Why Africa’s tech talent makes it an attractive investment destination

Joseph Nsengimana is the director of the Mastercard Foundation’s Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning. The center works with tech hubs, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to integrate technology into education across the continent.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned while working in Africa’s tech ecosystem?

There is enormous talent in young ed-tech entrepreneurs on the continent and that’s one of the things that people have a misconception about. They just need support, an enabling policy environment, and investment backing to flourish.

What excites you about tech innovation in Africa over the next five years?

There is a growing tech ecosystem on the continent. You find a bunch of tech hubs popping up. A lot of people are graduating and going straight into tech-based entrepreneurship. There is a growth in confidence in African tech innovators and they are starting to create authentic solutions for the biggest challenges on the continent. There is also an improved policy environment: Several governments recognize that they need to work on their policies. We’ve seen an uptick in investments in startups in Africa. With all this combined, Africa will surprise people in the next five years.

What’s one perception of tech innovation in Africa that you strongly want to correct?

When you talk to people outside Africa, they seem to think technology innovation is absent in the continent. But we have such young, talented people. Of course, they need support from a capacity-building perspective. But the talent is here. If I were an investor or a big company looking to establish an office, I’d be looking on the continent. We’ve seen some of that happen with the machine learning and AI program at the African Institute for Mathematical Learning, supported by Meta and Google. People are starting to recognize the talent available on the continent and trying to develop it. ▰

David I. Adeleke is the Africa Editor at Rest of World.