The Cavemen's cover of Redemption Song floated above the newly renovated National Theatre on the evening of Tuesday, October 27, as guests gathered for the opening mixer of Moonshot by TechCabal 2026. The venue, now rechristened the Wole Soyinka Centre for Arts and Culture, had sat neglected for years before the Bankers' Committee, led by the Central Bank, committed 68 billion naira (58 million dollars) to restore it. Against that backdrop, a song drawn partly from the words of Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, asking listeners to imagine freedom and claim responsibility for it, felt like more than entertainment.
Big Cabal Media chief executive Tomiwa Aladekomo set the tone in his opening remarks. "Our ecosystem is learning again what ambition costs," he told the room. The conference theme, "Courage and Conviction," had found a physical home in a building whose own resurrection required exactly that.
Over two days, that spirit moved through the crowds browsing exhibitor stands, watching stage discussions, and pitching ideas in corridors. The young people were hard to miss. In a country as youthful as Nigeria, their presence made sense, but what stood out was how many of them were arriving with specific, locally rooted problems already in mind and products already in hand.
One moment captured the mood quietly. After an interview with Flutterwave chief executive Olugbenga Agboola, Opeyemi Kareem, one of the youngest members of the TechCabal newsroom, walked alongside him through the busy venue. Nothing dramatic happened. That was the point. At Moonshot, the gap between an ambitious young person and some of the continent's most influential tech leaders kept shrinking to the width of a corridor.
Originally published by TechCabal.