Written by Ethel Cofie,
Everyone loves to talk about Africa’s next unicorn. The headlines are easy: billion-dollar fintechs, super-apps, AI startups promising to transform everything from health to payments. But beneath the hype lies a quieter truth; without fibre networks, subsea cables, and data centres, none of these digital miracles can exist. Infrastructure is the invisible architecture that holds the digital economy together.
Africa’s future unicorns won’t be born from hype, they’ll be born from bandwidth.
The Silent Foundation of Innovation
Across the continent, the connectivity gap remains one of the costliest constraints on growth. Internet penetration stands at around 40%, compared to a global average of 67%. Nearly 70% of Africa’s internet traffic is still routed through Europe, leading to higher latency, slower speeds, and inflated costs. The result? Africa pays more — sometimes three times more — for slower, less reliable internet.
The quiet heroes of the digital economy aren’t the apps on our phones but the cables beneath our feet and oceans. From Google’s Equiano and Meta’s 2Africa to Bayobab’s continental fibre expansion, these are the arteries of Africa’s growth story. They connect data centres to cloud providers, ports to people, and ideas to opportunity.
This backbone doesn’t trend on social media, but it determines whether a young founder in Accra, Kigali, or Lagos can build the next generation of African platforms — or merely dream about it.
Why Infrastructure Matters More Than Valuations
Digital infrastructure is the great multiplier. Each kilometre of fibre laid lowers the cost of doing business, expands financial inclusion, and powers innovation across every sector — from agriculture to AI. When bandwidth is affordable and reliable, everything else scales: digital credit, remote education, e-commerce, cloud services.
In economies where internet access is intermittent, even the most brilliant founders spend their early years firefighting connectivity issues instead of refining products. Infrastructure, not ingenuity, becomes the bottleneck.
A billion-dollar valuation may look impressive, but a billion-dollar investment in infrastructure unlocks value for millions — and for decades.
The Investment Blind Spot
Investors across Africa often chase visible innovation; apps, fintechs, and super-apps because they promise faster returns and easier stories. Yet the less glamorous infrastructure layer; fibre routes, subsea cables, and data centres is what quietly enables everything above it.
Too often, we celebrate the outcome and ignore the enabler. It’s no coincidence that platforms like Spotify emerged from countries where fast, reliable internet allowed early experimentation proof that connectivity seeds innovation long before the headlines. In much of Africa, founders spend their first years battling bandwidth constraints and inconsistent uptime rather than testing ideas freely. That drag delays innovation, investment, and competitiveness.
To change this, we must re-value infrastructure as the first stage of innovation, not the last. Blended finance, regional fibre partnerships, and governance-driven investment committees can make connectivity both bankable and scalable. When Africa funds its backbone, it funds its next generation of innovators.
The Continental Imperative
Building Africa’s digital backbone is not a national project — it’s a continental one. Data and value move across borders faster than policy frameworks do. The African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy (2020–2030) envisions a single digital market built on interoperable infrastructure. Smart Africa’s One Africa Network aims to harmonize spectrum and lower roaming costs. But these ambitions depend on hard infrastructure: cross-border fibre corridors, open-access landing stations, and regional data hubs.
When Ghana’s fiber links into Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, when Kenya’s terrestrial routes connect seamlessly to Ethiopia and Uganda, we don’t just create faster internet — we create the backbone for the AfCFTA’s digital trade. Fibre and subsea cables are the logistics network of the digital economy.
Governance must therefore move at the same speed as technology. Transparent regulation, open-access models, and continental coordination can turn cables into corridors of opportunity rather than national silos.
Governance: The Multiplier We Ignore
Infrastructure investment isn’t just about digging trenches; it’s about governance that makes every dollar count. Decision-making at the investment-committee level — on where and how to build fibre, how to price wholesale capacity, and how to partner with private players — determines whether infrastructure becomes inclusive or exclusionary.
On boards and committees across Africa, this is where real transformation happens. When governance aligns commercial viability with developmental impact, infrastructure becomes both sustainable and scalable. Africa doesn’t just need more fibre; it needs better-governed fibre.
Rethinking the Hype Cycle
We’ve spent a decade romanticizing apps, funding platforms, and chasing valuations. It’s time to romanticize the cables, the ducts, and the data centres — the backbone that makes every digital dream possible.
Africa doesn’t lack ambition; it lacks infrastructure density. The Spotify story reminds us that innovation often starts not with billion-dollar investors, but with the freedom to experiment on fast, affordable internet.
If we get the backbone right, Africa’s next unicorns won’t have to fight buffering; they’ll be built on fibre strong enough to carry an entire continent’s imagination.
