By Brenda Okorogba
Many cities in Nigeria move at the speed of ambition. Step into Lagos morning traffic, and you’re witnessing an economic laboratory in real time. By sunrise, two million commuters are already plotting their next breakthrough: the fashion designer who turned Instagram followers into international buyers, the farmer using YouTube-learned drone technology to triple crop yields, the fintech founder whose payment app processes more transactions than many traditional banks.
Picture this same morning: a university graduate pitches her fintech startup to investors while sitting beside a food vendor who built a multi-million naira catering empire from selling rice and stew from a small wooden kiosk. Both are reshaping commerce, just with different tools. In the same city block, a mechanic reverse-engineers German car parts while a coder builds the next unicorn startup on a laptop held together with duct tape. Innovation emerges everywhere—not only in boardrooms or research laboratories, but on street corners, in shared workspaces, through individuals who refuse to wait for permission to build the future.
The energy is palpable everywhere. In Lagos, young technicians repair complex devices with tools that would make Silicon Valley engineers marvel. In Aba, leather craftsmen create products rivaling Italian designs yet struggle to access international markets. In Kano, farmers innovate with indigenous knowledge that could transform continental agriculture but lack capital to scale their solutions. From bustling Onitsha markets to Port Harcourt oil fields, from ancient Katsina trade routes to emerging film studios, Nigeria pulses with untapped talent and entrepreneurial spirit that refuses to be contained or ignored.
Sixty-five years in, Nigeria faces a paradox that should keep every leader awake at night. We sit on some of the world’s largest oil reserves while millions lack reliable electricity. We have more arable land than most countries have total territory, yet we import food. We produce some of the globe’s brightest minds, then watch them build other nations’ economies. We have everything required for the next economic leap: resources, talent, ambition, and a population young enough to build the future while experienced enough to avoid past mistakes. The only question is whether our funding will be as bold as our potential.
The Funding Paradox
Every day, Nigeria breaks its own heart. We watch brilliant minds solve complex problems with nothing but determination and discarded materials, then watch those same minds struggle for years to secure basic funding. The teenager who builds robots from e-waste can’t get a loan. The farmer who invents drought-resistant techniques can’t access credit. We systematically deny these same innovators the capital to scale their brilliance. We celebrate innovation but starve innovators. We’ve mastered the art of creating genius. We’ve failed at the science of funding it. This has to change.
My experience mobilizing funding across multiple countries reveals Nigeria’s core funding fallacy: we’re fixing the wrong problem. The challenge isn’t capital scarcity but systematic capital mismatch. We engineer funding solutions from the top down, then act surprised when they don’t work from the bottom up. The pattern is predictable: elaborate billion-naira announcements grab headlines while actual entrepreneurs struggle for years to access basic credit. We’ve mastered funding theater programs that look spectacular in presentations but crumble when they meet real community needs.
This disconnect plays out across every sector. In our celebrated technology ecosystem, Nigeria has produced some of Africa’s most valuable startups, yet thousands of promising entrepreneurs still cannot access patient capital to scale. Funding often prioritizes quick exits over sustainable growth, leaving startups struggling to balance investor demands with their mission to solve local problems. Meanwhile, in agriculture, we announce massive mechanization programs while smallholder farmers who produce 70% of our food can’t secure basic equipment loans. In manufacturing, we tout industrialization initiatives while artisans in Aba and Kano lack working capital to expand beyond local markets.
The solution isn’t more funding announcements. It’s funding that starts with listening to the fintech founder bootstrapping solutions for the unbanked, to the farmer experimenting with climate-resistant crops, to the manufacturer creating jobs in underserved communities. Effective funding requires flipping this script entirely: design with the people who will use it, measure success by their outcomes, and build accountability into every naira deployed.
Investing in People: The Ultimate Economic Strategy
The most valuable lesson from my career is deceptively simple: sustainable economic growth always starts with people. You can build sophisticated infrastructure, create elegant financial instruments, and design comprehensive policies, but without investing in human capacity, you’re building on sand.
Nigeria’s greatest asset isn’t oil or minerals—it’s our 200 million citizens, one of the world’s youngest populations. Yet too many young Nigerians graduate without practical skills, employment opportunities, or enabling environments to thrive. The brain drain isn’t about disloyalty; it’s about opportunity scarcity. Talented people leave because they can’t find challenges worthy of their ambitions at home.
I’ve witnessed what happens when we get human investment right because I lived it. At the 2008 inaugural Girls Technology Camp, part of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre’s STEAM program, something transformative occurred. Beyond teaching coding, robotics, and animation to girls aged 13 to 17, the program dismantled deeper barriers—the psychological walls convincing young girls that technology wasn’t for them. In just days, we shifted from self-doubt to seeing ourselves as innovators, leaders, and job creators. That investment didn’t just change individual lives—it created ripple effects across communities and continents.
This transformation is scalable, but it requires intentional design. Nigeria needs programs that blend skills development, mentorship, and mindset change at every level. Countries like Singapore and South Korea proved that strategic human capital investment can accelerate economic transformation within a generation. We need sustained investment in inclusive education, continuous learning platforms, and apprenticeship models that bridge classroom theory with workplace reality.
When companies invest in training, they strengthen both their workforce and the broader economy. Smart governments can amplify this through tax incentives, subsidies, and partnerships that reward talent development as economic infrastructure.The potential return on investment is enormous. Every skilled graduate who stays becomes an entrepreneur, job creator, or innovator contributing to local growth rather than enriching other economies.
Breaking Down Barriers: The Case for Inclusive Finance
Financial inclusion remains one of Nigeria’s greatest economic blind spots. Despite progress, stark divides persist: 37 percent of rural Nigerians are financially excluded compared to 17 percent of urban residents. Conflict-affected regions face even higher exclusion rates, with 68 percent of adults in Borno and 45 percent in Taraba lacking formal financial access (EFInA, 2023).
The gender gap tells an equally troubling story. While 46.1 percent of Nigerian men access formal financial services, only 33.3 percent of women do—a disparity that mirrors global patterns where women consistently lag behind men in financial access (EFInA, 2023; PwC 2020). Young entrepreneurs, who comprise our population majority, face additional barriers, often unable to secure loans due to lack of collateral or credit history.
This exclusion represents massive economic waste. Consider what we’re already getting right: microfinance institutions report that women are among their most reliable borrowers, with repayment rates often exceeding 95 percent. Mobile money has connected millions to financial services, processing billions in transactions monthly. Diaspora remittances, exceeding $20 billion annually, quietly outpace foreign direct investment. Crowdfunding platforms enable communities to directly back local solutions, proving that Nigerians will invest in Nigerian innovation when given accessible channels.
These success stories point to what’s possible at scale. Expanding financial inclusion requires smarter regulation that protects consumers while encouraging innovation, alternative credit scoring models that recognize diverse risk profiles, and blended finance vehicles that can serve markets traditional banks avoid. The business case is clear: every excluded entrepreneur represents lost jobs, innovation, and economic growth. Financial inclusion is the foundation of a competitive economy where talent, not connections, determines access to opportunity.
The Power of Strategic Partnerships
No single sector can solve Nigeria’s funding challenges alone. Government resources, while significant, cannot meet all development needs. Private sector capital, though essential, often prioritizes short-term returns over long-term social impact. Philanthropic funding, while valuable, typically operates at scales too small to address systemic challenges. The real breakthrough comes when these different capital sources work together strategically.
Magic happens when different capital sources work together strategically. In agricultural value chain programs, government land allocation combined with private sector processing expertise, development bank financing, and foundation-funded farmer training to create integrated systems that generated thousands of jobs while improving food security and farmer incomes. Similarly, in youth employment initiatives, government policy frameworks enabled private sector job creation while philanthropic funding covered skills training that traditional investors wouldn’t support. The results exceeded what any single sector could achieve independently.
But creating effective partnerships requires more than good intentions. Success demands clear governance structures that respect each sector’s decision-making processes, shared metrics that satisfy different stakeholder priorities, and accountability mechanisms that build trust over time. The telecommunications revolution in Nigeria offers a powerful example: government policy reform, private sector investment, and international development funding combined to connect over 200 million people to mobile networks within two decades.
The most sustainable partnerships share three characteristics: they start with clearly defined problems rather than available resources, they assign roles based on each sector’s comparative advantages, and they build in regular evaluation points to adjust strategies based on results. When done right, strategic partnerships don’t just pool resources, they multiply impact by leveraging what each sector does best.
Governance: The Foundation Everything Else Builds On
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: all the funding in the world won’t transform Nigeria’s economy without complete transparency and accountability. Too many well-intentioned programs fail because funds were diverted, mismanaged, or wasted on poorly planned initiatives.
Trust is the currency of investment. It makes all other economic activity possible. Without it, entrepreneurs leave, investors look elsewhere, and citizens lose faith. When investors don’t trust that capital will be used effectively, they invest elsewhere—taking jobs, innovation, and growth opportunities with them. When citizens lose faith that public resources serve public benefit, they withdraw from civic engagement and seek alternatives outside formal systems. When entrepreneurs don’t trust they’ll receive fair treatment, they take their ideas to markets that value them.
The cost of this trust deficit is measurable. Nigeria’s risk premium on international bonds reflects investor skepticism about governance. Our brain drain accelerates when talented people conclude that merit matters less than connections. Capital flight continues because wealth creators don’t trust the system to protect their investments or reward their success fairly.
Building trust requires institutions that are transparent about how they use resources, accountable for the results they achieve, and responsive to the communities they serve. This means legal frameworks that protect investors while ensuring economic growth benefits all Nigerians, not just the politically connected. It means leaders who understand that their responsibility is to steward resources for the common good, not personal enrichment.
Good governance doesn’t just prevent corruption—it creates enabling environments where legitimate businesses thrive, innovation gets rewarded, and hard work pays off. This includes predictable regulatory systems, efficient dispute resolution mechanisms, and government services that support rather than hinder economic activity. Countries like Rwanda and Botswana have demonstrated that strong governance can accelerate development even with limited natural resources.
Nigeria has shown that governance reform is possible. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) improved fiscal transparency, while the Bank Verification Number (BVN) system enhanced financial sector accountability. The challenge now is scaling these successes across all levels of government and economic activity, creating a foundation trustworthy enough to support the economic transformation Nigeria deserves.
Technology as a Force Multiplier
Nigeria’s digital transformation represents one of our most promising economic shifts. With over 154 million internet users and mobile penetration exceeding 100 percent, we’ve become Africa’s largest digital economy. Mobile money operators processed transactions worth N71.5 trillion in 2024, marking a 53.4% increase from the N46.6 trillion recorded in the previous year. Total e-payment transactions in Nigeria reached N600 trillion in 2023 (NIBSS) , showing the broader digital payments ecosystem beyond just mobile money. From this massive digital payment infrastructure to agricultural platforms connecting millions of farmers with markets, technology is opening new pathways for economic inclusion and efficiency at unprecedented scale.
Technology’s transformative power lies not in replacing existing systems, but in democratizing access to them. Mobile money didn’t eliminate banking; it brought financial services to 40 million previously excluded Nigerians. Digital agriculture platforms didn’t replace extension workers; they amplified their reach to remote communities that traditional systems never served. E-commerce marketplaces didn’t destroy local markets; they connected local artisans in Aba and Kano to global customers.
The key insight from successful tech adoption is context-driven design. Too many well-funded digital initiatives fail because they prioritize technological sophistication over user needs. The solutions that thrive like Flutterwave’s payment infrastructure or Farmcrowdy’s agricultural platform—succeed because they solve real problems for real people, using technology as an enabler rather than an end in itself.
For funding strategies, technology offers game-changing opportunities to reduce costs, improve transparency, and expand access. Digital lending platforms can assess creditworthiness using alternative data, potentially serving the 60 million Nigerians excluded from traditional banking. Blockchain technology can create immutable records of fund deployment and impact, addressing the accountability challenges that plague development funding. Crowdfunding platforms enable communities to directly back local innovations, bypassing traditional gatekeepers entirely.
Looking Forward: A Vision for Nigeria’s Economic Future
When I imagine Nigeria in 2035, I see an economy that has fully harnessed its human and natural resources. Young Nigerians are globally competitive yet deeply rooted in solving local challenges. Women and rural entrepreneurs have equal access to capital and opportunities. Government, private sector, and civil society partnerships tackle our biggest challenges with unprecedented coordination and results.
This vision is an amplified version of what already exists. Every element can be found somewhere in Nigeria today, often in inspiring but small-scale examples. The fintech founder in Lagos building payment solutions for rural farmers. The woman in Rivers State whose agricultural cooperative feeds three states. The partnership between government, banks, and NGOs that brought solar power to remote communities. Our task is scaling these successes while learning from our failures
This requires redefining funding itself. We must move beyond viewing funding as money alone and embrace it as investment in systems, relationships, communities, and capabilities that generate value long after the initial capital is spent. Success can no longer be measured only by financial returns, but by the breadth and depth of economic participation we create—by how many Nigerians gain access to opportunities that were previously beyond their reach.
Most importantly, we must remember that funding is ultimately about people. Behind every investment decision is a human being with dreams, challenges, and untapped potential. Behind every policy is a community that will be transformed by its implementation. Behind every partnership are relationships between people who must trust each other enough to work toward shared goals.
At 65, Nigeria carries the dreams of 200 million souls ready to soar. We are not a nation arriving late to prosperity’s table but we are designing an entirely new economic model. Through strategic funding that honors our diversity, demands transparent governance, rewards excellence, and delivers measurable results, we will build more than wealth. We will create a legacy where opportunity reaches every village and potential knows no geographic or social boundaries.
The ingredients for transformation surround us: abundant resources, exceptional talent, and limitless opportunities. What we need now is the will to deploy these assets with the same creativity, determination, and hope that sustained us through our first 65 years. Nigeria’s greatest chapter lies ahead, but only if we have the courage to write it together.
Brenda Okorogba is the Founder of Momentswithbren Consulting and an award-winning Learning Experience Designer, Equity Advocate, and Resource Mobilization Strategist. She has supported over 15,000 learners across 30+ countries, unlocking more than $5 billion in scholarships, grants, and aid. Brenda’s work spans education equity, workforce development, policy advocacy, and social impact, with leadership experience across Canada and internationally. She serves on multiple nonprofit boards, designs inclusive programs rooted in systems thinking and equity frameworks, and empowers individuals and organizations to thrive through access to knowledge, resources, and opportunities.
