Commerce-focused digital agency OATS Africa has secured a new milestone after becoming the first Nigerian agency partner of Cloudways, the managed cloud hosting platform used by developers and digital agencies around the world.
The partnership is the latest step in a journey that started as freelance work and gradually grew into a digital agency building tools and infrastructure for online businesses.
From Freelance Beginnings to a Digital Agency
OATS Africa started in 2019 as a freelance operation founded by Olaniyan Abdul-Gafar, who began building websites and online stores while studying at the University of Lagos.
At the time, the goal was simple.
“I really just want to be able to think and build stuff and make a living off the internet.”
Like many young founders in Nigeria, the first focus was survival. Building Shopify stores and helping businesses get online quickly became a way to do that. But as they began to expand and work for more international brands, it became clear that many Nigerian businesses were operating with far less digital infrastructure than companies in other parts of the world.
That realization pushed the team to focus more seriously on commerce and digital systems, not just building websites.
Building Momentum in the Shopify Ecosystem
An early turning point came when OATS Africa began working with school clothing brand SKLD, creators of Skits.ng. The experience exposed the team to a broader side of digital work, from consulting to marketing strategy.
Around the same time, the agency was gaining traction in the Shopify ecosystem. After building more than 100 Shopify stores, OATS Africa began attracting clients beyond Nigeria.
The momentum became clearer when the agency reached a consistent $2,000 in monthly revenue, a small but important signal that the model was working. That progress eventually led to another milestone in 2023, when OATS Africa became Nigeria’s first agency partner of Shopify.
Moving From Services to Products
Despite the growth, the team faced a familiar problem for service businesses: most of the work was project-based.
Once a website was completed, the relationship often ended.
As Gafar explained: “If we got 10 clients this particular month and those paid the bills, we had to find the next 10 clients to pay the bills next month.”
The cycle made the team rethink how the company should grow. Instead of only building products for clients, OATS Africa began creating products of its own.
One of the first was CiDAR Africa, a platform focused on supporting emerging Nigerian music artists. More recently, in 2025 the company launched Tikkets, a ticketing platform that allows event organizers to create, promote, and sell tickets online. These products reflect the agency’s broader approach, building tools that support the wider digital ecosystem.
The Cloudways Partnership
In 2026, OATS Africa added another milestone after becoming Cloudways’ first official agency partner in Nigeria. Cloudways is widely used by developers to deploy and manage websites, especially for platforms like WordPress and other web applications.
For OATS Africa, the partnership strengthens the agency’s ability to launch websites faster and manage more scalable infrastructure for the businesses it works with. It also reinforces the company’s reputation within Nigeria’s growing digital commerce space.
Building Digital Infrastructure in Africa
From freelance beginnings to building products and platforms, OATS Africa’s journey reflects a broader shift happening in Africa’s internet economy. More founders are not only building services for clients but creating tools that support entire ecosystems.
With new partnerships and products on the horizon, OATS Africa continues to focus on the same idea that started the company: building systems that help businesses grow online.
Interested in working with OATS Africa?
Read about the partnership announcement on their website.
Read the full Article on Cloudways
You can connect with Olaniyan Abdul-Gafar on LinkedIn or explore their work through the OATS Africa website.
