Post2026
The promise of technological leapfrogging has shaped development thinking for years: countries that missed earlier stages of industrial development could use digital technologies to jump ahead. There is truth in that promise, but also a dangerous simplification. Technology can help developing economies bypass particular constraints, but it cannot substitute for functioning institutions, infrastructure, skills and productive capability.
Post2026
Nigeria’s labour market is changing faster than the categories used to describe it. Platform work, remote jobs and digital freelancing are creating new forms of employment and income that often disappear inside broad labels such as self-employment and informality.
Post2026
Across much of Africa and the developing world, informal work is often treated as a temporary defect that economic development will eventually eliminate. But informality is not simply what remains when formal institutions are absent. It is often how people build businesses, find work and organise economic life when existing institutions do not adequately serve them. The challenge is not simply to make informal activity formal. It is to build institutions that make becoming formal worthwhile.
Post2026
Many Nigerian sources of livelihood become digital long before they become formal. In my research with digital workers and small businesses in Nigeria, I met people who ran much of their economic lives from their phones. They advertised on Instagram. They negotiated with customers on WhatsApp. They received bank transfers, arranged deliveries through apps and […]
Post2026
The debate about Africa’s digital future often begins with technology: broadband, artificial intelligence, fintech, digital identity, cloud infrastructure and startups. But technology is rarely the real constraint. The deeper challenge is whether institutions, firms and governments have the capability to turn technological adoption into sustained improvements in productivity, public services and economic opportunity.
