When the Lagos State government banned motorcycles in 2020, it didn’t just disrupt movement. Companies like Gokada, ORide, and Max, were forced to either shut down or pivot in real time. Some succeeded in pivoting, others died.
That real-world friction is at the heart of Freedom Way, one of a handful of Nollywood dramas that mirror the Nigerian startup experience in film.
Premiered in Nigeria on July 17, 2025 at Filmhouse Cinemas IMAX Lekki, Freedom Way follows two startup founders, Themba (South African) and Tayo (Nigerian), as they launch and run a bike-hailing platform called EasyGo.
EazyGo is off to a good start, that is until the fictional government enforces a similar ban like Lagos’. Riders scatter. Investors panic. And in the blink of an eye, the founders’ startup dream turns into a Lagos nightmare.
Directed by Afolabi Olalekan and written/produced by Blessing Uzzi, the film transforms policy headlines into character-driven tension. It won the Special Jury Prize at AFRIFF 2024 and took home Best Movie and Best Writing at the 2025 AMVCA for its grounded storytelling.
It is safe to say, then, that the most celebrated Nollywood film in the past year is a film about tech bros.
The “tech bro” stereotype
“Tech is the new oil money,” says Officer Ajayi (played chillingly by Femi Jacobs), a police officer who harasses the founders, demanding bribes after spotting laptops in their car during an illegitimate stop and search. The tech industry has indeed surpassed the oil sector in its GDP contribution in the past, but the daily experiences of many of its stakeholders have failed to catch up to its new status a strong driver of the economy: founders are constantly profiled and extorted by Nigerian security forces, and governments’ sluggish policy direction don’t always align with the big-funding headlines and vibrant ecosystem.
While these conditions are common across many African countries, perhaps more are affected than most. In one early scene, South African Themba’s wide-eyed optimism is tempered by Tayo’s more cautious disposition, a product of a country he know too well.
Evolve or die
When the EazyGo founders face the fallout of the ban, they do what Nigerian startups often must: pivot. “Evolve or die,” is how Themba puts it.
Themba and Tayo shift from a ride-hailing platform to a boat-based dispatch model. It’s a fictional mirror of real-world adaptations. Gokada, after the okada ban, pivoted to logistics and delivery services, and eventually launched GBoats, a waterway transport pilot. MAX.ng, on the other hand, diversified into electric vehicles and B2B logistics. These pivots were survival strategies against the harsh realities of running a startup in a market like Lagos.
That the film captures this tension so elegantly is part of its brilliance. It doesn’t romanticise being a tech founder rather it reveals the real and difficult work beneath the fundraising and expansion headlines.
The Lagos of it all
Freedom Way’s visual language is equally deliberate. Aerial drone shots show masses of okada riders swarming and scattering, chased by police, a humanised view of policy’s impact in Lagos and Nigeria at large.
Lagos, sometimes called “Africa’s silicon valley”, is a major hub of tech startups in Africa and is home to five unicorns: Interswitch, Flutterwave, Jumia, Opay, and Moniepoint. Still, the city is not immune to the forces that stifle innovation or make it incredibly difficult to sustain.
The film’s emotional strengths are revealed, however, not in the day to day of tech startup operations but the other external forces that impact it directly and indirectly: a stop and search gone wrong; a decision to help a bleeding woman punished by the state.
Why this matters for Nigeria’s tech ecosystem
What Freedom Way does is insert startup culture into Nigeria’s film and cultural canon. The film answers the question: What does it take to build something in an ecosystem wired against you? It follows in the path of Hollywood’s attempts to chronicle the tech zeitgeist of America in films like The Social Network and The Dropout. For Nollywood, films like Freedom Way are long overdue.
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