Why No One Will Adopt Your Tech Product in Sierra Leone
Infrastructure is one slice of adoption. Trust, skills and poverty take the rest.
Software is a tool.
A tool for solving problems at scale.
And in a place full of problems, you'd think software would thrive.
But software doesn't work quietly.
It has demands.
Ignore those demands and it refuses to cooperate.
Most people stop at infrastructure.
Electricity.
Internet.
Devices.
Important, yes. But not the whole story.
Sometimes the tech works.
The business model works.
The positioning works.
The requirements are met.
The product does what it's supposed to do.
Talent is available.
Smartphones are everywhere.
Connectivity exists.
Yet... no adoption.
Because technology is only one slice of the adoption pie.
Education.
Trust.
Basic digital skills.
Each takes its cut.
And then comes the heavyweight nobody likes to talk about.
Poverty.
People earn very little.
Barely enough to survive.
At that level, priorities shrink fast.
Survival first.
Everything else later.
Not tech.
Tech adoption isn't quick.
And it's never one-dimensional.
Everything underneath the technology must work.
Then the business problems begin.
Does this mean you shouldn't build software?
Not at all.
If anything, we need more builders.
These are reminders to myself first about what adoption is really like here.
Then to those of you building quietly,
long before the applause arrives.
Keep going.
The other side of this struggle does exist.
— Umaru