A growing number of African founders and ecosystem leaders are questioning the usefulness of “African tech” as a go-to-market strategy, warning that the broad label masks deep structural differences between markets and contributes to startup failure across the continent.
The debate was reignited this week by Pan-African venture builder and executive coach Liza Akinyi, who argued that while “African tech” may function as a funding or advocacy term, it is fundamentally flawed as an operational strategy.
According to Akinyi, treating Africa as a single market ignores the economic, regulatory, and cultural realities that shape how technology products succeed—or fail—across the continent’s 54 countries and more than 1.4 billion people.
“There’s no such thing as an African consumer,” Akinyi said. “These are fundamentally different markets with different infrastructure, regulatory environments, consumer behaviors, and economic realities.”
At the core of the issue is market fragmentation, particularly in heavily regulated sectors such as fintech, agritech, and retail. Founders and investors note that financial regulations, payment systems, and monetary policy vary sharply from country to country, making product portability difficult.
Nigeria’s tightly regulated banking system and frequent Central Bank interventions, for example, create a markedly different fintech environment from Kenya’s mobile-money-driven ecosystem dominated by M-Pesa. Currency volatility in Ghana, managed exchange regimes in Rwanda, and South Africa’s established credit culture further complicate attempts to apply a single model across borders.
“A fintech that thrives in Lagos crashes in Nairobi. An agritech solution built for Kenya doesn’t translate to Ethiopia,” Akinyi said, pointing to repeated examples of startups struggling after premature regional expansion.
Infrastructure disparities remain another major constraint. Differences in electricity reliability, internet penetration, logistics networks, and payment interoperability often force startups to redesign products entirely when entering new markets. Analysts say these gaps significantly affect unit economics, customer acquisition costs, and operational scalability.
Despite these realities, many early-stage startups continue to describe themselves as “pan-African” from inception—a trend critics say leads to shallow market understanding, diluted resources, and slow traction across all markets.
Akinyi argues that the most successful founders take a market-first approach, focusing on deep local problem-solving before expansion.
“The founders who succeed pick one market, go deep, solve for that specific context, and then expand strategically,” she said. “Only then do they adapt for the next market.”
The discussion also touches on the role of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). While AfCFTA is expected to support long-term regulatory and trade harmonization, experts caution that its benefits remain largely aspirational for tech startups navigating today’s operational realities.
“There’s no African strategy,” Akinyi said. “There’s a Kenyan strategy. A Nigerian strategy. An Egyptian strategy.”
Industry observers say the continued use of “African tech” as a blanket category may oversimplify the continent’s innovation story for global investors, while placing unrealistic expectations on founders to scale too broadly, too quickly.
As competition for venture capital intensifies and funding becomes more selective, analysts believe founders who articulate clear, country-specific market strategies may be better positioned to demonstrate traction, resilience, and long-term viability.
The emerging consensus among operators is that Africa’s strength lies not in uniformity, but in its diversity—and that winning one market decisively may matter more than claiming the entire continent prematurely.
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