African technology companies are using the United Kingdom more for overseas company registration, with some establishing operational teams, securing regulatory licences and building commercial relationships in the market, according to a new report by TLP Advisory.
The report, Home and Away: Tracking African Tech’s Global Footprint, examined 100 technology companies across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana and Morocco to understand how businesses from the continent are building connections with three international markets: the UK, the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Among the companies in the sample with UK affiliations, 84% were incorporated in Britain, while 47% had an operational presence and 19% held regulatory licences. The figures suggest that, for a proportion of African technology businesses, a UK connection extends beyond establishing a legal entity to running parts of the business and obtaining permission to provide regulated services.
The findings also highlight how the three markets serve different purposes in African companies’ international expansion strategies. The US had the broadest reach in the sample, with 67% of the companies maintaining some form of affiliation. However, 81% of US-connected companies had incorporation as their only recorded connection to the country.
The UAE, meanwhile, had a stronger operational focus. Some 87% of companies affiliated with the country maintained an operational presence there, reflecting its role as a commercial base for businesses seeking access to the Middle East and wider regional markets.
The UK’s position sits between these models. While incorporation remains a major part of its appeal, the presence of operational teams and regulatory licences suggests that some African businesses are also using Britain to establish a more direct relationship with customers, financial institutions and other commercial partners.
Why African companies are building UK connections
For technology businesses expanding beyond their home markets, international incorporation, operational expansion and regulatory authorisation are separate decisions. A company may register in another country to accommodate investors or structure a fundraising round without necessarily employing staff, serving customers or conducting regulated activities there.
TLP Advisory’s findings draw attention to that distinction. The report identifies the UK as a market where African companies are combining corporate establishment with a more substantive commercial presence.
Odunoluwa Longe, co-founder and partner at TLP Advisory, said many African technology companies maintained legal structures abroad alongside their operations in their home markets. However, she said the UK often offered more than incorporation.
“What is striking about the UK is how often it comes with more than only incorporation. It comes with licences, teams on the ground and customers,” Longe said.
She encouraged founders to be deliberate about what they wanted to achieve in each international market, arguing that legal structures alone would not guarantee growth without the networks, partnerships and commercial relationships needed to support expansion.
For fintech companies, regulatory access is one reason the UK can be commercially relevant. Operating in financial services often requires businesses to navigate local authorisation requirements and establish relationships with regulated institutions. A UK presence can therefore serve a different purpose from being incorporated in a jurisdiction primarily to accommodate international investors.
The report also points to the UK’s diaspora market as a commercial consideration for African businesses. It cites research showing that 40% of UK residents born in sub-Saharan Africa send money abroad, compared with 27% of all UK residents born overseas. That cross-border activity provides a potential customer base for businesses involved in remittances, payments and other financial services connecting Britain with African markets.
The UK is competing on more than access to capital
Beyond customers and regulation, TLP Advisory identifies investment incentives, immigration pathways, legal familiarity and capital-market infrastructure as factors that can influence an African company’s decision to establish a UK presence.
The report highlights the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), which provide tax relief to eligible investors backing qualifying companies. It also identifies the Global Entrepreneur Programme as a route through which selected international businesses can receive support to establish a UK headquarters or research and development presence, including an endorsement route for the Innovator Founder visa.
For companies seeking longer-term access to capital, the London Stock Exchange and its Alternative Investment Market offer potential routes to public markets. The report argues that London’s role should not be viewed solely through the prospect of an eventual listing but also through its ability to connect businesses with different categories of investors.
Abi Ajayi, head of Middle East and Africa, Primary Markets at the London Stock Exchange, said the market connects companies with specialist emerging-market funds, frontier-market investors, sovereign wealth funds and mainstream institutional investors.
The report features the perspective of Flutterwave chief executive Olugbenga Agboola, who said the company’s commercial roots remained in Africa even as it pursued access to capital, talent and opportunities beyond the continent.
“Africa was always going to be home. It was where we understood the nuance of the problem we set out to solve, where our customers were, and where we believed we could make the greatest difference,” Agboola said. He added that building a business at scale required access to resources beyond Africa.
That approach reflects a multi-jurisdictional model in which companies can maintain their primary customer markets in Africa while using international locations for investment, talent, regulation and commercial expansion.
Incorporation is not the same as building a business
The report’s findings come at a time when African technology companies are navigating a more demanding funding environment and looking beyond their domestic markets for capital, customers and growth opportunities.
However, establishing a foreign company does not automatically translate into a successful international operation. Businesses still need to build local relationships, understand regulatory requirements, secure customers and justify the cost of maintaining a presence abroad.
Hannah Williams, director of Trade and Investment for Africa at the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Science, said the success of international expansion should be measured through the partnerships, jobs, customers and capital generated, rather than the number of companies registering legal entities.
The report also highlights the UK–Nigeria Tech Hub and its role in helping companies build connections with the British market. It was supported by the Collaborative Impact Fund, administered by the UK–Nigeria Tech Hub under the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Digital Access Programme.
For African founders considering Britain, the findings point to a more practical question than whether to register a UK company: what business objective will that presence serve, and what will it enable the company to do that it could not do from its home market?
