Fixr believes the future of African tech runs through technicians, not code

For years, conversations about Africa’s technology future have centred on software, apps, platforms, artificial intelligence, and code-driven innovation.

But Fixr, an engineering services company operating across Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, is making a different argument: Africa’s tech future will be shaped as much by technicians in the field as by developers behind screens.

The company’s founders, Ikechi Adolphus and Olamide Akangbe, said the rapid growth of digital infrastructure, from fibre networks and data centres to solar installations and smart buildings, has exposed a structural weakness in Africa’s technology ecosystem: the lack of reliable, scalable engineering execution.

“Software can move fast, but physical systems still need to be installed, maintained and repaired. If engineering services fail, everything built on top of them fails,” Ikechi said in an interview with BusinessDay.

Across Nigeria, engineering services remain largely informal. Technicians operate independently, sourcing components from fragmented markets with little quality control. Customers often face inconsistent service delivery, unpredictable pricing, and weak or non-existent warranties. For businesses, this fragmentation increases downtime, raises costs, and discourages investment in critical infrastructure.

Fixr was created to address that gap. Rather than positioning itself as a simple technician marketplace, the company describes its model as infrastructure-led. It provides end-to-end engineering services across seven core categories, including HVAC, renewable energy, electrical systems, fibre and communications, surveillance, and smart home automation.

A key part of Fixr’s strategy is controlling the elements that traditionally undermine trust in engineering services. The company operates a components marketplace to help track pricing and reduce the circulation of counterfeit parts, works with logistics partners to move equipment reliably, and partners with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to enforce standards and quality assurance.

This approach has been particularly important in the renewable energy space. Through its finance partners, Fixr says close to N5 billion in solar loans have been disbursed to homes and businesses. Fixr provides post-installation support, ensuring systems perform as expected and giving lenders greater confidence in repayment.

For technicians, Fixr offers a model that blends structure with flexibility. Technicians earn through a combination of salaries and commissions, use a dedicated app to manage work, and build verifiable portfolios that document skills and experience. According to the company, this helps reduce the incentive to cut corners or move jobs off-platform, a common problem in informal service markets.

Olamide, who has over a decade of hands-on engineering experience, said the lack of structure in the technician economy has long limited productivity. “Many technicians are skilled, but the ecosystem doesn’t support consistency or growth. Without access to genuine components, predictable work, and clear standards, quality becomes difficult to sustain,” he said.

Fixr currently operates across Nigeria with physical offices in all geopolitical zones and has expanded into Ghana and Kenya. The company says it is increasingly working with businesses that depend on uptime, including internet service providers, facility managers and engineering startups, where delays or poor execution translate directly into financial losses.

As artificial intelligence, data centres and automation reshape global industries, Fixr believes Africa’s competitiveness will depend on whether its physical infrastructure can keep pace.

“Code can be written anywhere, but infrastructure has to be built and maintained on the ground. If Africa wants to benefit from the next wave of technology, it must invest in the people who make those systems work,” Ikechi said.

In Fixr’s view, Africa’s digital future will not be powered by software alone, but by technicians who can reliably turn technology into functioning, real-world systems.

Royal Ibeh is a senior journalist with years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s technology and health sectors. She currently covers the Technology and Health beats for BusinessDay newspaper, where she writes in-depth stories on digital innovation, telecom infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public health policies.

Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date