Lagos, Nigeria, despite being home to five tech unicorns and ranking as Africa's leading startup ecosystem, remains one of the lowest-paying hubs for software developers globally, even within Africa. A recent report from Startup Genome has shed light on the stark wage disparities that tech workers in emerging markets face.
According to the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome, the average annual salary for a software developer in Lagos has fallen to just 7,500-less than one-seventh of the global average of 52,000. This positions Nigeria behind every major African tech ecosystem surveyed, except for Addis Ababa and Accra. In comparison, software developers in Nairobi earn an average of 14,700 per year, while those in Johannesburg-Africa's highest-paying tech city-earn 42,000.
For a nation that has given rise to unicorns like Flutterwave, Andela, Interswitch, OPay, and eTranzact, this figure is striking. It mirrors salary levels in India's Kerala state, where developers make about 6,000 annually, despite India's significantly greater integration in the global tech economy.
Lagos stands at the forefront of startup funding and investor activity in Sub-Saharan Africa, consistently performing well and showcasing impressive talent. However, the city's software developers face a stark contrast in earnings compared to their counterparts in global tech hubs. In Silicon Valley, the average annual salary for a software developer is 156,000. Other global cities also offer significantly higher pay, with New York City at 160,000, London at 78,000, Singapore at 66,000, Paris at 61,000, and Sharjah, UAE at 36,000. In comparison, developers in Lagos earn just 7,500 annually, amounting to only 4.8 of what their Silicon Valley peers make.
This stark discrepancy highlights a paradox at the core of Nigeria's tech growth: while venture capital investments pour into Nigerian startups and billion-dollar valuations capture headlines, the average worker, responsible for building the technology, remains economically marginalized.