Smart Africa has been urged to transform its continental network into a powerful commercial distribution engine capable of helping African technology companies expand across borders and compete globally.
Henri Nyakarundi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ARED Group, said the alliance could be missing a major opportunity despite already having many of the relationships and institutional connections African technology companies need to scale.
Smart Africa brings together governments, policymakers, regulators and technology stakeholders across the continent and has set an ambition of creating a Single African Digital Market by 2030. However, Nyakarundi questioned why the network was not being used more systematically to help African technology companies access new markets, customers, procurement opportunities and commercial partners.
“Why isn’t Smart Africa one of the most powerful distribution engines for African technology companies?” Nyakarundi asked.
According to him, the alliance has direct relationships with ministers, regulators and policymakers, while global technology companies are visibly embedded within its ecosystem. Although he acknowledged the importance of global technology to Africa’s digital development, he questioned the availability of similar structures to help African innovators scale across the continent.
Nyakarundi suggested that Smart Africa could establish a structured pathway for African technology companies seeking to enter new markets.
“If I build technology in Rwanda, why can’t this network systematically help me find a distributor in Ghana, a government opportunity in Kenya, an integrator in Senegal or a customer in Côte d’Ivoire?” he said.
He argued that such capabilities should represent the real power of a Single African Digital Market, enabling technology companies to access qualified local partners, regulators, customers and procurement opportunities across member countries.
Nyakarundi also raised concerns about access to the organisation, noting that membership at the highest levels can provide access to meetings involving Heads of State and ICT ministers, while startups do not receive the same level of access.
“The organisation created to accelerate Africa’s digital transformation risks becoming easier for established global corporations to navigate than for the African innovators it should be helping become global companies,” he said.
Smart Africa has recognised part of this challenge through its new SANIA initiative, which is intended to connect entrepreneurs, investors, accelerators and ecosystem organisations across borders. Nyakarundi described the initiative as progress but argued that networking alone would not be sufficient.
According to him, African entrepreneurs need more than another ecosystem. They need distribution, customers, contracts, procurement access, verified local partners, integrators and cross-border government introductions.
Nyakarundi proposed that Smart Africa could encourage its member governments to actively identify qualified African technology solutions when procuring digital infrastructure.
He also called for a structured system to support African technology companies entering other member countries by connecting them with local partners and relevant market opportunities.
Such an approach, he argued, could help African companies expand beyond their domestic markets and strengthen the continent’s technology ecosystem without excluding international firms.
“Africa needs global technology,” he said, while maintaining that a continental digital alliance should also create stronger pathways for African innovation to move across African markets.
For Nyakarundi, the central challenge is whether Smart Africa can evolve beyond being a platform for dialogue and networking into an institution that actively supports commercial expansion and cross-border market access for African technology companies.
“If Africa builds a 42-country digital alliance and that alliance becomes a better gateway into Africa for global technology companies than out of Africa for African technology companies, then something is fundamentally backwards,” he said.
He said the foundations already exist, with governments, institutions and networks already connected through the alliance.
“We already built the network. We already have the governments. We already have the institutions. Now turn it into a commercial weapon for African innovation,” Nyakarundi said.
He added that Africa does not need another platform where entrepreneurs can simply meet, but a vehicle capable of helping African technology companies grow into African multinationals and eventually global companies.
“That is what Smart Africa could become,” he said.
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