HOMEGROWN SOLUTIONS: WHY IMPORTED FRAMEWORKS DON’T ALWAYS WORK IN AFRICA

We need to solve our own problems in Africa our own ways. Methodologies like Scrum are great but I often think most of the concepts are not directly suitable for our work.

What we need to understand is that some people also created these solutions to their own problems and if we will be using them, it shouldn’t be without modifications that factor in our peculiar situations.

This same thing applies to ideas or products from the western world. The fact that a product is successful in Europe does not mean you can copy and paste it here and it would work. In the line of work I meet a lot of Africans who have lived outside Nigeria for many years and they have lost touch with reality here. They seem to have the best solutions to our problems and tend to think those of us here are either uninformed or can’t see the solution.

I have watched several of them try to replicate their “solutions” here and failed woefully. There is a reason why the first step in design thinking is empathy. If you can’t see our problems from our own lenses, you most likely will not be able to solve them. A people’s way of life (culture) is a big part of who they are and should not be neglected in doing anything that involves the people.

Don’t be afraid to create homegrown solutions, even if there are no references to them in any books. African creators, rise up to the challenge. Build and keep building, nobody else can do it better than you. Create new models, systems and solutions. The world is waiting to learn from you.