ALONG THE HALF-FINISHED asphalt of the Ibeju Lekki Epe Expressway out of Lagos, flanked by marshland, unmarked farms, and rows of fledgling developments, there is an invisible point after which some of Nigeria’s laws suddenly no longer apply. In 2009, the Lagos state government declared a 150-square-kilometer patch of land along the Gulf of Guinea coast “the Lekki Free Zone,” offering tax holidays and other perks for companies who set up there.

“The moment you are inside the zone, you are outside of the Nigerian state,” says Omolade Adunbi, professor of Afro-American and African studies at the University of Michigan and author of Enclaves of Exception: Special Economic Zones and Extractive Practices in Nigeria. The rationale for the zone was simple: entice international businesses to establish a thriving industrial hub, and watch the newly created capital flow outward to the rest of the economy. ​​

So far, the projects in the free zone have been industrial, with an oil refinery, garment factories, and other manufacturing facilities looming over the scrubland. But a new project has its ambitions first and foremost in the cloud: a virtual startup city that will transform into a physical one when it lays its first bricks later this year.

Spearheaded by one of Nigeria’s most successful tech entrepreneurs, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, and real estate entrepreneur Luqman Edu, Itana is an aspiring tech hub that promises to host Nigeria’s internet workers and help nurture a new generation of tech unicorns. Taking advantage of the Lekki Free Zone’s preexisting tax breaks to appeal to itinerant entrepreneurs, the founders envision the completed city as somewhere between the glittering spires of Dubai and Delaware, the small US state that is the registered home of more than 1.5 million companies from all over the world.