You're right about that. The tech scene in that country would remain paltry until two things are solved.
First, the internet. The telecos have only built dumb pipes to Europe. There is no peering agreement amongst local telecos. It's better to host a website in the US than locally because the roundtrip time would double rather than decrease.
Thus, that initial low cost barrier to building something that allowed the internet to blossom like a flower is absent. Remember how Google and Facebook leeched off their university computers and network for years? It can't happen because of this factor. And because usable Wifi simply doesn't exist. It's either passworded for University staff use or insanely slow. (I've visited at least 3 Nigerian universities and Two in Ghana.) I've spoken to several students and the situation is the same.
The second issue to be tackled would be payment. The major players are tied to the banks. Thus, they can't reorient their thoughts to what's required to make online payments smooth, easy and cheap for users.