Nigeria has over 40 million active social media users, most of whom rely on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, and X (formerly Twitter) for everything from business promotion to entertainment and advocacy.
While these platforms have become integral to digital life, many users have also expressed growing concerns around visibility restrictions, and sudden content takedowns.
This frustration peaked in 2021 when the Nigerian government banned Twitter for several months, forcing millions of users to rely on VPNs just to access the platform.
Two years after this, Nigerian founder Stanley Njoku decided to do something about what he described as digital censorship in real time.
“What I noticed was a pattern of people being restricted, shadowbanned, or silenced for expressing ideas that weren’t harmful, just unpopular,” he told Naijaonpoint.
“The platforms were moderating people out of conversations, and doing it quietly.”
Njoku’s experience, combined with his academic research into consumer algorithms at Swansea University, shaped what would become his next venture: Peakcocks, a new social media platform built around freedom of expression.
Before Peakcocks, Njoku had already tested the waters of Nigeria’s startup space. A Computer Science graduate with a Master’s in Marketing and an MBA in Business Administration, his early years were spent climbing the corporate ladder working at SABMiller, AB InBev, and later as a regional manager for International Breweries.
In 2010, he founded Workplus Consult Ltd, his business consultancy. But it was in 2020, after leaving corporate life, that he went all in and founded CourierHub Nigeria a tech-enabled logistics startup aimed at solving last-mile delivery across Nigeria’s 774 local governments.
CourierHub tried to do what GIG and GUO had already proven was possible: deliver quickly and efficiently using tech. The platform signed deals with DHL, UPS, and Speedaf and operated for nearly two years without a single external investor.
But keeping the business alive became harder each month.
“We were solving the right problem, but the environment was wrong,” Njoku said. “Despite our achievements, challenges like infrastructural limitations, an unregulated market with aggressive price undercutting, and inconsistent government policies made it hard to stay sustainable.”
By late 2022, with losses estimated at over N220 million and no funding breakthrough, Njoku called time on the startup. “It was one of the hardest decisions of my career, but it taught me patience and long-term thinking.”
After stepping back, Njoku began to reflect not just on logistics or funding gaps, but on how Nigerians (and Africans more broadly) were being shaped online by platforms they had no control over.
“When I first envisioned Peakcocks, I wasn’t just thinking of another social media platform,” he said. “I was thinking about creating something that lets Africans express themselves authentically and build communities on their own terms not under someone else’s rules.”
His research and beliefs are backed by data: Africa’s population is over 1.5 billion, and more than 60% of that population is under 25. In Nigeria, over 107 million people are online and that number is expected to keep growing with increasing mobile access and cheaper internet.
His research and beliefs are backed by data: Africa’s population is over 1.5 billion, and more than 60% of that population is under 25. In Nigeria, over 107 million people are online and that number is expected to keep growing with increasing mobile access and cheaper internet.
“This is Africa’s digital moment,” Njoku said. “But we’re using tools built in California and China to tell African stories. It’s time we built platforms that reflect our own cultures, realities, and voices.”
Launched in June 2025, Peakcocks is a social platform with a twist. Users can post publicly or anonymously. They can form interest-based communities. The app comes with the usual social features: timelines, messaging, and reactions, but the selling point is its promise of no shadowbanning, no silent censorship, and no algorithmic silencing.
“Sometimes the most important thing someone needs to say is something they can’t attach their name to,” Njoku said. “We’re not trying to replace Instagram or Twitter. We’re building a safe space where people can speak freely without fear.”
Peakcocks is available on both Android and iOS and is still in its early rollout phase. Njoku admits it’s a long game, but one worth playing.
According to Njoku, Africa is not behind in the tech race. In fact, it’s positioned to lead.
“By 2030, Africa will account for over 40% of the world’s youth. Over 500 million more Africans will come online in the next five years,” he said. “If we don’t build now, we’ll be shaped by tools that were never made with us in mind.”
While global platforms grow more rigid, Njoku hopes Peakcocks becomes the opposite, a home for unfiltered stories, hard truths, and community expression where people can be loud and bold, openly or privately.