A Nigerian development scholar, Evans Woherem, has argued that Africa’s slow pace of development is rooted less in the capabilities of its people and more in the weakness of its institutions, systems, and governance culture.

In a sweeping article titled *_“Institutions, Culture, and the African Development Question: Why Systems Matter, and How Africa Can Leapfrog Development,”_* Woherem said “human beings are broadly similar biologically and intellectually across races and geographies,” stressing that the real difference between prosperous and struggling societies lies in “systems, institutions, cultures, incentives, and historical environments.”

According to him, one of the clearest demonstrations of this reality is the conduct of Africans living abroad.

“Individuals who, within certain African environments, may tolerate disorder, circumvent rules, participate in patronage systems, or adapt to corruption often relocate to countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan, Singapore, or Canada and quickly become highly compliant with laws and institutional expectations,” he wrote.

Woherem, a former Executive Director at both First Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc, noted that such individuals suddenly obey traffic regulations, respect public infrastructure, pay taxes, and operate efficiently within merit-based systems, insisting that “the human material did not suddenly change. The surrounding institutional architecture did.”

He lamented that many African countries still approach development through what he described as a “project-based conception of development” rather than a systems-driven model capable of sustaining progress across generations.

The author of best-selling books- “Building a New Africa,” and “Information Technology in Africa,” criticised the nature of governance conversations across the continent, saying public discourse often centres almost exclusively on visible infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, schools, and empowerment schemes, while deeper institutional questions are ignored.

“What institutions have been strengthened? What systems have been redesigned to outlive the present administration? What governance mechanisms now function automatically regardless of who occupies office?” he asked.

The scholar argued that sustainable development cannot be measured merely by the number of projects completed but by whether nations are building durable institutions capable of continuously producing results irrespective of political transitions.

“A nation does not become advanced merely because it constructs roads,” he stated. “It becomes advanced when it builds systems capable of continuously producing, maintaining, financing, regulating, and improving those roads across generations regardless of changes in leadership.”

Woherem further blamed Africa’s institutional fragility partly on colonial structures that were designed primarily for extraction rather than national development.

He said many post-independence governments inherited centralized but weakly accountable systems and merely “localized the machinery of extraction” instead of transforming the state into a developmental institution.

The information technology expert also highlighted the absence of what he called “developmental consciousness” across many African societies, noting that issues such as industrial policy, bureaucratic reform, technological sovereignty, manufacturing competitiveness, and state capacity rarely dominate mainstream public debate.

Drawing comparisons with countries such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and China, Woherem said successful industrialisation was driven by strong institutions, disciplined bureaucracies, educational excellence, and long-term planning.

“Their rise was not accidental, nor was it merely infrastructural. It was deeply institutional and civilizational,” he wrote.

The development expert also challenged African media organisations to move beyond “cosmetic” reporting of governance performance by interrogating structural reforms instead of simply celebrating project commissioning ceremonies.

“Instead of merely asking how many roads were constructed, they should ask whether procurement systems have become more transparent, whether regulatory agencies function independently, whether educational outcomes are improving systematically, and whether industrial policies are producing measurable manufacturing expansion,” he said.

Woherem further stressed the importance of “Developmental Industrialists,” pointing to African billionaire Aliko Dangote as an example of economic actors whose contributions extend beyond personal wealth accumulation to building industrial ecosystems and national productive capacity.

He maintained that Africa’s future depends on stronger bureaucracies, impartial legal systems, technologically enabled governance, industrial strategy, educational reform, and a civic culture that rewards competence over patronage.

“Roads alone do not produce civilization. Systems do,” Woherem declared.

He concluded that Africa’s greatest challenge is not a lack of human potential but the absence of institutional structures strong enough to consistently bring out the best in its people.

“And until systems become the centre of African developmental thinking,” he warned, “progress will remain slower, more fragile, and more reversible than it ought to be.”

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) does not currently maintain a public privacy policy on www.efcc.gov.ng, its official website.

Ola Olukoyede, EFCC chairman, EFCC

This is despite partnering with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to ensure data compliance according to findings by Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ)

As a law enforcement agency, the EFCC handles highly sensitive personal data and financial records, but its main web portal does not currently provide a formal, publicly available privacy policy detailing how user data is collected, stored, or processed.

According to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), all government websites are mandated to have privacy policies.

Section 10.4 (i, ii) of the NITDA Privacy Policy mandates all government websites to exercise diligence when collecting personal details or information about visitors to their websites.

It equally requires all government websites to incorporate prominently displayed privacy statements clearly stating the purpose for which information is being collected where the government institution seeks to or collects personal information from visitors through its website.

In addition, the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023 requires every data controller to make a privacy notice available to citizens before or at the point of collecting their personal data.

That notice must state the specific lawful basis of processing, the purposes of the processing, the categories of recipients of the personal data, the existence of data subject rights, and the right to lodge a complaint with the Commission.

The law further states that such information must be contained in a privacy policy and expressed in a clear, concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible format, taking into consideration the class of data subjects targeted by the data processing.

However, on Monday, FIJ checked the anti-graft agency’s website and found that it had no privacy policy or privacy notice informing users how their personal data is collected, processed, stored or shared.

FIJ found that Nigerians can submit petitions to the EFCC on the website.

During this process, the website compulsorily collects personal data such as names, National Identification Numbers (NIN), email addresses, local government areas (LGAs), phone numbers and residential addresses.

Also, organizations and financial institutions (such as commercial banks) are legally mandated to share customer information and suspicious transactions with the EFCC to prevent financial crimes.

However, the website collects this information without specifically informing users what happens to the data they provide.

Ironically, in September 2024, the EFCC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) agreed to forge a partnership and collaboration towards strengthening cyber data protection in the country.

The agreement was reached in Abuja on September 18, 2024, when Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner and chief executive officer of the NDPC, led a delegation of management staff on a courtesy visit to Ola Olukoyede, EFCC chairman, at the commission’s corporate headquarters.

Despite partnering with Nigeria’s data protection regulator, the EFCC still has no privacy policy on its website.

At press time, the EFCC met none of the privacy policy requirements stipulated by both NITDA guidelines and the NDPA 2023.

Moniepoint is proud to announce that the second cohort of its flagship DreamDevs Bootcamp is set to culminate in a Demo Day celebration on May 26, 2026, at its Ikeja facility. The event, themed “Training Done! Demo Up!”, will showcase the capstone projects built by participants following nine weeks of intensive, industry-grade software engineering training.

The DreamDevs Bootcamp is Moniepoint’s commitment to identifying and developing the brightest engineering talent across Africa. The nine-week intensive programme is designed to immerse participants in real-world, practical software engineering through a curriculum spanning Java OOP Foundations, Data Structures & Algorithms, Testing, MySQL & JDBC, Spring Boot APIs & System Design, Docker & Messaging Queues, Frontend UI & Cloud Infrastructure, and core Practical Software Engineering Concepts. In recognition of their commitment and effort, cohort participants are paid monthly throughout the duration of the programme.

The curriculum was developed by the Engineering Unit at Moniepoint and delivered in partnership with Semicolon, a leading technology education institution. Admission to the DreamDevs Bootcamp is highly competitive, with only top performers advancing through multiple stages of assessment, including a HackerRank technical test and an in-person code challenge, before earning a place in the programme.

Felix Ike, Co-Founder and CTO of Moniepoint, reflected on what the programme means to the company and the country, “Engineering excellence is a curated and intentionally built process that requires the right systems, resources, and time. The DreamDevs Bootcamp is our way of taking that responsibility seriously.

“We designed a programme that does not just teach syntax or frameworks, but develops engineers who can think, solve, and build at the highest level. Seeing graduates from our first cohort already thriving within our engineering team tells us we are on the right track, and we are excited to see what this second group brings to Demo Day.”

Some of the first cohort’s successful graduates are now active members of the Moniepoint engineering team, a testament to the programme’s effectiveness and its role as a genuine pipeline for world-class engineering talent.

The DreamDevs Bootcamp reflects Moniepoint’s broader mission to invest in Nigeria’s talent and build engineering capacity that can compete and lead on a global stage. Moniepoint looks forward to welcoming the second cohort to the fold and witnessing the innovative solutions they have built.