History is littered with groundbreaking technologies that failed—not because they weren’t brilliant, but because no one cared.

The last five years have been massive for the Nigerian (and African) tech ecosystem. We’ve seen massive raises, celebrated high-profile exits, and watched the community explode—literally. While you’d expect these milestones to translate into broader economic impact—job creation, revenue generation, and industry growth—the reality is starkly different. For context, about 49% of funded startups in the past decade make less than ₦10 million (or $6,000) annually, according to a new report by TLP Advisory.

Now, this isn’t just about weak government policies, currency devaluation, skyrocketing inflation, or the declining purchasing power of Nigerians (though those don’t help). There’s something deeper at play here—we have a fixation on “great” technology without a...

2023 came with a lot of personal growth for me. To be more specific, I added over 20kg in the past 12 months. While this would not please my gym instructor, it does give me a valuable perspective on how much has changed since the year started. I would be a fool to believe that I could properly capture this year using a few words, but I would be a coward not to try. I am a brave fool.

In every sense of the word, 2023 was intense. Under normal circumstances, I would boldly declare it the most intense year of my life so far, but 2022 had too many dramatic twists and turns to be disrespected like that, so I’d call it a tie. 2023 was tough, this time unarguably. I crown it the toughest year of my life so far. Very ironic, because from the outside, this was also the year of so many visible victories.

I feel like my life has several, flexible partitions, frequently intersecting with one...