, Gro Intelligence more than $117 million, and KOKO Networks over $100 million. Others, including Sendy, MarketForce, and Lipa Later, raised tens of millions before running into trouble. But what happens to founders after their startups collapse? TechCabal traced the founders of 10 Kenyan startups that collapsed in the past five years, using public records including regulatory and corporate filings, social media posts, LinkedIn profiles, and speaker engagements. Some have started new companies. Others have become investors, moved into real estate, or returned to old businesses. A few have largely disappeared from public view. Here is where they are now. Sendy Sendy founders in this undated photo. Image source: Sendy Sendy looked like it might become one of Kenya’s great startup success stories. Founded in 2015 by Mesh Alloys, Evanson Biwott, Don Okoth, and Malaika Judd, the company began by connecting businesses needing deliveries with motorcycle riders and drivers. It later grew into a much bigger logistics operation, expanding beyond Kenya and moving into fulfillment and e-commerce. Investors bought into the ambition. Sendy raised at least $26.5 million in disclosed investor funding, including from Toyota Tsusho, Atlantica Ventures, Enza Capital, and Sunu Capital. At one point, it was valued at more than $80 million. By 2023, things had become desperate. Sendy tried raising money at a lower valuation, but a key investor pulled out. In August that year, it announced it was shutting down and seeking buyers for its assets. So, what happened to the four people who started it? Mesh Alloys Mesh Alloys. Image source: Sendy Alloys was Sendy’s most visible founder and its CEO through its rise and eventual collapse. After Sendy, Alloys became involved with Boya—the Kenyan expense-management startup he founded in 2021 while still at Sendy—as the chairman. He also works at Enza Capital, a venture capital firm, as an entrepreneur-in-residence. In December 2024, he founded tabb, a startup that allows banks to give businesses revolving credit lines that can be used instantly across a network of suppliers. The startup does not lend the money itself. It connects banks, suppliers, and businesses, allowing suppliers to be paid immediately while buyers get longer to settle their purchases. Evanson Biwott Evanson Biwott. Image source: Sendy Biwott was Sendy’s technical brain, serving as co-founder and chief technology officer. He has largely remained a builder since Sendy. In 2024, he co-founded AfroQuality, a retail and distribution platform focused on helping African brands. His co-founder, Saint Doe-Tamakloe, announced in a post in November 2025 that the platform is present in Kenya, Rwanda, and Ghana, coming just one month after it launched a store in Nairobi. Don Okoth Don Okoth. Image source: Sendy Okoth, who led parts of Sendy’s operations and freight business, has become a serial founder. In November 2023, only months after Sendy shut down, Okoth founded RTM Africa, a tech-enabled logistics and courier business. By July 2024, he was trying something different. Okoth co-founded Wavu, an aquaculture startup based in Kisumu that works with fish farmers through cage and pond farming, aggregation and improved access to feed. The startup has since participated in programmes run by E4Impact, Village Capital and Hatch Blue. A month later, Okoth joined Antler as an entrepreneur-in-residence. That stint produced his next company, Revazi, an Antler-backed circular fashion startup he founded in 2025. There has also been a reunion with his former co-founder at Sendy. In January 2026, Okoth joined Mesh Alloys’ tabb as a director, advising its mobility business on infrastructure, suppliers and expansion in East Africa. Malaika Judd Malaika Judd. Image source: Reuters Judd took a different route. The entrepreneur, who joined Alloys, Biwott and Okoth as Sendy’s fourth co-founder, eventually moved to Ireland. She is now managing director of the National Development and Research Centre (NDRC), Ireland’s national startup accelerator. She first joined NDRC in February 2024 as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Judd also serves on the board of Africa Originals, a Kenyan alcoholic beverage maker. iProcure Founded in 2013 by Stefano Carcoforo, Nicole Galletta, Patrick Wanjohi and Bernard Maingi, iProcure built a supply-chain platform that helped agro-dealers source products such as fertiliser and seeds from manufacturers while digitising their inventory and distribution. The model attracted investors including Novastar Ventures, British International Investment and Safaricom’s Spark Fund. Over ten funding rounds, iProcure raised $17.2 million. Its biggest raise came in 2022, when it secured $10.2 million in Series B equity and debt to fund expansion across East Africa. On April 26, 2024, iProcure entered administration, with KPMG taking control of its business and assets. Carcoforo told a Nairobi court that the company could no longer pay its debts as they fell due. More than two years later, the company remains under administration—but its founders have moved on. Stefano Carcoforo Stefano at a past event. Courtesy image Carcoforo did not take long to start again. In May 2024, around the same time iProcure entered administration, he co-founded OnSpace Technologies, an enterprise software startup with John Paul Mwirigi. Since May 2024, he has also served as a board member, investor and consultant at CultivaPro, a Kenyan agritech using drones and AI to help commercial growers monitor crops, meet export and traceability requirements, and apply farm inputs precisely. Patrick Wanjohi Image source: LinkedIn/Patrick Wanjohi Wanjohi, who spent a decade as iProcure’s chief technology officer, is now CTO of iPOS, a new company built around the point-of-sale technology originally developed by iProcure. The company’s administrators acquired the technology in November 2024 and relaunched it under a new company run by Mahia-John Mahiaini. iPOS has since expanded into inventory ordering, financing, and other tools for agricultural retailers across Kenya,
Read More
