How to Choose a Digital Agency in Nigeria: 10 Questions to Ask

We've inherited more projects from failed agency relationships than we can count — half-finished builds, disappeared developers, and clients who paid upfront for work that never shipped. Almost every one of these situations could have been avoided by asking a handful of direct questions before signing anything.

1. Can I see work you've actually shipped — not just mockups?

Portfolio mockups are easy to produce and easy to fake. Ask for live links to sites or apps currently in production, ideally with a client you can contact for a reference.

2. Who specifically will be working on my project?

Many agencies sell you on their senior team during the pitch, then hand execution to junior staff or subcontractors you never meet.

3. What does your process actually look like, week by week?

A vague answer is a warning sign. A credible agency can walk you through discovery, design, build, and launch phases with rough timelines.

4. How do you handle scope changes?

What matters is whether the agency has a clear, pre-agreed process for pricing and timeline impact of changes.

5. Who owns the code and the domain when we're done?

This should be an unambiguous yes: you own everything — source code, domain, hosting accounts, credentials — on project completion.

6. What happens after launch?

Ask specifically what's included post-launch — bug fixes, a support window, ongoing maintenance pricing — and what isn't.

7. What's your payment structure?

Milestone-based payment protects both sides better than either 100% upfront or 100% on completion.

8. Can you show me how you handle a project that's behind schedule?

How they answer this tells you more about how they'll treat you mid-project than almost any other question.

9. Do you build for performance and SEO by default, or is that extra?

Clarify this before signing, not after you notice your new site loads slowly.

10. What's realistic for my budget — not what fits your minimum?

A trustworthy agency will tell you honestly if your budget doesn't match your ambition, and suggest a phased approach instead of quietly cutting corners.

The takeaway

None of these questions are aggressive or unreasonable — a good agency expects and welcomes them. If any of these get a vague, defensive, or evasive answer, treat that as real information before you sign, not after.