I think the problem is that most local apps don’t address a real pain point. Granted, they get buried in that massive ocean of apps on google play and app store, but if an app solves a real problem and imaginatively too, it’ll get its screen time on Nigerian phones or phone of any nationality for that matter; think the constitution app from back in the days - people still use it in fact - and topup genie.
Visibility will definitely help - a problem Hugo at Maliyo is already trying to solve with Gidiapps [Radar thread], but if these apps are only as useful as NipAlert, then no one will waste their precious RAM on there. I won’t.