Nigeria’s Approovia takes aim at Microsoft and Oracle with locally built no-code AI stack

Approovia, a Nigerian software startup, is positioning itself as a challenger to global giants like Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce with the launch of its Workspace Manager, a no-code AI platform where third-party software developers can design, build, and deploy enterprise-grade software applications.

The platform, unveiled on Wednesday at GITEX Nigeria in Lagos, offers businesses a toolkit to digitise and automate processes without relying on expensive consultants or proprietary foreign licences. With Workspace Manager, organisations can build digital forms, design workflows, manage signatures, and integrate memos and approvals. The platform also includes a retrieval-augmented AI search engine, allowing users to query their organisational data in natural language.

“We cut out the consultants using AI and no-code tools so that you become your own consultant,” said Stephen Onerhime, Approovia’s founder and CEO. “This is about giving organizations visibility and control over every process, with instant access to information when they need it.”

A homegrown answer to global players

The Workspace Manager is only a first step toward Approovia’s larger ambition: creating a general-purpose, no-code AI platform that can rival offerings from global enterprise software firms. Companies such as Microsoft and Oracle currently dominate the market for workflow automation, enterprise resource planning, and digital transformation tools. However, their solutions often come with steep licencing fees and foreign currency costs that weigh heavily on African businesses.

Approovia’s competitive edge lies in its independence from global cloud providers and licensing agreements. Built entirely in-house, its intellectual property is owned locally. The company also boasts cost efficiencies, hosting workloads for under $100 per month, compared to about $1000 that many startups spend on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

This approach, the founder argues, not only reduces costs but also keeps value creation within Africa. “When I put equivalent solutions in the market, I can sell them cheaper, and all the money stays here,” Onerhime said.

From early frugality to global ambition

Approovia’s story stretches back to 2015, when its founder, then working with a government agency, built his first no-code solution to address internal workflow challenges. That innovation—called Visualize It—laid the groundwork for what would become Approovia.

After setbacks with government adoption, the entrepreneur revisited the idea in 2019, inspired by the rise of no-code platforms abroad. By 2021, the company had begun refining its technology stack, focusing on building tools entirely from scratch rather than relying on foreign frameworks.

The journey has been long and frugal. Over four years, Approovia has raised an undisclosed amount mostly from friends, family, and a few corporate investors. Much of that, the founder admits, went into trial and error with the wrong talent before the company found its footing. “Half of the money was spent on learning,” said Onerhime.

The company says it relies on a proprietary development methodology it calls the Approovia Design Studio, which blends engineering rigour with AI to produce reliable enterprise-grade software. The next phase involves developing AI that can automatically generate code from structured specifications..

A platform for all sectors

Approovia’s Workspace Manager is sector-agnostic, with potential use cases across law firms, hospitals, construction companies, and federal agencies. Early interest has already come from organizations spanning multiple industries, reflecting the platform’s flexibility.

The company aims to empower large and small businesses to digitise operations quickly. Onerhime claims a small organisation could be fully onboarded in a week, while a large enterprise could transform in under a month, depending on process complexity.

Rather than building point solutions for fintech, healthcare, or agriculture, Approovia is betting on being the underlying platform that others use to build tailored solutions. “We’re democratising big, complex enterprise solution-building,” Onerhime explained. “Anyone can do it by prompting.”

Looking beyond Nigeria

While Approovia’s roots are firmly in Nigeria, its ambitions are global. The company sees itself as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for enterprise software, building alternatives to SAP, Salesforce, and other incumbents. Africa’s $180 billion digital economy offers fertile ground, with thousands of medium-to-large organizations in need of affordable and customizable digital transformation tools. But Approovia’s founder is clear: the target market is the world.

“This is not about Nigeria,” Onerhime said. “The opportunity is large enough globally. These things we’re building will change how enterprise software is made and deployed.”

The company is planning to raise funding for its next stage of growth and betting that its combination of frugality, deep technical knowledge, and independence from foreign software ecosystems will allow it to compete in the global enterprise software race.

“As we build out our distribution network within Nigeria, we are making plans for expansion into Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and other viable markets,” said Onerhime.

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