Across Africa’s growing digital economy, transactions are becoming faster, larger, and increasingly borderless. Diaspora investments are rising. Remote work is expanding. Procurement deals now happen digitally. Freelancers collaborate across continents. Yet despite these advances, one persistent challenge continues to quietly disrupt economic confidence: the inability to independently verify execution.
For many Africans abroad, the problem is painfully familiar.
Money is sent home to finance construction projects, businesses, schools, farms, and family developments, often through years of sacrifice and hard work overseas. But once payments are made, visibility frequently disappears. Contractors provide updates through photos and phone calls. Relatives offer verbal assurances. Projects advance slowly or sometimes not at all.
In some cases, retirement homes funded over decades remain unfinished structures. In others, suppliers fail to deliver after partial payments are made. Disputes emerge, accountability becomes fragmented, and trust erodes.
For Joshua Olatunji, Founder and CEO of Dependly, this execution uncertainty represents one of Africa’s least discussed but most economically damaging infrastructure gaps.
“Financial technology solved payments,” Olatunji explained. “But payments alone do not create trust. The deeper issue is whether obligations can actually be verified independently before money changes hands.”
Founded in Nigeria, Dependly is building what it describes as a “verifiable trust layer” for distributed commerce and remote transactions.
Rather than relying solely on verbal agreements or manual updates, the platform allows users to structure contracts into programmable workflows tied to evidence-backed milestones.
Projects can be divided into stages with clearly defined obligations, assigned approvers, and verification requirements before payments are released. Users can upload geo-stamped photographs, videos, inspection documents, signed approvals, and third-party validations directly into the workflow.
The company says this creates “condition-based financial infrastructure,” where execution becomes measurable and auditable rather than dependent entirely on goodwill.
According to Olatunji, the objective is not simply to hold money temporarily like traditional escrow systems, but to build infrastructure that manages the broader lifecycle of execution itself.
“Trust should not rely entirely on assumptions,” he said. “As commerce becomes more digital and distributed, verification also needs to become structured and programmable.”
The startup’s vision arrives at a significant moment for Africa’s economy.
According to World Bank estimates, Africa received approximately $96.4 billion in remittances in 2024. Research from the International Fund for Agricultural Development suggests around 25% of those funds support savings and investments. In Nigeria, analysts estimate that nearly 30% of remittance inflows are directed toward construction and real estate projects.
Despite these massive inflows, much of the capital still moves through informal systems with limited oversight once payments are transferred.
Industry observers say this lack of visibility discourages larger-scale diaspora investment and weakens confidence in remote project financing.
Dependly believes verification infrastructure can help address that problem by introducing transparent accountability into distributed transactions.
The startup is currently onboarding users across construction, procurement, professional services, and cross-border financing sectors. It is also positioning its APIs for enterprise systems and financial institutions seeking condition-linked payment infrastructure.
Analysts note that the company reflects a broader evolution within African fintech.
The continent’s first wave of fintech companies focused heavily on payment digitization and financial inclusion. A newer generation of infrastructure startups is now attempting to solve deeper institutional problems around enforcement, accountability, and trust verification.
Dependly believes independently verifiable execution may become one of the defining infrastructure needs of Africa’s next digital phase.
As remote collaboration and cross-border investments continue expanding, the company is betting that future commerce will increasingly depend not only on how quickly money moves, but on whether obligations can be transparently proven before capital is released.
And in markets where trust has historically depended more on relationships than systems, that shift could fundamentally reshape the future of African business.
References
World Bank (RemitSCOPE): Africa received $96.4 billion in remittances in 2024.
IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development, 2022): Approximately 25% of these remittances go toward savings and investment.
Business Hallmark / Nairametrics: For the Nigerian case study, around 30% of remittances are allocated to real estate and construction.
Nigeria’s National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) 2015-2043: Focuses on strengthening policy, legal, and institutional frameworks for effective infrastructure development and governance.
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