How to choose a tech partner in Nigeria (and avoid the ones who disappear)

Ask business owners in Abuja or Lagos about their last website or app project and you will hear a familiar story. The developer was responsive at the start. The deposit was paid. Then the updates slowed down, the deadline moved twice, and one day the phone stopped being answered. The business was left with half a product, no access to the code, and a domain registered in someone else's name.

That story is avoidable. Most software projects that fail were lost at the selection stage, long before anyone wrote code. Choosing the right tech partner is the single most important technical decision a non-technical founder makes. Here is how to make it well.

The real problem is not price

It is tempting to treat software like a commodity and pick the cheapest quote. But the cheapest quote is often cheap because something is missing: no design phase, no testing, no documentation, no plan for hosting or support. You pay for those gaps later, usually at a worse time.

The real question is not who is cheapest. It is who can show you, in plain language, exactly what you are getting, when you are getting it, and what happens when something goes wrong.

Look for proof you can click

Anyone can make a portfolio slide. Ask for live work you can open on your own phone.

• Ask for links to products that are live today, not screenshots
• Ask what role they played: design, build, hosting, ongoing management, or all of it
• Ask whether they still maintain it, and who to call if it breaks
• Open the site on a mid-range Android phone on mobile data, because that is what many of your customers will use

A partner who still runs and maintains what they built is far more valuable than one who hands over a zip file and vanishes.

Questions to ask before you sign

A serious partner will be comfortable with all of these:

• Who owns the code, the domain and the hosting accounts when the project is done?
• What exactly is in scope, and what is a change request?
• How will I see progress, and how often?
• What happens after launch? Is there a support or maintenance plan, and what does it cost?
• Who on your team will actually do the work?
• How do you handle security, backups and updates?
• Can you explain your plan to me without jargon?

The last question matters more than it sounds. If they cannot explain it to you, they probably have not thought it through.

Red flags worth walking away from

• A fixed price given in minutes, before they understand your business
• No written scope, or a scope that is one paragraph long
• Pressure to pay everything upfront
• Accounts, domains and hosting registered in their name with no plan to transfer them
• No answer to what happens after launch
• A promise that everything is easy and nothing will change

What a good proposal looks like

A good proposal reads like a plan, not a sales pitch. It should include:

• A summary of your problem in their own words, so you can see they listened
• A clear scope: what is included and what is not
• Milestones, with something you can see and test at each one
• A payment schedule tied to those milestones
• Hosting, domain, maintenance and support costs, stated separately
• Who owns what at the end

If a proposal is silent on any of these, ask. The answer will tell you a lot.

Think beyond the build

Software is not a one-off purchase. Once it is live, it needs hosting, updates, security fixes, small improvements and, usually, marketing to bring people to it. Many businesses end up juggling a developer, a designer, a social media manager and an IT person who have never spoken to each other.

When you choose a partner, ask whether they can support you through the next stage, or at least work smoothly with the people who will. Fewer handovers means fewer gaps.

What we look like as a tech partner

Seven Hundred Percent is a registered Nigerian company, 7HUNDRED PERCENT LTD, RC 7361698, based in Abuja and serving clients in Nigeria and across the diaspora. Our software team, Teamdioski, builds websites, web and mobile apps, AI tools and custom systems, and every project starts with discovery and an agreed scope before a line of code is written.

We sell what we operate. Italewa, our event-photo platform at italewa.com, is built and run by the same team that builds for clients. We also build and manage the website and systems for our partner Ephesians 2:8 Travels at ephesianstwoeighttravels.com, a visa consultation and travel business. Both are live, and both are maintained by us, which is the kind of proof we think you should ask any partner for.

Because we are a group, the same table that builds your product can also run your marketing, produce your content and train your team, so you are not stitching together strangers.

If you are weighing up partners, start with a conversation. Book a discovery call, tell us what you are trying to build, and we will tell you honestly what it takes, including when you do not need us.