Feb 24 2017

Executive Summary

Africa has registered impressive economic growth over the past decade and a half, displaying
remarkable resilience in the midst of volatility and turmoil in global markets. Time is now ripe
for the continent to turn the chapter and embark on a journey towards a major economic
transformation. For this, Africa needs a new economic growth model powered by the strength
of the real economy, entrepreneurship and innovation. This report aims to explore the critical
role emerging technologies can play in helping Africa address its age-old development challenges
and achieve exponential growth over the next decade. Our research and interviews with
a range of emerging technology specialists from around the world and experts with deep
experience on the social entrepreneurship and impact space in Africa helped us develop a
framework for analyzing the potential of emerging technologies to amplify impact creation in
the African context.

The report highlights our vision of how emerging technologies can trigger a set of big shifts to
help Africa leapfrog and combat its development challenges. Our research indicates that
although early evidence of these shifts is already visible signaling the beginning of Africa’s
innovation journey, significant whitespaces currently exist. The report identifies these key
innovation whitespaces based on scanning of 100 technology use cases in Africa. It
concludes by identifying a set of opportunities these whitespaces present for key stakeholders
to help nurture a vibrant and high impact technology innovation ecosystem and in the process,
become a part of Africa’s journey towards economic transformation. The following visuals
help stitch together and narrate the key findings, insights and takeaways from the report.

Africa contends with age-old development challenges
which need a fresh look

While achieving food and nutrition security is widely recognized as arguably the greatest
development challenge for Africa, securing water security and low carbon energy security are
other mega challenges that are intertwined with the food security crisis. In addition, Africa
needs to build holistic healthcare ecosystems, create a future ready workforce and financially
include majority of its population.