De-Dollarisation Without Innovation Is Suicide: Why Nigeria Must Build Indigenous Technology Capacity Now Adam Olatunji Muritala

The world is quietly rewriting the rules of power. Currencies are being renegotiated, alliances are shifting, and the long-standing dominance of the United States dollar is no longer taken for granted. Across energy markets, trade agreements, and financial settlements, countries are exploring alternatives to the dollar not as protest, but as preparation. Yet Nigeria stands at a dangerous crossroads, mistaking currency realignment for liberation while ignoring the one thing that gives any currency meaning: "innovation".

The uncomfortable truth Nigeria must confront is this: de-dollarisation without indigenous technological capacity is not independence; it is economic suicide. Currency power does not exist in isolation. The dollar did not dominate the world because it was printed on better paper or backed by louder diplomacy. It dominated because it rode on the back of American innovation: banking systems; financial software; industrial machinery; semiconductors; energy technologies; digital platforms; and intellectual property that powered global trade. The dollar became powerful because it was the currency of production, not consumption.

Nigeria risks celebrating the weakening of one hegemon while positioning itself as a dependent client of another. Abandoning dollar dependency without building local technological strength only swaps masters. It replaces Washington with Beijing, Silicon Valley with Shenzhen, Western platforms with Eastern ones. That is not sovereignty; it is outsourced dependence under a different flag.

This is where Nigeria must study Arab nations carefully. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other Gulf states are reducing their exposure to the dollar, but they are not doing so recklessly. They are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, defense technologies, digital infrastructure, and strategic industries. They understand a simple but brutal equation: currency follows production. Power follows innovation. They are not fleeing the dollar because they are weak; they are hedging because they are becoming strong. De-dollarisation for them is leverage, not rebellion.

Nigeria, by contrast, discusses currency while importing virtually everything that gives currency value. A nation that cannot design its machines, build its power systems, manufacture its tools, write its core software, or control its data cannot dictate the terms of its economic future, no matter what currency it trades in. You cannot negotiate confidently in yuan, euro, or naira if the technologies running your economy belong to others.

In the modern world, innovation is the real currency of power. Semiconductors determine military strength. Artificial intelligence determines productivity and competitiveness. Energy technology determines survival. Manufacturing determines jobs, resilience, and dignity. Data determines influence. Money merely reflects these realities. This is why the United States weaponizes technology through sanctions. This is why China pours trillions into indigenous innovation. This is why sanctioned nations survive by building local engineering capacity. And this is why Nigeria’s continued reliance on imported technology is an existential weakness.

Nigeria today consumes technology like a rich country but produces like a colony. We import power systems, medical equipment, industrial machines, digital platforms, educational tools, and even so-called innovation solutions, then speak loosely about economic sovereignty. No serious nation behaves this way. A country that imports everything has no leverage over anything.

If de-dollarisation is to mean survival rather than exposure, Nigeria must urgently rebuild itself around indigenous technological capacity. Universities must be redesigned away from certificate factories into engines of strategic knowledge, energy systems, manufacturing, artificial intelligence, robotics, materials science, and industrial engineering. Innovation must be treated as national security, not a side project. Power generation, digital infrastructure, payment systems, and manufacturing must be seen as strategic assets, not optional ventures. Nigeria must stop importing “solutions” and start protecting and funding builders, local inventors, engineers, and manufacturers who understand Nigerian realities and constraints.

The global order is fragmenting. American hegemony is being challenged. New blocs are forming. History is unforgiving in moments like this. Nations that innovate during global transitions rise. Nations that consume during transitions disappear. Nigeria must decide whether it wants to be a producer or a permanent market, a builder or a buyer, a strategic nation or a dependency managed by others.

De-dollarisation alone will not free Nigeria. It will expose Nigeria. And in a fiercely competitive world, exposure without strength is fatal. The future belongs not to countries that merely change currencies, but to those that build civilizations. Nigeria still has a window to choose wisely but history does not wait forever.

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Adam Olatunji Muritala 

Founder African Pro-Humanity Technology Hub