Table of Contents
Introduction
Across the continent, too many African tech founders are building copycat solutions—clones of products designed in San Francisco, Amsterdam, or Berlin. The logic is simple: “It worked in the West. Let’s localize and scale it here.”
But here’s the hard truth: Silicon Valley models don’t work in African markets without serious adaptation. And worse, applying them blindly creates fragile products, burns investor money, and ignores the real needs of African users.
If Africa wants to build a sustainable digital economy, we need to stop copying and start creating. We need our own tech playbook—designed by us, for us.
Why Silicon Valley Models do not translate
- Infrastructure Misalignment: Silicon Valley was built on the assumption of stable infrastructure—24/7 electricity, high-speed internet, and fast logistics. Most African cities don’t have that luxury. Outside of major hubs, spotty power and poor connectivity are the norm. Products built for always-online users with unlimited data plans simply don’t hold up in markets like Kano, Mombasa, or Kumasi.
- Assumptions That Don’t Hold: Western platforms assume a digital-native user base with high trust in online systems. In contrast, many African users:
- Still prefer cash over digital payments
- Are skeptical of online privacy and data handling
- May have limited English or French literacy
- Use low-end smartphones with limited storage
- Designing for the average user in Palo Alto doesn’t serve the needs of a farmer in Sokoto or a trader in Makola.
3. The VC Trap
Silicon Valley thrives on blitzscaling—raising massive VC rounds, burning capital for growth, and chasing exits. But African founders who chase this model often find themselves stranded:
- Fewer VCs operate in Africa
- Investors demand early profitability
- Local markets can’t sustain hyper-growth
- Many users simply can’t afford premium-priced services
Sustainability beats speed. Profitability beats PR.
What an African Tech Playbook should include
A successful African tech playbook needs to start from the ground up. Here’s what that means:
1. Local-First Product Design
Design must reflect language, culture, and real-world use cases. This includes:
- Interfaces in Yoruba, Hausa, Swahili
- Onboarding that doesn’t assume tech fluency
- UX that’s not built on Western metaphors (e.g., email verification isn’t always practical)
- Product flows that work on WhatsApp, SMS, or USSD
Start where the user is. Not where Silicon Valley left off.
2. Offline-Compatible Tech
Africa needs apps that work with or without data. That means:
- Offline-first mobile apps (e.g., Progressive Web Apps)
- Sync-when-online architecture
- Lightweight installs and caching
- Bundled content for education and training
Ask yourself: Can your product work during a power outage in a rural village?
3. Payments in Local Currencies
Forget Stripe-first or USD-only models. Build for mobile money, bank transfers, and cash pickup. Local payment rails like:
- M-Pesa (Kenya, Tanzania)
- OPay and Moniepoint (Nigeria)
- MTN MoMo (Ghana, Uganda)
Also, price your products in Naira, Cedi, or Shillings—not dollars. Dollar-denominated tools create pricing barriers for most users.
4. Talent Constraints and Workarounds
Your startup might not have a 10-person senior dev team. And that’s okay.
African tech needs playbooks for lean execution:
- Train junior devs internally
- Use low-code tools like Glide, Softr, or Bubble
- Build with modular Laravel APIs or Flutter apps
- Embrace remote async work with Notion, Loom, and GitHub
Execution matters more than seniority. Rituals matter more than structure.
Case Studies: Local Teams, Local Solutions, Global Reach
1. Paystack (Nigeria)
Before their $200M exit to Stripe, Paystack was solving a very local problem: how to enable Nigerian businesses to accept online payments. They didn’t copy Stripe—they solved for:
- Bank verification numbers (BVN)
- Local settlement systems
- USSD and debit card prevalence
They built for Nigeria first. Then scaled.
2. M-KOPA (Kenya)
M-KOPA’s solar energy model fits the African reality—off-grid, rural, cash-constrained.
- Pay-as-you-go solar kits using mobile money
- Offline-capable hardware with embedded SIM cards
- Low upfront cost, high flexibility
This wasn’t a Western product copy. It was built for—and with—Kenyans.
Conclusion: Write our own Rules
Africa’s future in tech isn’t about imitation. It’s about invention. We don’t need to wait for the West to figure it out. We don’t need more clones of Uber or Airbnb.
We need tools that work in Zaria, Zomba, and Zanzibar.
We need systems that speak our languages, handle our currencies, and match our realities.
The future of African tech depends on one thing: writing our own playbook.
Africa can’t wait. Let’s write our own rules.
Dr. Oluwaseun Ogunmola
AI Evangelist | Product Manager | Project Manager
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seunogunmola
References
- https://techcabal.com/2023/12/12/why-african-startups-fail-after-launch/
- https://restofworld.org/2022/african-startups-funding-myths/
- https://paystack.com/ng
- https://www.m-kopa.com/
- https://web.dev/progressive-web-apps/
- https://flutter.dev/
