Code over Concrete

Rebuilding Prosperity with Invisible Infrastructure

A Lagos Revelation  

Nothing in Lagos is easy, not even a Sunday morning. The white paint that divided the Lekki expressway had faded, turning three lanes into six lanes of organized chaos. Navigating through the speeding asylum, a billboard caught my eye, prompting me to call my partner-in-startup-crime. As CEO of Migo, he'd built our lending fintech to serve Nigeria's unbanked millions, while I ran our local operations.

The billboard wasn't just an advertisement; it was a revelation. Unlike the fading road markers or crumbling concrete so common in our part of the world, we were building something invisible yet far more durable. Our tools weren't asphalt and steel, but lines of code. Our foundation wasn't concrete, but the trust of thousands of Nigerians. Our raw material wasn't iron or wood, but human potential itself.

Code, not concrete, will be the future of development in Nigeria—and maybe even the Global South. While Nigeria's challenges are unique, they mirror the struggles of emerging markets worldwide.

Rethinking the ‘Informal’

The billboard boasted a top-20 Nigerian bank’s lending figures, promising even more to come. It felt more like a bat signal than an ad.  Banks were finally ready to lend to the average Nigerian. But here’s the kicker: our ‘tiny’ Series A startup had already lent three times more than this 40-year-old bank. 

In 2023, the World Bank estimated that less than 5% of Nigerian adults had access to formal credit, underscoring the vast potential for innovative financial solutions. Additionally, about 38 million adults in Nigeria remain financially excluded, without access to even basic financial services, according to EFInA” (World Bank, EFInA). So, when we hit 10,000 loans per day, I knew we weren’t just building a product—we were building infrastructure that could outperform traditional systems.

After years in Nigeria’s financial sector, I’ve learned that calling this an ‘informal economy’ misses the point entirely. Nigeria’s ‘informal’ sector accounts for ~65% of economic activities and employs +80% of the workforce (ILO).  And at a critical ~57% of Nigeria’s GDP that ‘informal’ economy is a foundation to build upon, not an obstacle to overcome. These markets aren’t informal—they’re differently structured. Deep community relationships built through years of trading, not documents, determine credit worthiness.  That trust carries more weight than a bank statement, allowing a business to grow without setting foot in a bank.  However, this creates a misconception that locks out traditional bankers from funding the informal economy.  No statement, no loan.

  

A Paradox of Credit

This misconception has made lending nearly impossible.  Only 6% of the adult population in Nigeria had credit from formal institutions, compared to 86% in the U.S. (EFInA Report). The truth is, the banks didn’t lack willingness to lend; they lacked the infrastructure to do so.

Any and all leading economists emphasized that credit is the backbone of economic development.  The implication of this assertion is that any market that doesn’t fit a conventional mold for lending cannot grow until it aligns with an arbitrary standard.

Bankers in developed markets can rely on rich data trails to assess creditworthiness, their counterparts in emerging markets face an information vacuum. Joe Bloggs in London can argue his case for a loan based on years of documented history. Jimi Bloggs in Lagos, despite running a successful business, can’t even get through the door—his credit file is essentially blank. 

Nigeria has credit bureaus, but they’re like sophisticated engines without fuel—the data they need simply isn’t there. In developed markets, credit bureaus tap into vast networks of employment records, education history, and payment data. But in Nigeria’s supposedly ‘informal’ economy, businesses thrive without leaving paper trails, and without enforceable laws, there’s little incentive to change this.

Building a traditional bank branch can take years and millions of dollars, bound by regulatory red tape and fixed costs, while a mobile lending platform can be deployed in a fraction of the time, extending financial services to remote villages and bustling cities alike without ever laying a single brick.

Building the Invisible

Migo's breakthrough came from identifying overlooked data sources in informal economies and making them actionable for credit scoring.  Our platform processed 10,000 loans daily to a base of about a million Nigerians, yet we'd barely scratched the surface of the 100-million-adult market. 

After millions of loans, we proved traditional credit scoring failed in emerging markets - not from lack of data, but from looking for data in the wrong places. By weaving together unconventional sources like telecom data - a far better source with 87% mobile penetration - we replicated credit bureau-quality assessments at scale.  

Our small team of 20 outperformed major institutions including banks and credit bureaus. The real infrastructure apparently wasn't in under-functioning buildings but in the ability to assess creditworthiness - and code ended up offering the solution that humans and copy-pasted institutions could not. 

Beyond Banking

When I think about ‘digital’ lending now, in the aftermath of my time at Migo, I realize that digitization is only one aspect of a broader transformation. Digitization makes processes faster and more efficient, but invisible infrastructure goes deeper—it redefines access and participation. Rather than simply adding technology to existing systems, it turns data into action, transforming overlooked signals into opportunities for growth. It is built native to its home environments but at the same time, interacts with infrastructure abroad with a universal language.  

With digitization, enhanced speed is a given. Adaptability, however, becomes the antidote to the rigidity of physical infrastructure. Costs aren’t merely sunk into static assets; they are continuously adjusted to create value, ensuring every investment drives growth.

Take M-Pesa - the mobile digital financial services provider in Kenya. Unlike traditional banking, which relies on branches and ATMs, or even digital banking apps tied to physical networks, M-Pesa operates outside these constraints. It enables over 51 million users to send, receive, and store money via mobile phones without the need for a bank account (GSMA). By converting cash into digital currency at thousands of agents, M-Pesa provides access to financial services for people previously excluded from the formal banking system. With mobile money transactions accounting for nearly 50% of Kenya’s GDP in 2021, M-Pesa has grown into a platform offering microloans, insurance, and bill payments, proving that invisible infrastructure can transform an entire economy (Central Bank of Kenya, World Bank).  The story starts with banks, then gave way to a mobile (digital) solution which has now evolved to humans as walking digital banks.  

In logistics, Zipline’s drone network in Rwanda reimagines supply chains by delivering medical supplies directly to remote areas. Unlike conventional delivery systems, which rely on roads and warehouses, Zipline’s drones navigate autonomously, overcoming the limitations of physical infrastructure. The system’s adaptability allows it to respond to real-time needs, with drones delivering essential supplies in minutes, not days. This platform approach is more than just efficient; it ensures that access to healthcare is no longer bound by geography (Zipline, World Economic Forum).

The Platform Effect

The real power of invisible infrastructure is in its platform architecture, which propels entire industries forward. It doesn’t just digitize processes; it builds new pathways, enabling solutions to scale at speeds that traditional methods can’t match. By integrating seamlessly into local contexts while still evolving to meet broader needs, invisible infrastructure transforms barriers into opportunities for growth.

What we discovered back then was not just a new way to build systems, but a new way to conceive of infrastructure itself—one that places trust, inclusion, and adaptability at its core, rather than treating them as secondary considerations. 

The Code-Trust-Human Potential Bridge

Code-driven infrastructure creates natural trust - when payments process instantly, identities verify reliably, and contracts execute automatically, people trust not just the technology but the entire ecosystem.

Trust is where old and new connect. While physical infrastructure establishes a baseline of access, invisible infrastructure extends it, adapting to users' needs in real-time. This convergence creates a meeting point regardless of a nation's starting point - setting the common standard for developed and developing countries to interact on a more level playing field.

At Migo, a track record of repaid loans is not just positive in that instance, it sets a foundation for trust that couldn't be built before.  We made a documentary about a beverage vendor who in 53 loans, went from selling drinks to bar owner to wholesaler.  Trust like this can’t be built in emerging markets through paperwork or physical evidence - it is too much work to do at this late ‘hour’.  But it can be constructed through a series of data points that paint a picture of a person’s reliability over time. Each successfully repaid loan strengthens this data-driven trust, allowing individuals to access larger amounts of credit and more financial opportunities.

Looking to the Future

I now see beyond the chaos - I see a continent pioneering a new development path. The Global South needn't follow the North's infrastructure timeline, we can skip physical infrastructure steps for more efficient digital systems and Invisible Infrastructure.

The future belongs to those who see beyond the visible, who understand that powerful infrastructure might not photograph well for billboards. The road ahead may lack white lines, but it's rich with the potential of people who have long been locked out by systems that excluded them. 

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