How one tweet landed two UI Graduates a Lagos deal, and made their toilet app go viral

How one tweet landed two UI Graduates a Lagos deal, and made their toilet app go viral

But within days, LooPoint had gone from a campus tool to a viral idea—and its founders from relatively unknown graduates to partners in a potential state-backed sanitation project.

The turning point came, unexpectedly, on X.

When Tokunbo Wahab, Lagos State’s Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, posted about the government deploying 1,710 public toilets and called on businesses with public-facing facilities like filling stations, eateries and banks to open up their restrooms to the public, it read like a routine policy update. But in a matter of hours came the reply that would quickly change the trajectory of two young founders.

“It’s not just a matter of constructing toilets, but making them findable,” wrote Adetokunbo Ogunnoiki.

In a short pitch threaded beneath the commissioner’s post, Ogunnoiki introduced LooPoint—a platform designed to help users locate clean and available public toilets in real time, complete with directions, availability status and cleanliness ratings. The idea was simple: Lagos did not just have a sanitation problem; it had an access and visibility problem.

Within hours, that reply had done what countless formal proposals fail to achieve for many startups. Ogunnoiki was invited to formally pitch the idea.

“The Commissioner has asked me to reach out to you to discuss potential collaboration between your tech firm and the Lagos State Government. You are kindly invited to a meeting with the Commissioner this coming week. You will have the opportunity to pitch your ideas to the Commissioner and relevant stakeholders in the Ministry, especially how you aim to provide real-time tech solutions that will ensure seamless public access to the installed public toilets,” the reply from the Special assistant on print media to Governor Sanwo-Olu, Riddwan Ajetunmobi read.

A problem Lagosians can relate with

For many urban residents, the challenge is not always the absence of public toilets, but the uncertainty of finding one when it really matters.

Despite the government’s claim of having over 1,700 facilities across the state, knowing where they are, whether they are open, or even usable could be a daily gamble. That gap between infrastructure and access is where LooPoint sits.

The platform proposes to map existing public toilets across Lagos, including those operated by government and participating private businesses, while providing real-time updates on availability and user-generated cleanliness ratings. It also offers walking directions and estimated time to reach the nearest facility.

For policymakers, it introduces something else: data. It brings in usage patterns, feedback, and maintenance needs, information that is largely invisible today in Nigeria.

What followed Ogunnoiki’s post was unusually swift.

Through a reply coordinated by aides to the Lagos State Government, he was invited to meet with the commissioner. Days later, he walked into the Ministry alongside his co-founder, Ademola Gbadero, to pitch the idea.

According to Wahab, the presentation, delivered in under 30 minutes, was enough to secure immediate approval in principle.

“They have already deployed a similar solution on their university campus with success,” the commissioner said, noting that he had requested a detailed budget for the next phase.

At the centre of the story are two 24-year-olds building from a problem they understood firsthand. Ogunnoiki, a Mathematics graduate of the University of Ibadan, leads the vision behind LooPoint, while Gbadero, a Mechanical Engineering student, brings a complementary technical and systems perspective.

The duo first tested their idea within the university environment, where navigating large campuses and locating basic facilities can be unexpectedly difficult. There, LooPoint found early traction, helping students identify nearby, functional restrooms without guesswork.

What began as a campus solution is now being positioned as a city-scale tool.

While the speed of events—from tweet to meeting to provisional approval—has driven the story’s viral appeal, it also points to a broader shift in how ideas surface and gain traction.

Rather than a formal procurement process or policy paper, a direct response on social media triggered engagement at the highest level of the state’s sanitation leadership.

For the government, the appeal is clear. The initiative aligns with its push to eliminate open defecation while extending the usefulness of existing infrastructure. For the founders, it represents something more significant: validation that a simple, well-timed idea can cut through bureaucracy.

The proposal is still at an early stage, with Lagos state requesting a comprehensive budget and further discussions expected.

But if implemented, LooPoint could transform how Lagosians interact with public sanitation infrastructure, turning a scattered network of facilities into a navigable system, and if it proves its worth in Lagos, it could easily get into other states. For now, the story stands as a reminder that for businesses operating in a complex environment like Nigeria, the solution may not always be to embark on a fundraising round, or sit in hours-long boardroom meetings. Sometimes, the solution starts with a strategy reply on social media. And sometimes, that reply is all it takes.