Why does Africa’s tech ecosystem feel so small?
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and honestly, I don’t understand it.
Africa has over a billion people, a huge young population, talented developers, and a growing middle class. Yet compared with other regions, we seem to have surprisingly few major technology companies.
And something I’ve noticed is that a lot of the biggest African tech startups seem to be focused on finance/fintech, which is starting to feel kind of cliché.
You have companies like Flutterwave, Paystack, Chipper Cash, M-Pesa, and Wave. They're doing useful things, but why does it feel like so many African startups keep building variations of the same type of product?
Why aren't we seeing more companies building social media platforms, AI products, search engines, games, productivity software, entertainment platforms, hardware, operating systems, e-commerce platforms, etc.?
And before someone says "Africa is too poor", I'm not completely convinced that's the answer either.
There are hundreds of millions of Africans who have enough disposable income to pay for apps, services, entertainment, and technology. And there are also millions of people outside Africa who could potentially use an African product. We're not China behind the Great Firewall. An African company can build for a global market.
Language also doesn't seem like a complete explanation. People who aren't comfortable with English are still using TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, etc. A lot of these platforms already support local languages, and with modern AI, translation and localization are becoming much easier.
Even AI itself is becoming more accessible because of open-source models. You don't necessarily need to pay for an expensive AI subscription, and some models can even run locally.
So what the hell is actually holding us back?
Is it funding? Education? Infrastructure? Lack of users? Lack of ambition? Risk aversion? Lack of technical talent? Government regulations? Investors only wanting to fund certain business models? Or something else entirely?
Because some of the explanations people give for Africa's lack of major tech companies sound like problems from the 1990s, and I'm not sure they explain the situation anymore.
So genuinely: what am I missing?