The day I learned trust is a luxury in this country

Two years ago, I went back to Akure with this grand plan. My uncle runs a cocoa cooperative, small but decent. I convinced him let me digitize their operations , tracking, payments, inventory, everything on an app. I put in my own savings, about ₦1.2m. Went from farm to farm showing the farmers how to use it. They were skeptical at first but my uncle vouch for me so they agreed.

The project was moving. Three months in, the secretary of the cooperative, a man my uncle trusted for 15 years, just vanished. Cleaned out the account where the farmers' payments were going. Over ₦800,000 gone. The farmers came to my uncle's house angry. I had to face them, explain that I didn't know, that the system was supposed to prevent this. But the thing is, the system was built on trust , trust that the people using it would be honest.

I learned that day that no amount of technology can fix a broken trust system. The secretary was never found. The farmers lost their money. I lost my savings. My uncle lost face in his own community. I still think about it sometimes. Not the money, but the way we just assumed good faith would carry the project. In this country, trust is a luxury most of us cannot afford.