Inside Africa’s Tech Struggles: What Needs to Change
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Hi, Dear Innovator 👋
Happy weekend to you!
A lot of people will agree when we say that at its core, Africa’s biggest challenge is fragmentation.
‘Cos think about it: we have the talent, the resources, and the markets/problems to be solved, and that should set a lot of Innovators on the path to become continental/global powerhouses, but we’re not connecting the dots.
Trade between African countries is weak, travel is restricted, and innovation (if any) often stays locked within national borders. Or worse, immediately shipped out as soon as they start gain ground.
But, this isn’t about any one group failing—it’s about our systems and structures that haven’t caught up to our already obvious potential!
The result? A continent that’s less than the sum of its parts.
In this newsletter, we’ll take an honest look at:
Where we stand as a continent, as regards the innovation fragmentation problem
Why it’s holding us back, and
What we can do about it.
Keep scrolling 👇👇
Where We Stand: The Reality of Fragmentation
Africa’s potential is massive, but the numbers tell a different story.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, only about 15% of our total trade happens within the continent1. Compared to Europe, where 67% of trade stays within the region. Or Asia’s, which is 58%. That’s a huge gap!
It means we’re not buying and selling enough from each other to build a strong and connected community around African products.
Intra-continental travel restrictions is also another hurdle that Africans face. The Africa Visa Openness Report shows that only 28% of African countries offer visa-free access, and only 26% offer visa-on-arrival access to citizens of other African nations2. In a continent which has 54 countries, that’s less than a third!
For the rest, you need a combination of paperwork, fees, and time just to cross a border 😢. This challenge presents as a real barrier to meeting people, sharing ideas, or starting something together.
Then there’s innovation itself.
Too often, a new solution in the market is trapped within the national borders of the originating country. Thus making it so that a tech startup in Ghana might never reach customers in South Africa because of different regulations, high costs of expansion, or simply not knowing what’s out there.
All around, we have brilliant minds and ideas, but they’re not linking up across the continent.
The Cost of Staying Divided
This fragmentation isn’t just a minor inconvenience—it’s a brake on our progress.
The continent is endowed with a youthful population (over 60% of Africans are under 25 years as reported by the United Nations) along with abundant natural resources and markets characterized by complex challenges that demand innovative solutions. These attributes position Africa favourably for an innovation surge.
However, despite these advantages, the continent (read as: African Innovators) has yet to fully realize its capabilities.
Innovation thrives on the exchange of ideas and collaborative efforts, yet many African innovators remain isolated due to geographic distances, linguistic differences, or limited awareness of opportunities beyond their immediate environments. This disconnection hinders the cross-pollination of ideas that could lead to significant advancements, leaving Africa’s collective innovation potential significantly underutilized.
In 2023, the Global Innovation Index ranked sub-Saharan Africa below other regions in innovation output. Sure, there are bright spots of innovative solutions scattered across the continent, but these are exceptions, not the rule.
In the realm of tech innovation across Africa, collaboration among innovators is an area ripe with potential yet currently underdeveloped compared to other regions like Europe. Specifically, per reports, only 18% of African tech startups have partnered with other startups on the continent3. This figure stands in stark contrast to Europe, where 50% of tech startups collaborate with their European peers.
What We Can Do About It
Here’s the good news: we’re not stuck. There are real efforts to fix this, and they’re worth getting behind.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched in 2021, is a big one. It’s working to create a single market across 54 countries, cutting trade barriers and making it easier to buy and sell continent-wide. If it works—and it’s starting to—it could transform how we do business.
For innovation, there’s progress on aligning regulations so businesses can operate across borders without drowning in red tape. The African Union is pushing science and tech programs to link up talent and resources4.
And tech itself can be a bridge. African tech innovators can build solution to address the issues that currently affect the collaboration among Africans or else, too many of our best ideas may end up solving problems elsewhere instead of here.
Tech doesn’t always have to be about adapting to what’s broken or disruption—it can also be about reshaping and restoring the original state of things.