Bad hostel toilets gave Adetokunbo Ogunnoiki an idea, now Lagos State wants in

When he was a mathematics student at the University of Ibadan, Adetokunbo Ogunnoiki faced an unpleasant problem: the poor state of his hostel toilets. He avoided them altogether, opting instead to use facilities in his department building, a nearby bank, or wherever he could find a reasonable alternative.

Over time, without intending to, he built a mental map of which toilets were open, which ones had water, which ones were clean enough, and at what hours.

“I basically had a mental memory of places that would be open and clean, the times when they would be open,” Ogunnoiki told Technext.“I just thought, why not build something to help people find places that are open and clean? Toilets they might need, public toilets around school and all of that.”

That thought gave rise to LooPoint, a browser-based platform that utilises geo-mapping to help users locate clean, available public toilets in real-time. The app shows cleanliness ratings, walking directions, and estimated arrival times, and it requires no download.

Users can access it by visiting the site on any browser or scanning a QR code, putting it within reach of anyone with a basic smartphone.

Ogunnoiki built both the front end and back end himself, launching the platform in UI in mid-2025. He says the idea had been in his head since at least 2019. Moving to Lagos after graduation reinforced it.

“Where I stay in Lagos, you can hardly find a public toilet at major bus stops or market areas. The toilets are there, but you can hardly find them. And even if you do, they are not as comfortable as you would want,” he said.

The problem Adetokunbo Ogunnoiki wants to solve with LooPoint

Nigeria’s public toilet infrastructure has a visibility problem as much as it has a supply problem. Toilets exist in markets, near bus stops, in commercial areas, but they are poorly signposted, inconsistently maintained, and largely invisible to anyone who does not already know where they are.

For residents, the result is inconvenience. For visitors and foreigners, it is a genuine barrier.

Ogunnoiki also noticed a gap in the global market. Toilet-finder apps exist, but most do not cover Africa in any meaningful way.

“If you check toilet apps on the App Store, those applications do not cover Africa majorly,” he said.“So it really goes beyond showing people toilets, because that way we are gathering a lot of data and covering ground in Nigeria. If you are a foreigner and you come, you can always find a toilet in Nigeria.”

The platform is deliberately designed to be accessible. Rather than building a native mobile app that users would have to download, a barrier that historically reduces adoption, LooPoint works entirely through the browser. A QR code scan is all it takes. “So far you have a smartphone, you can use LooPoint,” Ogunnoiki said, pointing out that even market women in dense areas like Oshodi, Idumota, and Lagos Island increasingly carry basic smartphones capable of running the service.

The defining moment for Adetokunbo

For a while, LooPoint struggled with a question that haunts many utility startups: why would people pay for this? The team considered shutting down at one point, unable to find a clear path to revenue or a compelling enough reason to push beyond the university environment.

Then a post on X changed everything.

After Ogunnoiki shared his idea online, it caught the attention of Tokunbo Wahab, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources in Lagos State, who recently advocated for public toilets to promote a safer, cleaner environment. Wahab invited the team, Ogunnoiki and his startup partner Ademola Gbadero, to his office for a formal presentation, attended by the Special Adviser to the Governor on e-GIS, Dr Olajide Babatunde, and the Director of Sanitation Services, Dr Hassan Sanuth.

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“Meeting with somebody of that calibre and pitching somebody of that calibre, and then them saying, ‘You know what, let’s come to the office and let’s hear more’, was really, really exciting,” Ogunnoiki said. “It just validated everything I had always believed.”

The Commissioner approved the proposal on the spot and requested a comprehensive budget for a follow-up meeting. In his own post on X, Wahab described being “fascinated by the idea and impressed by their depth of work.”

The deal that emerged from that meeting is now LooPoint’s first major commercial contract. The Lagos State Government will work with the startup to map newly provided public toilets across the state, as well as private-facing public institutions, schools, businesses, and government buildings that are willing to make their toilets available to the general public.

The Lagos government also plans to run publicity around LooPoint at launch, helping drive awareness in the dense urban areas where the platform will be most useful.

What is next for LooPoint?

LooPoint does not yet have a confirmed launch date for the general public, though Ogunnoiki says it is coming soon. Beyond Lagos, the team is already looking out for contacts in Oyo State and the FCT, with ambitions to expand the platform to every state in Nigeria.

“LooPoint is not just going to be Lagos-based,” he said. “You can literally go anywhere in Nigeria and be able to find a toilet.”

The business model, previously unclear, has now taken shape through the government partnership. Mapping contracts with state governments and institutions that want their facilities listed and eventually found gives LooPoint a revenue path that does not require charging individual users, preserving the accessibility that makes the platform useful in the first place.

For a startup that began as one student’s workaround for a bad university hostel, the distance it has already travelled is striking. And if the Lagos State Government’s backing translates into genuine public adoption, LooPoint could quietly become one of the more consequential civic tech platforms Nigeria has produced.