We turn market entry into market presence.
Chiconna is a venture expansion firm based in Lagos, Nigeria. We help companies stop planning their move into Africa — and actually make it.
On the ground, not on a call.
Africa doesn’t reward good intentions. It rewards whoever knows which permits actually move, which partners deliver, and which plans survive contact with reality.
That’s where we come in. We’re based in Lagos — not because it reads well on a slide, but because that’s where the work actually happens.
Founded by someone who already knew the terrain.
Chiconna was founded by Nnamdi Ivi, an accomplished business executive with over a decade of hands-on experience navigating complex commercial, regulatory, and operational landscapes across African markets.
Having spearheaded cross-border initiatives, corporate expansions, and strategic ventures across the continent, Nnamdi established Chiconna to eliminate the disconnect between high-level advisory and real-world execution. His expertise spans market intelligence, regulatory navigation, commercial structuring, and local operational scaling — giving international firms the on-the-ground clarity required to de-risk investment and capture market share.
In addition to leading Chiconna, Nnamdi is the founder of All Sports Africa, reflecting a proven track record of building and scaling ventures within high-growth African sectors. His deep regional network — encompassing regulatory bodies, financial institutions, legal counsel, and distribution channels — ensures Chiconna’s clients move seamlessly from strategic roadmap to live, revenue-generating operations.
Make sure your strategy survives contact with the market.
Most market-entry strategy dies in a slide deck. Our job is making sure yours doesn’t — by putting people, capital, and local infrastructure exactly where a plan needs to become an operation.
Every part of standing up a real operation.
Services: Market-Entry Strategy, Regulatory & Compliance, Operational Set-Up, Capital Deployment, Partner & Talent Sourcing, and Ongoing Support — from registration and hiring to the vendor relationships that actually take a business live.
Discover, Structure, Launch, Support.
We focus on inbound engagements — helping companies enter African markets — because that’s where being locally based gives you the clearest edge.
We assess the real opportunity, design the right entity and compliance structure, do the on-the-ground work of registration and hiring, and stay engaged after launch so early issues get solved by people who already know your business. See Our Full Methodology →
No black boxes.
On the ground, not on a call: we’re based in Lagos and work from there — not remotely, not occasionally.
We build the operation, not just the plan: strategy is the easy part. We stay for the part that’s actually hard.
We know what both sides expect: what international partners expect, and what the local market actually requires, aren’t always the same thing. We work both sides.
Clear scope, clear reporting: you’ll always know what’s happening and why.
Thinking about Africa? Let’s talk.
Tell us what you’re building. We’ll tell you what it actually takes to get there.