Comments
What Drives Progress in Nigeria? A personal reflection
2 min readMay 23, 2025
52
I recently had a thought-provoking conversation about progress studies in the Nigerian context. One core question we kept returning to was this: What actually drives progress in Nigeria?
From my experience, the answer is rarely the government. In many sectors where the state should be leading—healthcare, science, infrastructure—the reality is stagnation. Corruption and personal interests often override any semblance of strategic policy or institutional continuity. When progress happens, it is because individuals choose to push through the friction.
I want to offer a case from Nigeria, where I lead a project focused on bacteriophage research—a rapidly advancing field globally, with major implications for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and biosecurity.
In countries like the US and many in Europe, phage therapy is beginning to receive government attention. Agencies are investing in infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and translational science. In Nigeria, however, researchers are on their own. There is no coordinated AMR roadmap, and little public investment in scientific innovation at this frontier.
To move forward, we had to build from the ground up.
With support from Emergent Ventures and an ACX grant, we set up one of the first phage research labs in the country. This month, we were officially registered as Nigeria’s first phage company limited by guarantee . While still early-stage, this effort reflects a broader vision: to create a research and development platform for infectious disease, AMR, and biosecurity solutions grounded in African contexts.
We are still building the necessary infrastructure—equipment, protocols, partnerships, and talent pipelines. Our goal is not only scientific discovery but also to serve as a translational node for diagnostics, surveillance, and therapeutics, bridging research with real-world implementation.
This work is happening largely outside the university system. Like many researchers in Nigeria, I have found public academic institutions ill-equipped for innovation. Funding is limited, governance structures are rigid, and incentives are misaligned with applied or experimental work. Many scientists here spend years trying to patch together a career that allows them to contribute meaningfully. Personally, I am planning an exit from university employment to focus full-time on building this phage platform once I get a stable source of income.
So here’s a broader question:
How do we support agents of progress working under systemic constraint—especially in countries where institutions lag behind the urgency of the challenges they face?
Some of the most under explored opportunities for impact lie in enabling capable individuals who are building despite systemic constraints. A modest grant or technical partnership in such contexts can unlock disproportionate value—not just for local benefit, but for global resilience.
Here are a few questions I believe are worth further exploration:
• How can EA-aligned funders better identify and support scientific talent in low-trust or low-infrastructure environments?
• What models of infrastructure investment can catalyze long-term institutional change from the bottom up?
• How do we assess impact potential in frontier regions where conventional cost-effectiveness metrics are difficult to apply but the upside is large?
If you’re working on global health, scientific funding, or progress studies in the Global South, I would love to hear your thoughts or connect on ways we can collaborate to build stronger foundations for frontier research where it is most urgently needed.
First of all, congratulations on your initiative and for pushing through despite the challenges you've faced! It's frustrating that you have so little systemic support, but it honestly makes me happy to see people still putting in the effort to do meaningful work, even when it really shouldn’t be this hard.
As for your questions, I wish I had a clear answer, but I’ve seen the same issues in Eastern Europe too, and no one seems to have figured it out yet. There is nothing more discouraging than wanting to do something, only to hit wall after wall just trying to get started. This causes people to quickly give up on their ambitions, which is a shame.
Thanks, Ande, for the kind words. I must say it is not easy, but we must keep pushing. My goal is to finally have a phage therapy centre in Nigeria, the first of its kind in Africa. However, traditional funders will not agree to fund this, and there is little or no government support. Electricity is also a problem. We keep pushing till we get it right.
Yes, small steps, small steps.
It's a shame that phage therapy is still not well known, and that makes it harder to get support.
Have you already thought about how to approach the electricity problems? I suppose a possible solution could be something like solar panels or wind turbines with batteries, although the initial cost can be quite high.
Also, I’d definitely look into as many funding ways as possible.
For scientific crowdfunding, you could look into Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Experiment.
For general crowdfunding, you can use GoFundMe, and even Facebook (I think it has its own fundraising platform). You can set small but specific and concrete goals (because sometimes big, vague goals can put people off), such as buying certain equipment, fixing the electricity problems, and so on.
Ideally, in time, these smaller steps will amount to a well-running phage therapy center. :)
Wishing you resilience and success, and I’m really rooting for you!
Thank you for your encouraging words. I will keep you updated on my progress. Unfortunately, crowdfunding has not proven effective thus far. I remain open to exploring alternative strategies.
On a broader note, I believe it is high time we consider convening an Africa Progress Conference.