Much has been said in the last decade about Africa’s rise, her potential and much more that she stands to offer. The one African description that has persisted for a while is that Africa is the next big growth market. Perhaps it is just a matter of time before we see that? 

In all this talk and banter the one prevailing and recurring theme is that for Africa’s rise and its competitiveness, technology will have to be at the forefront of this rapid transformation. Looking at the world around us, technology has come a long way in bettering our lives in different avenues, be it in healthcare, communication, access to finance, autonomous vehicles and renewable energy sources. 

Despite this transformation, most of which happened in the last two decades, Africa has been a consumer rather than a producer of these technologies. That is not to say this is a deadly sin, however, it should be noted that this attitude is not one of a promising giant that will be the next growth market. 

Africa does not have to reinvent the wheel, there’s no need for that. Most, if not all technologies that should get Africa bootstrapped for an economical progressive future already exist. What remains are the policies and proper frameworks in place to enable these technologies to work for Africans and African problems. As an African there are many reasons to be optimistic, the continent is home to some of the youngest populations in the world, it’s a major consumer market and will be so for the foreseeable three decades to come, and we are also an increasingly smartphone-enabled society. 

Despite the optimism, the promise remains unfulfilled. Africa’s growth has stagnated for a while, and the adoption of new technologies is not as meteoric as one would expect. 

We cannot discuss the role of technology in any context without talking about mobile phone usage and access. Today, Africa’s mobile service subscription numbers are nearing astronomical levels. 615 million users in sub-Saharan Africa are projected to subscribe to mobile services by 2025. This is the first step to presenting immense opportunities and is a testament to Africa’s creative capabilities. Africa has immense growth potential in the digital economy space with some analysts estimating Africa’s internet economy at over $180 Billion.

The road from where we are to where Africa is technologically globally competitive is not a clear-cut one. There are processes, procedures, and policies that need to be in place to propel Africa to that position. Simply being first-row advocates of digital technologies such as blockchain, digital health, EVs, optimised value chain systems, and digital governance, to name just a few, will not guarantee success. There is a need to start at the grassroots in solving some of these mundane challenges. 

1. R&D investment

We can talk about ideas all day long, and debate grand policies in our fancy parliaments but as long as governments don’t prioritise Research and Development investments, we are doomed to fail, the promise that never was. At the eighth ordinary session of the Assembly of African Union in 2006, the Union member states pledged to contribute 1% of their gross domestic product (GDP) towards R&D. Not only has the uptake of this pledge been very low, but the amount of contribution agreed upon is also small, let’s not forget we are talking of a continent that spends close to $40 Billion annually on military. 

Perhaps, what would be of huge benefit is having R&D investments at higher learning institutions. In a different approach to bridging the finance gap, educational institutions can fundraise from less conventional mechanisms such as micro-contributions, levies, public-private partnerships and market-based financial transactions. Through innovative financing mechanisms, endowments at universities and colleges will allow higher education institutions to achieve better research outcomes. 

If you have read up on blockchain chances are you already know its potential, and how it can be used in many sectors of our economies from finance, to land distribution, to healthcare, to how it can help secure democracy through the use of smart contracts. We know the benefits, what we need next is the means of having these technologies developed and ultimately deployed to better serve Africans.

The world is up in arms as we speak over climate change, once again technology finds itself at the centre stage of green energy initiatives that are being proposed. Whilst all of that is happening, what is Africa doing and how much funding are we channelling towards technologies that ensure the preservation of the planet?

2. Fostering a culture of innovation 

Africa is not a stranger to a culture of innovation. We can trace back and identify how innovation is celebrated and scaled from professional learning communities particularly in agriculture with farmer cooperatives and lately with the rise of the government-backed Command Agriculture which has had huge successes, notably in Zambia.

Sadly though, the innovation historiography of Africa fails to present a holistic picture of many of these successes. Innovations are passed from one generation to the next through indigenous knowledge.

Meanwhile, research has shown that close to 90% of R&D efforts at large corporations and businesses fail. Time and human resources are key culprits in this failure. The greatest export in Africa and among its people should be creating a shared culture of innovation. Democratising and diffusing a culture of innovation will spark a desire to develop solutions for community-specific problems. Similarly, individuals will be empowered to transform their communities.

3. Innovation and inclusive growth

Unlocking Africa’s growth potential requires inclusive strategies that empower everyone regardless of their economic background and literacy level. To solve our problems, we must lean on our innate creative capacities and take ownership of solving problems of the future.

Africa is not just a consumer of foreign innovations. We have many home-grown solutions. To see these flourish, we must invest in R&D, empower our people and scale our inventions and innovations.

Africa has a smartphone adoption rate that stands at 64% and that figure is expected to grow to 75% by the year 2025. Internet penetration rate stands at 43% with countries such as Morocco, Seychelles, Egypt and South Africa having over 70% of smartphone owners having access to the internet. 

It should not be forgotten that mobile money started in Africa, in Kenya. Today, Africa accounts for 70% of the world’s $1 trillion mobile money value. The value of Africa’s mobile money transactions edged 39% to $701 billion in 2021 from $495 billion the previous year, highlighting the future of African banking as mobile. 

Africa indeed has a lot of potential and numbers are backing these notions. The African tech startup scene is growing. For the year 2021 startups from four countries comprising Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya secured funding totalling $1.9 billion. This investment is channelled towards startups working on solutions in fintech, digital health, transport and logistics, AgTech and EdTech to name just a few. These are startups that are working on cutting-edge technology that western investors see potential in putting funding into. This goes to show how we are leveraging technology to gain a footing on the global stage. 

Africa is growing, it’s adapting, it’s making development-centred policies and as such the world is taking notice. The most notable big technology companies in the world have established a presence in Africa, with Amazon, Google and Microsoft setting up shop in the continent and going all out on a hiring spree scooping up some of Africa’s most talented software engineers, designers and product managers. This cannot be made up, it speaks volumes as to what the continent can be and how technology will play a role in that quest.