Not Every City Needs To Become A Tech Hub: What Nigeria’s Policymakers Must Understand
Across the South-South and South-East, the push for “tech adoption” has become a blanket aspiration as states announce innovation hubs, launch tech events, and promote AI-driven narratives. But in reality, not every city is designed to become a tech hub, nor should it be forced into that identity.
Aba is perhaps the clearest evidence. The city has always been a manufacturing powerhouse, from footwear to garments to industrial craft. Its strength has never been early-stage tech talent pools; its strength lies in production capacity, skilled artisans, and a value chain rooted in physical manufacturing. Trying to transform Aba into “the next Yaba” not only misunderstands its economic DNA it also diverts policy attention from the real opportunity.
Sector-Aligned Digital Enablement
Instead of pushing uniform tech hub narratives, governments should focus on sector-specific digital acceleration:
- Manufacturing cities like Aba should get policies that support digital marketplaces, export facilitation, and modern logistics.
- Oil & gas cities like Port Harcourt should receive incentives for industrial automation, safety tech, and energy-tech startups.
- Agriculture-heavy states like Ebonyi or Akwa Ibom should prioritise agri-tech, data-driven cooperatives, and digital supply chain systems. However, Uyo is one of the cities we believe has what it takes to become a regional tech hub.
- Commerce-driven hubs like Onitsha and Umuahia need digital payment infrastructure, SME financing, and trade-tech policies.
This is how modern economies develop: by deepening comparative advantage using technology, not by homogenising every city into a Silicon Valley replica.
Digital Transformation ≠ Becoming A Tech Hub
Aba does not need to become a tech hub.
What Aba needs is:
- social-commerce infrastructure, export-ready digital marketplaces, SME-friendly digital payments, digitised factory clusters, skills upgrade programs for artisans using modern tools.
This is how you modernise a traditional sector by leveraging tech as an accelerator, not a replacement.
Why This Matters For Policy
Nigeria’s over-centralised “tech hub thinking” has created:
- abandoned innovation centres
- hubs with no industry alignment
- talent mismatch
- wasted funding and donor-driven interventions that collapse after a year
The future requires regionally intelligent policy, one that builds on existing economic ecosystems while using technology to multiply them.
Not every city needs to be a tech hub. But every city can use technology to amplify what it already does best.
That is the future the South-South and South-East should build, and the future policymakers must start designing for.
For the past six months, TechSudor has been covering events across the South-South and South-East from Uyo to Port Harcourt, Aba to Enugu, Owerri to Awka. A pattern keeps emerging: while enthusiasm for technology and AI is rising, the assumption that every city must become a “tech hub” is both unrealistic and economically unnecessary.
Across the 11 states that make up both regions, the ground reality is clear:
The future is not for every city to become the next Yaba. The future is for every city to digitally amplify its own economic identity. Below are some of our observations and policy recommendations.
Aba: Manufacturing Giant, Not A Tech Cluster
Aba’s Ariaria International Market serves over 20,000 SMEs and supplies goods to West, Central, and East Africa. The city contributes an estimated ₦600–₦800 billion annually through manufacturing and small-scale industrial activity.
Yet, recent attempts to position Aba as a “tech hub” often miss the central truth:
- Aba’s ecosystem is built on factories, artisans, distribution networks, and export-linked supply chains.
- Its value lies in production volume, not software development.
Forcing Aba into a tech-hub narrative risks misdirecting policy funding and failing to support the digital tools that would actually make the city more competitive globally.
What Aba truly needs:
- social commerce playbooks for artisans
- digital export infrastructure
- logistics visibility tools
- SME credit scoring powered by transaction data
- e-payments that support cross-regional deliveries
- TikTok and Instagram marketplace integration
- factory automation for selected clusters
Cities like Guangzhou and Ho Chi Minh City remain traditional manufacturing giants yet dominate global commerce through digitisation, not “tech hub transformation.”
Regional Realities
Rivers State (Port Harcourt) Oil, Industrial Tech & Energy Systems
PH does not need a startup hub at every corner. It needs:
- industrial safety tech
- refinery automation
- pipeline monitoring sensors
- enterprise software for oil companies
Akwa Ibom – Emerging SME + Creative Economy
The state is better positioned for:
- creator economy tech
- digital financial inclusion
- SME automation
- tourism-tech platforms
Imo (Owerri) & Abia – Commerce & Light Manufacturing
Perfect for:
- digital marketplaces
- supply chain visibility tools
- automated inventory systems
- cross-border payments
Anambra (Onitsha) – West Africa’s Largest Market Hub
Onitsha Main Market records an estimated $4 billion annual trade volume.
What it needs is:
- trade-tech
- customs automation
- digital escrow
- instant settlement infrastructure
Not hackathons for problems that traders do not have.
Every City Will Not Adopt Tech The Same Way
Technology spreads in patterns linked to:
- education density
- industry type
- population structure
- existing commercial activity
- infrastructure readiness
Cities heavy in artisanal or manufacturing activity adopt tech more for commerce and production, not software innovation.
Trying to force software ecosystems where manufacturing is the backbone leads to:
- minimal adoption
- abandoned hubs
- donor-driven projects with no real users
Regionally Aligned Digital Policy
States need to shift from Tech Hub Thinking to Economic Digitisation Thinking.
Policy should focus on:
- digitising traditional markets
- enabling SME-friendly payment rails
- creating data infrastructure for trade
- modernising logistics through tech
- upgrading artisan skills with digital tools
- building cluster-specific innovation labs
Example:
If Aba exports 50,000 pairs of shoes daily, a digital marketplace with automated logistics would contribute more to Nigeria’s GDP than ten innovation hubs.
The Role of Social Media
Across markets in Aba, Onitsha, Aba, and Nnewi, one pattern is emerging where
TikTok and Instagram are already doing what traditional “tech hubs” haven’t, which is connecting local producers to global buyers.
For many artisans, the first touchpoint with “technology” is social commerce.
This is a valid form of digital transformation.
No coding class is needed to sell fabric to London customers from Aba.
Technology Should Amplify, Not Redesign A City’s Identity
The South-South and South-East regions do not need 11 tech hubs.
They need 11 regionally intelligent digital ecosystems that strengthen what each city already does well.
The obsession with forcing every city into the same mould will only waste resources.
Aba should manufacture. Onitsha should trade. Port Harcourt should industrialise. Uyo should innovate in media, SMEs, and tourism or possibly be a tech hub similar to Enugu.
What technology should do through social media, payments, logistics, and marketplaces is to make these strengths scalable.
That is the path to a real regional digital economy.
And that is the story TechSudor will continue to tell.
