Nigeria’s city of Lagos is now ranked as Africa’s best city for startups after it overtook Nairobi in the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021.

Lagos is ranked at position  122nd after switching places with Nairobi, Kenya, which now ranks 136.

At the regional level; Lagos ranks position 5 and Nairobi 6 in the list of top 20 cities in the Middle East & Africa region, behind Telaviv, Jerusalem, Dubai and Haifa.

“With a massive consumer market and more than 500 active startups, Nigeria is one of the largest startup ecosystems in Africa,” the report says.

Lagos has also ranked in the global top 50 cities for E-commerce & Retail Technology and in the global top 100 for both Transportation Technology and Education Technology.

Other than Nairobi, Mombasa is the only city in Kenya that was ranked top in the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021

The Middle East & Africa region has a total of 74 startup ecosystems represented in the global top 1000 cities ranking, spread across 22 nations in the global top 100.

South Africa increased four spots to be ranked 48th globally, making it the first African country to feature in the top 50 since the inception of the Global Startup Ecosystem Index.

Globally, the Top 10 cities with the best ecosystem for startups is;

1. San Francisco Bay
2. New York
3. Beijing
4. Los Angeles Area
5. London
6. Boston Area
7. Shanghai
8. Tel Aviv Area
9. Moscow
10. Bangalore

“A great startup ecosystem will expand your network, improve your ability to tap into valuable and updated knowledge, facilitate meetings with cofounders and team members, introduce you to potential investors, and above all inspire and motivate you with daily connections to like-minded entrepreneurs,” StartupBlink CEO.

The StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index is used annually by hundreds of thousands of startup founders, startup ecosystem developers, corporations, and other stakeholders to support critical decisions about strategy, relocation, and investment. StartupBlink is using the index and its vast data sets in various analyses and policy advising projects related to startup ecosystem development for dozens of governments and international organizations.

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