First published 25 May, 2025
Why Africa’s tech dream is political
Image | CTECH
Let me tell you the truth that we don’t say enough in Africa’s tech circles: If you’re building the next unicorn and ignoring politics, you’re playing with house money in a burning casino.
I’ve spent the past two years of my journalism career listening to Africa’s startup stories. I’ve heard pitch after pitch at tech conferences from Nairobi to Lagos, Cape Town to Kampala about the continent’s untapped potential. I’ve talked to founders building payment solutions, edtech platforms, and e-commerce ideas. I’ve met investors who believe that Africa is the next frontier for venture capital, especially in climatech, agritech, fintech, and e-commerce.
But there’s a sentence I rarely hear in these circles, which should be on every slide deck and in every boardroom: “We need government to work to make this a reality.” And now I’m convinced that billion-dollar valuations, oversubscribed rounds, and the gospel of venture capital seduce us.
I understand the silence. Politics is messy. In some parts of Africa, it’s dangerous. But after years of reporting on this space, I’m certain the so-called “African digital revolution” will stall unless founders and investors stop ignoring governance and start engaging with it. You can’t build the future on a broken foundation—and right now, too many of us are pretending we can.
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Apolitical innovation?
There’s a comforting myth that tech can rise above politics. That we can engineer solutions around our messy governments with enough capital, code, and cleverness. But the longer I’ve been in this space, the clearer it’s become: Africa has no apolitical innovation.
And I’ve seen this fantasy play out countless times: a founder claims they’re building a groundbreaking B2C e-commerce platform or an agritech that connects farmers to cutting-edge soil testing technology. But when you dig deeper, you realise the core assumptions—about logistics, connectivity, electricity, and regulation—don’t hold up to the reality on the ground.
Let’s look at some numbers:
1. In Nigeria, 85 million people (about 43% of the population) have no access to grid electricity. Power outages cost the economy an estimated $29 billion annually. Try running a data centre—or a cold chain logistics company—in that environment. Frequent outages force most startups to rely on diesel generators, eating up 30-40% of operational budgets for data centres and fintechs. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, just 19% of people have access to electricity, according to the World Bank.
2. Intra-African trade is just 15.9% of the continent’s total exports (UNCTAD, 2023). For comparison, intra-EU trade is about 68.2%. Why? Bureaucratic borders, poor transport infrastructure, and conflicting customs regulations—all political failures.
3. The World Bank’s “Doing Business” indicators (before they were discontinued in 2021) consistently placed African countries at the bottom for ease of starting a business, enforcing contracts, and accessing credit. These are not tech problems. They’re governance problems.
4. Meanwhile, internet penetration across Africa is just 43%, and the average cost of 1GB of mobile data in sub-Saharan Africa is 5x higher than in South Asia. Spectrum pricing, telecom taxes, and monopolistic policy frameworks are at the heart of this disparity.
5. The African Development Bank estimates the continent needs $170 billion a year in infrastructure investment—roads, ports, power, and digital connectivity. The current shortfall? Around $100 billion annually.
6. In Ghana, the cost of borrowing for public infrastructure remains as high as 25% due to weak credit ratings and poor fiscal policies.
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What does this mean for startups? You can’t scale a logistics company without roads. You can’t host AI models in a country without stable power. You can’t deploy nationwide edtech if half your students are offline or paying $5 for 1GB of data.
These are not nice-to-haves. They are the rails on which a digital economy runs. Every dream of disruption in Africa—whether in health, finance, mobility, or manufacturing—is bottlenecked by the exact root cause: systemic corruption and underinvestment in public goods. And public goods are political.
Founders are political actors, whether they admit or not
Every time a founder negotiates a license, secures a tax break, or lobbies for regulatory clarity, they engage with politics. Yet too many behave like politics is a dirty word—best avoided at dinner parties, pitch decks, and board meetings. But the truth? We’re already in it. And the longer we pretend we’re not, the less prepared we are to shape the systems that shape us.
Look at China. You can’t write its growth story without the government. From constructing world-class ports to rolling out 5G infrastructure, Beijing has been a strategic co-architect of its tech ecosystem. The same goes for the US—Silicon Valley didn’t just explode out of libertarian magic. It was boosted with public R&D dollars, government contracts, and policy decisions that created the internet, GPS, and semiconductors.
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So why do African tech ecosystems act like they can float above the state?
We are entering an era where good or bad governance will increasingly shape African innovation. Just look at the trendlines shaping Africa’s digital future. Across the continent, governments are stepping in with assertive policy moves that will define the playing field for years. For example, digital taxation is gaining attention. Kenya’s digital service tax and significant economic presence tax set the tone, while Nigeria is actively changing its regulatory environment to disrupt banking as we know it on the continent. This isn’t just about revenue collection—it’s about bureaucrats taking back the authority over rapidly evolving digital markets that have, until recently, outpaced legislation.
Data sovereignty is also becoming a politically charged topic. The African Union wants to build a continent-wide network of data centres, while individual countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and South Africa have passed data localisation laws. These are purely political moves, not technical, as some might perceive. Decisions about where data is stored, who controls it, and under what legal frameworks will shape the fate of every AI and cloud startup on the continent.
And then there’s infrastructure—roads, electricity, and internet. For years, these were seen as separate from tech, the domain of ministries and state budgets. But now, governments are rediscovering their central role in powering digital growth. Infrastructure spending is back in focus; this time, tech players have a unique opportunity to shape where that money goes, whether it’s influencing fibre rollout maps, lobbying for green energy to power data centres, or advising on digital corridors for e-commerce, the moment for public-private collaboration is here.
These are the political foundations of the next phase of African tech. We have entered an era of tech-state entanglement. And the investors and founders who lean into this—who understand, influence, and sometimes challenge political systems—will build more resilient and scalable businesses.
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Governance isn’t a side issue
When I spoke to a manager at a leading B2B e-commerce startup in Nairobi after the anti-government protests in June 2024, I asked what kept him up at night. Was it the competition? Funding? Hiring?
“No,” he said. “It’s regulation. I can’t plan for next quarter if I don’t know what Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK), or even the country’s parliament is going to do next week.”
It isn’t paranoia. It’s a pattern. I’ve reported on companies blindsided by abrupt tax reforms, delayed licensing, internet shutdowns, and shifting capital controls.
In 2024 alone, Kenya’s Digital Service Tax caused chaos for ride-hailing firms and gig economy workers. The economic downturn that has hit the country for the past three years has seen businesses shut down, including startups like Copia, iProcure, and Sendy. Poor management at the Kenya Postal Service saw employees go for months without pay, while others were laid off. Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, and other fintechs are waiting for approval three years after applying for a license. Across the border, the Tanzanian government suspended Nation Media Group (NMG) websites for a month over its independent coverage.
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And yet, in pitch decks and panel discussions, governance rarely appears. There’s a collective pretence that the state doesn’t matter—or worse, that it’s too broken to bother with. But here’s the thing: you can’t opt out. Whether you engage with politics or not, politics will engage with you.
Why it matters
I get this thinking a lot: “But governance is hard. It’s risky. It’s slow. We could die trying.” True. In some places, speaking up can get you silenced—or worse. But ignoring it won’t save you either. It’ll just leave you vulnerable.
Here’s the flip side: founders and investors who engage stand to gain. Imagine a founder who builds a cleantech startup and works with governments to help draft smart energy or mobility policies. That’s not just innovation. That’s influence. That’s defensibility. Or a VC firm that doesn’t just write cheques but actively funds public-interest research on regulatory frameworks and then uses it to shape startup policies. That’s ecosystem building.
My argument is not far-fetched; in Nairobi, mobility startups like BasiGo and Roam struggle to mass-produce their electric buses because of gaps in existing infrastructure. Despite Kenya’s Postal Service having a countrywide reach, it’s dying after failing to seize the e-commerce boom.
Future founders and investors
I’m not saying everyone should run for office. But we need more founders who understand local politics and laws. More investors who know which ministries control what. More accelerators that teach governance literacy alongside pitch decks.
The future will be won by people who can code and convene. Who can pitch VCs and negotiate with ministries. Who can deploy AI and draft policy memos.
We need a new generation of founders who are also statesmen. Of investors who are also advocates. And technologists who don’t see governance as an issue of great inconvenience.
Because here’s the thing no one tells you at all those tech events and innovation summits: you can’t build Africa’s Amazon without roads. You can’t build a data infrastructure without a stable national grid. You can’t run a cross-border payments network without harmonisation of regional policies.
So, if you’re serious about building the future here, you need to care about who’s in office, what bills are being passed, how budgets are being allocated, and who gets consulted when the next tech law is drafted. That’s not politics. That’s survival.
Adonijah Ndege, Senior Reporter
Associate Reporter, TechCabal.
Feel free to email adonijah[at]bigcabal.com, with your thoughts about this edition of NextWave. Or just click reply to share your thoughts and feedback.
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