The Mandate of Urgency: Africa’s All-In Strategy to Seize the Digital Future

At the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, discussions around digital transformation dominated the agenda. AI was the headline, but for African leaders, the conversation extended beyond technological fascination. The question was strategic and urgent: how can Africa harness the digital revolution to convert its potential into meaningful productivity and inclusive growth, rather than being relegated to a “digital underclass”?

This urgent discourse unfolded on “The Y’ello Chair,” hosted by Angela Wamola, Head of GSMA Africa. The session brought together two pivotal architects of Africa’s digital future: Honorable Minister Dr. Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and the Digital Economy, and Ralph Mupita, President and CEO of MTN Group and Deputy Chair of the GSMA Board. Their dialogue centered on actionable solutions, emphasizing three essential pillars: People, Platforms, and Partners.

In this #TechTalkThursday article, we unpack their discussion and highlight how these pillars can accelerate Africa’s digital transformation.  

The Human Challenge: Mobilizing Talent Across the Continent

Africa’s digital divide is stark. Out of approximately 1.557 billion people on the continent, only around 500 million are online. Roughly one billion Africans — 70 percent of the population remain in the “voice era,” relying primarily on basic telephony and SMS. The continent’s digital potential is vast, yet much of it remains untapped.

Dr. Bosun Tijani offered a compelling analogy to illustrate this challenge, drawing from his own experience with football: talent alone is insufficient. “Football is a combination of talent and training,” he explained. “You need the right boots, regular practice, and access to the insights that allow you to improve. Africa has talent in mass, but our biggest challenge is that this talent does not have access to the resources needed to turn it into outcomes that benefit society.” He compared the situation to African footballers, many of whom excel individually yet face systemic obstacles in reaching the very top at international competitions largely due to uneven access to training and support.

Connectivity, he emphasized, presents a similar barrier. “Ten or fifteen years ago, telecommunication services were just any other sector,” Minister Tijani said. “Today, they are the backbone of development. You cannot deliver quality healthcare without connectivity. You cannot deliver quality education without connectivity. There is no commerce, no effective transportation, no modern mining, and no national security without it.”

The Minister stressed the imperative of inclusivity, noting;

“We cannot leave anyone behind. We must include all of our talent, regardless of where they find themselves—whether in Sao Paolo in the far north or in Lagos. Meaningful connectivity must be universal because it is the only way to leverage talent and truly develop our continent.” 

Nigeria exemplifies both the promise and the challenge of digital inclusion. With 150 million active mobile internet users consuming an average of eight gigabits per month—double the continental average—the country demonstrates that large-scale connectivity is possible. Yet, as Minister Tijani observed, talent without access remains an untapped resource. The continent’s digital future depends not only on training and skills but on ensuring that infrastructure, devices, and networks are available to empower every African to contribute. 

Platforms for Pervasive Growth: Beyond Connectivity

Bridging Africa’s digital divide requires more than just connecting individuals; it demands a platform-centric approach that links people, places, machines, and society itself. Ralph Mupita emphasized that network coverage, while important, affects only a small fraction of the population. “Coverage is not the big issue today. Only about one person out of ten is not in a covered area,” he noted. For the remaining unconnected, complementary technologies, including LEO satellites alongside subsea cables and terrestrial networks, can rapidly extend access.

Regulatory frameworks, Mupita argued, must actively encourage collaboration in challenging regions. “In very mountainous, deep rural areas, there should be a competition framework that compels operators to collaborate. The challenging economics should not prevent connectivity. We want everybody covered.”

Device affordability presents a more persistent barrier. Mupita insisted on the urgent need for smartphones priced at $20 or less, emphasizing that the devices must be functional and appealing. Fiscal policies exacerbate the challenge; in some markets, customs duties reach 30 percent, inflating the cost of even modest handsets and limiting access to 4G technology. Innovative financing and policy reform are therefore critical to ensure that technology reaches all Africans.

He stressed that platforms must go beyond connecting people. “We must connect people to places, machines to machines, and society itself,” he said. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), thoughtfully deployed with public-private collaboration, will be essential to support the continent’s growing data demands. Average MTN users in Nigeria now consume 14.3 gigabytes per month, a seventy-fold increase from 2017, highlighting the urgency of scalable platforms.

Beyond infrastructure and devices, digital literacy is essential. Mupita emphasized that young Africans require the skills to navigate the digital world: “If you are not digitally literate today, you risk being stuck in the dark ages.” Platforms, therefore, must integrate access, affordability, and skilling simultaneously.

Citing India’s experience, Mupita noted that public-private collaboration can achieve remarkable results in challenging geographies. “In a decade, they have connected remote regions with decent quality networks. There is no reason Africa cannot do the same.” Success, he argued, depends on coordinated action among government, business, and civil society. “ 

The AI Imperative: Prioritizing Absorptive Capacity

As Africa accelerates its digital journey, AI merges as both an opportunity and a challenge. While global narratives frame AI as a race for technological supremacy, African leaders caution against getting lost in geopolitics. Minister Tijani highlighted that the continent’s priority must be practical: building the capacity to use AI effectively rather than focusing solely on sovereignty or competition.

“AI will widen the gap amongst nations,” Minister Tijani warned. “The priority must be absorptive capacity—the ability of Africans to effectively use AI.” This perspective shifts the focus from where AI is developed to how it is deployed and made accessible to end-users across Africa.

Agriculture offers a clear illustration. Average maize yields in Nigeria stand at 2.5 tons per hectare, while Brazil achieves 10 to 12 tons on comparable land. The difference is not genetic modification but precision farming powered by connectivity and AI. “It does not matter whether the AI server is based in San Francisco,” Tijani explained. “What matters is that the AI can speak the language of the African farmer.”

To address this, Nigeria has launched N-Atlas, a multilingual, multi-modal, open-source Large Language Model (LLM). The initiative ensures AI solutions are inclusive, allowing local youth to tackle challenges in their own languages. “Technology must enable interaction in the vernacular without excluding anyone,” added Ralph Mupita, underscoring the role of local partnerships in AI development.

Minister Tijani emphasized that effective deployment requires more than software. It depends on connectivity, affordable devices, and local talent to support adoption. Open-sourcing the LLM extends opportunities for Africa’s youth to build practical solutions for local problems, ensuring AI works for Africans rather than excluding them.

“Most of us use electricity or the internet without asking where it was invented,” he noted. Similarly, Africa should focus on using AI to solve productivity challenges rather than becoming distracted by global competition. He warned that neglecting this approach risks creating a “digital underclass,” while investing in absorptive capacity can empower Africa to harness AI for meaningful development.

Collaboration and the Youth Dividend

Africa’s digital transformation cannot be achieved in isolation. Governments, private sector players, and civil society must collaborate, with regulators providing the framework—spectrum management, rights-of-way, and clear policies—to attract investment. 

“And I think right now the big thing for me is the youth. How do we make sure that the youth dividend Africa will have in the next 20 to 30 years is not a wasted one? Where it’s actually not a youth dividend, it actually becomes a curse. And where you have all these young people with their ambitions who want to have a better life, and they get stuck. This is the moment to act, to make sure we equip our youth—those between the ages of 10 and 30—because they are the generation that will build the Africa we have been waiting for.”

The continent’s youth, nearly half of Africa’s population, represent its greatest untapped resource. Properly supported, they can turn potential challenges into engines of innovation and growth. Minister Tijani cited Nigeria’s initiative to train three million technical talents, accelerated by MTN’s involvement, as proof that collaboration can overcome bureaucratic delays. He urged organizations to fund the data collection necessary for African LLMs, emphasizing the need for platforms that enable both skill development and technology adoption.

The vision is clear: through inclusive connectivity, scalable platforms, and strategic partnerships, Africa can deliver opportunity, dignity, and hope, transforming key sectors—agriculture, healthcare, education, mining, and logistics—into engines of a digitally empowered future. “The urgency is why collaboration is important,” Minister Tijani concluded, underscoring the need to act decisively.