Building A Thriving Innovation Economy
It is important to note that Africa’s wealth is not just in a youthful workforce but in the fact that this generation has within it innate innovators, forward thinkers and doers, open minded, curious youth whose imaginations, hunger for solutions and ability to create must be harnessed and encouraged. Africa’s innovators and entrepreneurs continue to show their capacity to innovate world class products and services and build world class businesses. Acquisitions, taking companies public, successful fund raises, improved livelihoods, digitalisation across African entities, demand for skill and knowledge, regional and Pan African scale of businesses and steady increase of local funders for local businesses is a testament to the fact that the African innovation ecosystem is ready for a new wave of exponential growth. According to the African Development Bank, Africa has made great progress in improving her infrastructure. Projections of electrification rates suggest a steady rising trend to about 70% in 2040 providing access to 800 million more people. At the current trajectory, broadband coverage in Africa will likely reach 99% by 2060. 9 To take advantage of these encouraging trends, we must jointly develop and implement a strategy that will enable more Africans to earn an adequate living wage that allows them to live a life of dignity. We must create and support opportunities for Africans to continue to develop the necessary skills to take
advantage of and actively support the improvement of infrastructure that serves as the backbone of scalable solutions for Africa built by African innovators. We must create enabling environments, enabling policies and demand enabling leadership that gives innovators the space they need to innovate. We must adopt a holistic approach to deliver sustainable broadband by ensuring connectivity,digital literacy, content infrastructure, increased access to funding data protection and privacy, cyber security and gender equality 10 . The last twenty years have shown us what Africans can do with less than adequate connectivity, minimal infrastructure and a disabling policy environment. Imagine what the next twenty will bring if we work actively to improve these factors! AfriLabs is committed to supporting a broad range of strategies that can make this a reality. For example, creating communities of innovation where ideas and people are nurtured to build lasting solutions with no discrimination, and working with regional, national, and sub-national governments and networks to create and maintain a framework of laws and infrastructure that encourages economic activity for job making and innovation organisations to perform optimally. AfriLabs is also committed to supporting the growth of the community of African funders. As skills and infrastructure improve, there is more opportunity for investable innovation.
8 Africa’s Development Dynamics 2021, https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/39862-doc-africadd_2020_en_web.pdf 9 https://www.afdb.org/en/knowledge/publications/tracking-africa%E2%80%99s-progress-in-figures/infrastructure- development#:~:text=Infrastructure%20development%20is%20a%20key,productivity%20and%20sustainable%20economic%20 growth.&text=Investment%20in%20infrastructure%20accounts%20for,potential%20to%20achieve%20even%20more. 10 https://smartafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/SMART-BROADBAND-2025-Layout.pdf
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