Stop Copying Europe: Build What Moves Africa
Africa doesn’t need another European replica. We don’t need apps that look sleek but solve no local problems.
We don’t need startups that pitch to Western investors while ignoring African realities. What we need are businesses that understand Africa—because they’re built for Africa, not inspired by Europe.
A product that works in Oslo might be completely irrelevant in Onitsha. That’s not a bad thing—it’s just reality.
Our challenges are different. Our infrastructure is different. Our behavior, needs, and economic rhythms are different. So why are we still building tools optimized for users who don’t live here?
Look around: Africa already has brilliant, homegrown examples of this shift. Neo-banks like OPay and Moniepoint didn’t try to copy Chase Bank—they solved a local problem with local insight.
Mobile POS systems may not be revolutionary in Europe, but here, they are infrastructure. These are African innovations, not hand-me-downs.
The next layer of transformation will come when we build indigenous labs—not foreign-funded think tanks with development buzzwords, but real, self-funded research centers that understand our streets, our cities, and our people.
Places where the brightest minds aren’t tasked with replicating Western patents but inventing African solutions.
We don’t need validation from Silicon Valley. We need to build our own Google, our own Amazon, our own IBM. Companies that not only dominate markets but move the needle—on education, logistics, identity, power, and finance.
Let’s build for the power outage, not the smart home. Build for the informal market, not the Fortune 500. Build for the real Africa—and in doing so, define the future on our terms.
Because copying Europe won’t move Africa forward. But building what works for us will.