Nigeria, May 18 -- For years, I have watched Nigeria's technology ecosystem exist inside a strange contradiction. International investors celebrated its energy, startups raised billions in funding, and Nigerian founders became regular faces on global innovation lists, yet at home the ecosystem was often reduced to conversations about poor infrastructure, inconsistent regulation, and economic instability.

Now something significant is happening. Countries across Africa are beginning to study Nigeria's digital economy, not merely as a success story but as a workable model for their own development.

That reality became clearer this week when Angola's National Institute of Support for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises visited the National...