Africa does not need to win the race to build the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence models to shape its future in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. That race is already crowded, capital-intensive, and dominated by ecosystems with deep compute, and decades of accumulated infrastructure, compute, and institutional advantage.  Chasing it would be symbolic, not strategic.   Africa ’s opportunity lies elsewhere.   It  lies in applied intelligence under constraint, in t

Across Africa, sprawling infrastructure, energy grids, and transport corridors are increasingly exposed to threats ranging from terrorism and piracy to organised crime. Traditional security approaches - heavily reliant on personnel and imported technology - often fail to scale efficiently across the continent’s vast and varied terrains. Yet a new generation of African defence technology firms is emerging, demonstrating that autonomous systems, AI-driven surveillance, and loca

For decades culture was treated as entertainment, something to appreciate, not something to invest in. But step into any global airport terminal, any streaming playlist, any runway, and a quiet truth becomes undeniable; culture is capital. It shapes perceptions, exports identity, drives tourism, and builds influence faster than many traditional industries ever could. Human creativity is not soft power. It is strategic power. And nowhere is this more visible than in Nigeria. A

Across emerging markets, one pattern appears again and again. The founders who break through are not always the ones with the boldest ideas or the best-capitalised teams. They are the ones who begin in the place where they hold natural, often invisible leverage. The kind of leverage that shows up in regulatory instincts, cultural familiarity, informal networks, and a lived understanding of how the market actually behaves. This “unfair advantage” is not simply helpful; it is o

For the past decade, the world has celebrated being “data-driven.” The business world has echoed the mantra that “data is king.” Companies invested billions in dashboards, analytics stacks, reporting systems, and machine-learning models. Yet when researchers at PwC surveyed more than 1,000 senior executives, only one in three said their organisations were truly  data-driven in practice. And more telling, 58% of executives said their most important recent decision depended lar

Economic development in the modern era is increasingly defined not by the dominance of singular actors, but by the ability of institutions and enterprises to coordinate capacity across networks. The most resilient and rapidly advancing economies are those in which firms, governments, and civil society organisations recognise that progress is rarely the product of isolated strength; rather, it emerges from the deliberate alignment of complementary capabilities. Nowhere is this

Africa is often painted as a frontier or a risk. But in the fintech world, it is fast becoming neither. Rather, it is a locus of...

Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy. Yet more than 80 million Nigerians -  nearly 40% of the population - still lack reliable electricity...

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”  - Steve Jobs Africa today is bursting with innovation. Young entrepreneurs...

“If you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance.” - Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty Africa is home to seven...

As globalization enters a new chapter defined by digital acceleration, geopolitical shifts, and supply chain realignments, Africa is...