Africa’s Digital Future Risks Becoming Another Missed Opportunity

There’s a popular book titled How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. It’s often cited in conversations about colonialism, neocolonialism, and the structural disadvantages imposed on the continent by foreign powers. And it’s a valid conversation—history happened, and its consequences still ripple through our systems today.

But here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately: Decades after independence, decades after supposedly reclaiming our autonomy, Africa is still behind. Not just in terms of wealth or infrastructure, but in mindset, in strategy, and in innovation. And while it’s obvious the systems we’re clinging to no longer work, we refuse to abandon them.

The Comfort of Familiar Failures

Every other month there’s a conference. An event. A summit. Another committee formed. Another set of venture capitalists, policymakers, or “tech leaders” gathered to discuss the future of Africa. Panels with the same speakers, sharing the same ideas, in the same rooms filled with the same people. And the needle barely moves.

I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t entirely the fault of colonial history, or Europe, or “the system.” Maybe a part of the blame lies in our collective narrow-mindedness. Our unwillingness to seriously consider alternative systems. Our discomfort with strategies that require patience, long-term vision, and delayed gratification.

We’re addicted to quick wins. To being seen doing something, rather than actually doing something meaningful. And it shows.

The AI Evolution and Africa’s Blind Spot

Right now, we are standing at the edge of another global paradigm shift—AI. An opportunity not just to catch up, but in some areas, to leapfrog. To build systems tailored to our realities instead of patching foreign frameworks onto local problems.

But what do I see? The same old systems of funding, innovation pipelines, and startup mentorship programs modeled after Silicon Valley or European models that didn’t even work well for them half the time. Investment decisions made by people trained to value certain narratives, not actual utility or transformative potential.

We’re playing catch-up with outdated systems. And if we continue like this, 10, 20, 30 years from now, we’ll be having the same conversations: How Europe underdeveloped Africa. How we missed the AI wave. How foreign corporations own our data, our infrastructure, our AI models.

And yet, we had the opportunity. We just couldn’t see it because it didn’t fit into our familiar, comfortable frameworks.

The Obstacle Is the Way

Now, to be clear—I’m aware there’s a book by that title, written by Ryan Holiday. And while I respect the concept, this isn’t a reference to his work. In fact, I hadn’t even encountered his book when I first started framing my own problems through this lens. It’s just one of those truths you arrive at when life keeps throwing you in the deep end, and you realize the only way out is through.

Certain ideas belong to no one person or book. They emerge in different places, to different people, when circumstances demand them. And this one has become a core part of how I see the world. I believe this, not as some vague motivational line, but as a practical, strategic principle.

No matter the problem, if you have enough information and you’re willing to zoom out far enough to see the full battlefield, every disadvantage reveals a blueprint. Not necessarily a guaranteed victory—but clear answers. On what could be done. What should have been done. And what you might be doing wrong now.

Africa’s historical disadvantages, infrastructural gaps, and economic hurdles could be the very leverage we need to design systems differently. To reject frameworks that don’t serve us. To innovate not by copying Silicon Valley, but by building lean, culturally relevant, infrastructure-first technologies tailored to our terrain.

But that requires abandoning our obsession with immediate returns. It requires choosing unsexy, slow-burning, foundational investments in education, data infrastructure, rural connectivity, and digital literacy—things that might not generate headlines today, but would quietly build the foundations for independent, self-sustaining ecosystems.

And maybe, for once, we’d stop needing to explain how Europe underdeveloped Africa, because we’d be too busy developing ourselves.

History’s Quiet Pattern: The Underdogs Who Won

Across history, civilizations and nations that lagged behind the dominant powers of their time often used their “weakness” as a strategic advantage by innovating around their limitations. Let’s look at a few powerful examples:

• Britain: From Agricultural Backwater to Industrial Titan
  In the 18th century, Britain wasn’t the most agriculturally advanced nation—China held that title with its efficient systems and cheap labor. But paradoxically, China’s very efficiency trapped it in what economists now call a “high-level equilibrium trap”—there was no pressure to innovate because the existing system worked too well. Britain, on the other hand, faced labor shortages and high wages. This forced inventors and entrepreneurs to develop labor-saving technologies like the spinning jenny and steam engine, sparking the Industrial Revolution. Constraints create pressure. Pressure births innovation.

• China: From Isolation to Global Dominance
  Fast forward to the late 20th century—China was decades behind Western economies after years of political upheaval and isolation. Instead of chasing the old development models, they experimented with Special Economic Zones (SEZs), offering tax incentives, streamlined regulations, and policy freedoms to attract foreign capital and technology. This wasn’t about catching up on someone else’s terms. It was about creating a parallel model tailored to China’s realities. In four decades, China transformed from an economic underdog into a global powerhouse. Create systems tailored to your terrain, not to your imitator’s.

• Singapore: No Resources, No Problem
  Singapore had no natural resources, no large land mass, and no internal market to speak of. But it turned these into assets. Through obsessive investment in education, water security innovations like the Marina Barrage, and strict, technocratic governance, Singapore became one of the world’s most competitive economies. When you can’t rely on nature, you double down on intellect and systems.

• Kenya: Leapfrogging the Financial System
  In 2007, Kenya faced a major problem: poor access to traditional banking services, especially in rural areas. Instead of building an expensive national network of bank branches, Kenya leapfrogged straight into mobile banking with M-Pesa. Today, Kenya is a global leader in mobile money technology—not because it had advanced infrastructure, but because it didn’t. With economic growth rates sustained at above 5 percent, Kenya has outperformed the regional average for 8 consecutive years. Gaps create opportunities for new systems that outperform the old.

• Poland: Reviving Dying Regions with SEZs
  In the 1990s, Poland was weighed down by underdeveloped regions and high unemployment. Instead of waiting for the market to fix itself, they created Special Economic Zones, offering tax incentives and better infrastructure to attract investors. By 2014, SEZs employed over 250,000 people and drastically improved local economies. Focus on your weak points—they’re often your most scalable opportunities.

Why This Matters for Africa

Africa is at a similar crossroads today, especially in emerging technologies like AI, renewable energy, and fintech. We’re behind. Our infrastructure is weak. Our education systems underperform. Our access to capital is limited. And that could be our biggest advantage.

Why? Because we have the freedom to skip the bloated, inefficient systems that other regions are now trying to reform. We can build lean, culturally relevant, infrastructure-first technologies from scratch. Our gaps are our blueprints.

It’s time we stop copying systems that don’t work for us and start focusing on what could.