Beyond potential: The action in Africa’s innovation ecosystems

Over the past two months, I’ve been fortunate to spend time in two of Africa’s most exciting hotbeds for technology and startups – Morocco and Kenya – and I’ve come away really impressed. 

When I started looking at tech and startups in Africa around 2017-2018,  the story was mostly about potential. It was about a huge demographic wave, leap-frogging legacy technology and the potential economic gains that might result. And sure, there’s still lots of that potential left.

Yet, having spent time at both the African Tech Summit in Nairobi, and then at the largest tech and startup conference on the African continent, Gitex Africa in Marrakech, it’s clear that it’s no longer just about potential. It’s about action, smart public investment and policy and, increasingly, about the emergence of real tech creators (rather than copycats or importers) who want to win global markets. 

With that in mind, here are my four takeaways from these recent travels:

1. Beyond the Big 4 – Talk to anyone about tech or venture capital in Africa and it’s usually about Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. Sure, these economies still dominate in startup funding and successful outcomes. However, the Gitex Africa event highlighted several up-and-comers who are carving out regional niches on the Continent, be it Morocco as the bridge for Africa-Europe tech collaboration, Senegal as the anchor for a thriving francophone tech community across West Africa, or Uganda as a leader in the use of AI in healthcare.

2. International partners – Not long ago, I would have expected to find a much more prominent U.S. and Chinese presence (both in venture capital and government) at African startup events. Their presence, however, has been eclipsed by public and private actors from the European Union and the Gulf States, notably Saudi Arabia. Both regions are investing significantly in science and tech relationships on the Continent, both in the form of the African Union (AU)-European Union (EU) innovation agenda that prioritizes joint science and research, and the Saudi-led effort to expand tech-related trade relationships on the Continent.

3. AI + data – AI is a buzzword everywhere and the Continent is no exception. The Gitex Africa event put AI on centre stage, especially with respect to the role these technologies are playing in dramatically increasing access to healthcare, improving agricultural efficiencies and helping African fintechs move from financial inclusion to sophisticated open banking systems. It was difficult to leave Marrakech not believing that AI might have its most transformative impact in Africa, and that this impact will be led by African talent.

4. Government – The most exciting places for tech and innovation on the Continent have one thing in common: smart and ambitious government policy working alongside investors and founders. Be it Morocco’s Digital 2030, centred on the use of AI to modernize government services, or Senegal’s New Deal Horizon 2034, which focuses on digital sovereignty and development of a homegrown, globally competitive tech industry, there’s no shortage of ambition and vision from African policy makers.

Oh, and here’s one more takeaway – Canada wasn’t present. Aside from myself and a couple of investors (shoutout to Danielle Brewin Graham and Sunil Sharma), Canada had no visible or official presence at either event. Compare that to the pavilions that governments from South Korea, Germany, and even Belgium, invested in at these events and it’s not surprising that our trade data with Africa lags significantly behind our peers.

If we’re serious about diversifying trade and engaging with new markets, we need to dramatically up our game on building relationships and showing up seriously in markets like those across Africa, which today host more than 600 million internet users and are projected to add more than US$700 billion to the Continent’s GDP by 2050.