The hum of delivery motorcycles and the rumble of distribution buses were once the heartbeat of Alerzo’s ambitious mission. Today, those engines are being silenced by the weight of a ₦4.38 billion debt. The viral videos of dusty, branded assets lined up for sale in Ibadan are more than just a visual of corporate distress; they are a metaphor for a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s tech evolution. It is a moment that demands we look beyond the balance sheets to reflect on the human decisions, the structural vulnerabilities, and the sobering lessons for a new generation of founders.
To understand the weight of this moment, one must return to the origin story. Adewale Opaleye founded Alerzo in 2019 with a deeply personal and relatable mission. Having witnessed his single mother struggle to run two informal retail shops in Ibadan, he returned from China with a vision to build the infrastructure that could empower women like her . Alerzo was supposed to be the "good guy" in a fragmented narrative, the tech platform that brought efficiency, fair pricing, and dignity to the "Mama Put" and the corner shop owner. At its peak, serving over 80,000 retailers, it was a beacon of hope for formalizing the informal.
This makes the current situation particularly tragic. Opaleye is not a distant, profit-hungry corporatist; he is a son trying to fix his mother’s world. Yet, good intentions do not immunize a business against the laws of physics - or finance. The vision of building a logistics empire to serve the underserved required a heavy capital expenditure model that became an albatross.
The founder’s recent defense, that the company is merely selling "scrap" and "faulty vehicles" and still operates 400 trucks feels less like a denial and more like a desperate attempt to steady the ship amidst a storm. It highlights a founder’s instinct to protect his legacy and his team, even as a Federal High Court Mareva injunction has frozen his assets and a ₦5 billion loan has come due. The paradox is stark: the very infrastructure he built to liberate retailers is now being repossessed to pay the price of that ambition.
Alerzo’s struggles are not an isolated incident; they are the latest verse in a sorrowful song that the Nigerian logistics and B2B sector has been singing for a while. The most haunting parallel is Kobo360. Once hailed as the "Uber of trucks", Kobo360 grew at a breakneck pace, raising millions to connect truckers with cargo. But the model was brutal: they had to pay drivers upfront while waiting 30 to 90 days for corporate clients to pay. When a credit line was cut, the dominoes fell. By 2025, investors had sold their equity back to founder Obi Ozor, who had to return from a government role to shoulder a debt of approximately ₦10 billion in a last-ditch effort to salvage the company.
The graveyard is growing. There is 54gene, a health-tech unicorn-in-the-making that collapsed under the weight of mismanagement and failed restructuring. There is Thepeer, a fintech darling that couldn't find product-market fit and shut down despite raising millions. And beyond the shutdowns, others like Sendy have pivoted or perished.
What connects these stories - from Alerzo to Kobo360, is the peril of the asset-heavy, low-margin model in a volatile macroeconomic environment. These companies built "the machine" (logistics, inventory, trucks) using capital that expected "the vision" (growth at all costs). They optimized for scale in a market that ultimately demanded survival.
To truly reflect on Alerzo’s fate, we must look at the ecosystem’s changing tides. The company took this ₦5 billion loan from Moniepoint in January 2025. By then, the music had already stopped. The great venture capital party of 2021, where African startups raised over $5 billion was over .
In the first half of 2025, Nigerian startups raised a meager $176 million, a fraction of previous years. Equity dried up. In its place, debt became the "lifeline". Reports from BusinessDay and The Guardian highlight that by mid-2025, debt financing had surged by 55%, with experts touting it as a tool for "long-term growth". Founders like Seyi Ebenezer of Payaza became case studies, having built a business on discipline-enforcing debt rather than "dumb money" .
Alerzo’s move to secure a working capital loan in early 2025 was, therefore, a reflection of the times. It was a smart move in a market starved of equity. But herein lies the critical lesson echoed in every finance roundtable: Debt enforces discipline; it does not forgive a lack of it. As one expert noted, interest runs every day - even on weekends. When you take debt to fuel an asset-heavy machine, you are betting against volatility. In 2025, Nigeria’s volatility (inflation, naira instability, fuel costs) was a house that always won.
So, what does the sight of Alerzo’s repossessed fleet teach the next generation of founders? It offers three profound reflections for the future of Nigerian startups.
1. The Fallacy of "Growth at All Costs" in a Frontier Market Alerzo’s story is a stark warning against importing business models designed for stable, capital-rich environments. The model of holding inventory, owning a logistics fleet, and paying drivers in a country where currency devaluation can wipe out your margins overnight requires a level of capitalization that venture debt cannot sustain. Future startups must scrutinize their "unit economics" with religious fervor. If your business requires owning physical assets, you must have a war chest deep enough to survive six months of zero revenue, because with exchange rates and fuel prices, that "black swan" event is actually just a regular Tuesday in Nigeria.
2. Governance and the "Singapore" Question One of the more complex details in the court filings is that the guarantors included "Alerzo PTE Limited," a Singapore-based entity, and individuals who were reportedly difficult to serve papers to. This reflects a common practice of dual incorporation for investment purposes. However, it introduces a layer of complexity when things go wrong. The future of Nigerian startups will require radical transparency and governance hygiene. Investors and lenders are now prioritizing corporate governance - board structure, audit quality, and transparent financials as much as they prioritize revenue. You cannot hide a struggling balance sheet behind a foreign holding company; the debt will always find you.
3. The Human Cost and the Founder's Resolve Finally, we must reflect on the founders themselves. Adewale Opaleye built something from the ground up. He gave jobs to hundreds of young Nigerians. He served thousands of retailers. Even now, he is fighting to clarify the narrative, insisting the company is still operational . This resilience is the hallmark of the Nigerian founder. But the burnout and emotional toll are immense.
The story of Obi Ozor returning to Kobo360 to clean up the mess is a testament to the fact that for these founders, the company is not just an exit strategy; it is their life's work . For future founders, the implication is clear: you must separate your identity from your company's balance sheet. You must build a business that can survive without your constant emotional CPR.
In conclusion, the liquidation of Alerzo’s fleet is not an epitaph for the company, not yet. Opaleye insists there are still 400 vehicles running, and a fight remains. But it is a significant chapter in the story of Nigeria's tech maturity.
It marks the end of the era of easy money and the beginning of the era of endurance. The startups that will survive will not be those with the flashiest apps or the most press releases, but those with the most disciplined finance teams, the leanest operations, and the humility to learn from the silent trucks in Ibadan. Alerzo’s mission was noble: to empower the informal retailer. Now, the greatest lesson it offers is to the formal innovators: Vision builds the company, but only discipline and viable economics keep it from the auction block.