Technology sector leaders have pinpointed a critical obstacle stifling innovation in Nigeria: it is not the creation of new digital tools, but the widespread reluctance to use them. This stark conclusion emerged at the official launch of Abuja Tech Converge 3.0 (ATC 3.0) in the nation's capital on 16 December 2025.
The Core Challenge: From Development to Usage
Speaking at the event, which carried the theme “Beyond Buzzwords: Demystifying Emerging Tech for Real Impact,” Akintude Akinwande, Head of Digital at OCP Africa, laid out the dilemma. He stated that Nigerian developers and tech firms are proficient at building solutions, but face immense difficulty in convincing the public and businesses to integrate them into daily operations.
“One of the major challenges with technology in Nigeria is adoption. It is easy to develop. To develop is not hard; getting people to use them has actually been difficult for us,” Akinwande lamented.
A Case Study in Agriculture
Akinwande used the agricultural sector to illustrate the severe consequences of this adoption gap. He revealed a startling statistic: the average fertiliser usage in Nigeria remains below 30 kilograms per hectare. This figure stands in stark contrast to the nearly 300 kilograms per hectare used in many advanced nations.
He argued that technology holds the key to bridging this massive productivity gap, but only if farmers can be persuaded to adopt new tools. “It is easy to develop an AI solution that helps farmers do many things, but how to get it across to farmers has been the challenge in Nigeria... We are not going to solve that gap just by supply. We are going to solve that gap by building demand,” he explained.
Focus on Impact and Job Creation
The event itself was designed to tackle this very issue by moving discussions from abstract concepts to practical application. Uka Eje, Chief Executive Officer of Thrive Agric, noted that ATC 3.0 aimed to spotlight technology as a genuine tool for creating impact and employment.
“So job creation is core also. We train and deploy young people because we believe that there is a massive gap in job creation that exists in Nigeria and across Africa,” Eje stated, highlighting the event's role in skills development for industry professionals.
The consensus from Abuja is clear: for Nigeria to harness its full technological potential, the national focus must shift from merely inventing solutions to actively driving their widespread acceptance and use across all sectors of the economy.
