By Dr. Femi Akinkuebi
In the global rush toward digitisation, it is tempting, almost inevitable to embrace the seductive notion that technology is the miracle Nigeria needs to escape its economic malaise. From blockchain-based land registries to AI-driven healthcare bots, from digital currencies to virtual classrooms, we are inundated daily with headlines promising technological salvation. But this narrative, however appealing, is fundamentally flawed.
Technology is not the foundation. It is the enabler.
This distinction is not semantic; it is existential. For developing nations like Nigeria, confusing technology for foundational development is a dangerous delusion, one that distracts from the real, brick-and-mortar work that underpins sustainable national progress.
Let’s be brutally honest: technology cannot replace what does not exist. You cannot automate non-production. You cannot digitalise dysfunction. You cannot deploy artificial intelligence where natural intelligence manifested in sound policies, competent institutions, and reliable infrastructure is absent.
We do not need another ride-hailing app if our roads remain impassable, darkened by dead streetlights and cratered by decades of neglect. We do not need another AI-powered edtech platform if over 10 million Nigerian children remain out of school and thousands more study under collapsing classroom roofs. What is the value of a drone-delivered prescription in a village with no primary healthcare centre?
We must stop mistaking digital cleverness for development.
Consider this: The United States, Germany, China, today’s industrial and technological powerhouses did not begin their ascent by writing code. They built steel plants, constructed railroads, electrified rural communities, and manufactured goods at scale. Software came only after hardware after factories, power plants, and functional governance structures were in place. Their digital revolutions were built atop solid industrial foundations. They produced before they digitised.
In contrast, what we see today in Nigeria is a leapfrogging fantasy a widespread desire to bypass the messy, expensive, slow work of industrialisation and jump straight into a Silicon Valley utopia. But you cannot leapfrog gravity. You cannot skip the foundational stages of development and expect long-term prosperity.
Let’s be clear:
Technology will not build roads where no gravel has been laid.
It won’t purify water where pipes do not exist.
It cannot scale businesses that operate in policy vacuums and under crushing costs.
No amount of innovation can compensate for the absence of basic state capacity. When electricity supply remains epileptic and logistics chains broken, even the most brilliant tech ideas become impotent.
We must ask ourselves tough questions:
Why does Nigeria import toothpicks, pencils, and petroleum products despite having forests, graphite, and crude oil?
Why does it take longer to move goods from Kano to Lagos than from Shanghai to Johannesburg?
Why do we celebrate fintech unicorns when less than 30% of Nigerians have access to reliable banking infrastructure, and over 40% still live below the poverty line?
Technology cannot solve what policy refuses to address.
If we are serious about national transformation, we must return to the roots of economic productivity:
Agriculture that moves beyond subsistence to industrial-scale output fed by irrigation systems, fertiliser plants, agro-processing hubs, and rural access roads.
Manufacturing that creates value chains from raw materials to finished goods, offering employment, skills, and foreign exchange stability.
Infrastructure that connects people to opportunities power grids, functional railways, broadband access, and efficient ports.
Education that produces a workforce equipped not just to consume technology but to build, own, and export it.
This is not a rejection of technology. Far from it. Technology is indispensable. But it is only as effective as the environment into which it is deployed. A nation that has not built physical infrastructure cannot expect digital infrastructure to thrive in its place. You can’t run 5G on a failing electricity grid. You can’t process data at scale where internet penetration remains poor and digital literacy is limited.
More importantly, we must rethink our investment logic. Today, billions are poured into hackathons, pitch competitions, and tech accelerators—while our refineries lie dormant, teachers strike over unpaid wages, and local SMEs battle survival. This is a misalignment of priorities.
We must channel resources into what builds the base:
Capital for agricultural cooperatives and small-scale farmers.
Support for indigenous manufacturers battling import-dominated markets.
Incentives for energy projects, rural electrification, and transport upgrades.
Vocational and technical training that feeds real-sector industries, not just the gig economy.
This is how nations are built not with trending apps, but with tangible, productive assets that power real value creation.
Indeed, the future is digital. But that digital future will be deferred and eventually denied, if we do not confront our physical and institutional deficits. A smart city cannot rise on broken sewage systems. A blockchain land registry means little if property rights are not enforced. A healthtech platform is irrelevant where primary care remains out of reach.
This is a call to clarity. To sober up from the tech euphoria and return to the hard, unsexy work of nation-building. To understand that development is not what’s trending on X ( formally Twitter), it’s what lasts beyond trends.
i. When we build farms, apps can connect farmers to markets.
ii. When we build roads, logistics platforms will flourish.
iii. When we build industries, fintech can finance them.
iv. When we build systems, innovation can scale them.
Let us, therefore, build the foundation, so that what is virtual can multiply what is real. Let us develop the soil, so that the digital seed can grow.
Only then will our technological ambitions find not just momentum, but meaning.
Dr. Femi Akinkuebi is a policy analyst and development strategist focused on sustainable growth in emerging economies.