As Africa’s digital economy continues to expand rapidly, one invisible challenge continues to quietly undermine business confidence across the continent: execution uncertainty.
Across industries ranging from construction and procurement to freelancing, agriculture, and cross-border investments, billions of dollars move annually between parties operating largely on trust, verbal commitments, screenshots, and assumptions. Yet when projects fail, milestones remain incomplete, or obligations go unfulfilled, accountability is often fragmented, informal, or entirely absent.
For Nigerian entrepreneur Joshua Olatunji, Founder and CEO of Dependly, this growing trust deficit represents one of the most overlooked structural barriers limiting economic confidence across emerging markets.
“Money already moves digitally,” Olatunji explained. “But verification remains broken. People can transfer funds instantly from anywhere in the world, yet they still struggle to independently confirm whether obligations were actually fulfilled before payments are released.”
Founded in Nigeria, Dependly is building what it describes as a “verifiable trust layer” for digital and cross-border transactions — infrastructure designed to connect capital disbursement directly to independently validated execution milestones.
At the center of the company’s model is a simple but powerful idea: trust should not depend solely on relationships or promises, but on measurable and verifiable delivery.
Rather than functioning merely as an escrow platform, Dependly transforms agreements into structured programmable workflows. Users can divide projects into milestones, assign approvers, define conditions for release, and require evidence such as geo-stamped images, videos, inspection reports, documents, or third-party verification before payments are automatically disbursed.
The company says this approach creates what it calls “condition-based financial infrastructure,” where execution becomes auditable, transparent, and enforceable through technology.
The implications are particularly significant for Africa’s diaspora economy.
According to World Bank remittance data, Africa received approximately $96.4 billion in remittances in 2024. Studies from the International Fund for Agricultural Development estimate that nearly 25% of those inflows are directed toward savings and investments. In countries like Nigeria, analysts estimate that roughly 30% of remittances are tied to real estate development and construction-related projects.
Yet despite these massive inflows, many diaspora-funded projects still operate through informal trust structures that provide little visibility once funds leave the sender’s account.
For decades, many Africans abroad have financed homes, farms, businesses, educational projects, and retirement developments from thousands of miles away, relying heavily on personal relationships and verbal updates. In many cases, families only discover years later that projects remain abandoned, underdeveloped, or significantly different from what was originally promised.
Industry observers believe this persistent lack of verifiable oversight continues to discourage deeper diaspora investment into long-term African projects.
Dependly believes infrastructure-driven verification can help close that confidence gap.
By linking payments directly to verified milestones and evidence-backed approvals, the startup aims to reduce disputes, strengthen accountability, and create clearer execution standards across distributed transactions.
The company is currently onboarding users across sectors including construction, procurement, professional services, and remote project financing. It is also positioning its APIs for integration into financial institutions, enterprise systems, and fintech platforms seeking programmable payment workflows tied to verified execution.
Analysts say Dependly reflects a broader shift currently taking place across African fintech.
The continent’s earlier fintech wave focused heavily on digitizing payments and expanding financial inclusion. A newer generation of infrastructure startups is now attempting to solve a more complex challenge: creating enforceable trust systems for distributed digital commerce.
For Olatunji, that evolution represents the next stage of Africa’s economic digitization.
“Historically, many transactions have relied on assumptions and goodwill,” he said. “But the future of digital commerce requires systems where trust itself becomes measurable, auditable, and programmable.”
That vision arrives at a critical moment for Africa’s economy.
Remote work, cross-border freelancing, digital procurement, diaspora-led development, and globally distributed projects are becoming increasingly central to commercial activity across the continent. As these systems scale, the ability to independently verify execution may become just as important as the movement of money itself.
Dependly is betting that the future of financial infrastructure will not be defined solely by payment speed, but by whether capital can be released only after obligations are transparently verified.
And in markets where trust has historically functioned as a social expectation rather than a technological standard, that shift could fundamentally reshape the architecture of African commerce itself.
References
World Bank (RemitSCOPE): Africa received $96.4 billion in remittances in 2024.
IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development, 2022): Approximately 25% of these remittances go toward savings and investment.
Business Hallmark / Nairametrics: For the Nigerian case study, around 30% of remittances are allocated to real estate and construction.
Nigeria’s National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) 2015-2043: Focuses on strengthening policy, legal, and institutional frameworks for effective infrastructure development and governance.
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