We’re Building the Skyscraper Without a Foundation: The Flaw in Africa’s Tech Boom

For the better part of a decade, I’ve lived in the trenches of African entrepreneurship. From the humming servers of a software development firm(Oratech ) to the patient-centric halls of a healthcare venture (Lifesten Health)  and the creative whirlwind of a marketing agency (Madavi), I’ve built, scaled, and navigated the unique pressures of founding companies on the continent.

And in that time, I’ve watched a familiar, disheartening cycle repeat itself: a wave of bright, well-funded startups capturing headlines, only to quietly scale back or shutter their operations a few years later. I’ve felt the same challenges they did—the infrastructural friction, the trust deficits, the talent gaps—that plague every founder trying to build something lasting here. But seeing this pattern of promise and retreat from my own vantage point left me with a gnawing question: Why were so many smart ventures, with ample capital and ambition, consistently hitting a wall?

This question propelled me beyond my own operational headaches and into a period of deep research. The answer, I discovered, wasn’t in the quality of the code or the charisma of the founders. It was in a fundamental misalignment. We have been trying to build a digital skyscraper on a foundation that cannot support its weight.

The pivotal question for any builder in Africa today is not “How do we build the next viral app?” It is, “How do we build technology that strengthens the very foundations of the economy?”

The Diagnosis: The Three-Layered Leak

To find the answer, we must first diagnose the economy as a stack of three interconnected layers:

1. Layer 1: The Physical Foundation. This is the bedrock: logistics, energy, roads, and ports.

2. Layer 2: The Service & Enabler Layer. This is the plumbing: finance, education, and professional services.

3. Layer 3: The Digital & Experiential Layer. These are the apps and platforms we interact with daily.

The core insight is this: Weaknesses in Layer 1 create distortions in Layer 2, which ultimately limit the potential of Layer 3. This is the source of the “value leakage” stifling our growth.

• The Production Gap: We export raw materials and import finished goods because unreliable energy and costly logistics (Layer 1) make local processing uncompetitive.

• The Distribution Gap: The exorbitant cost of moving goods is a tax on every transaction, a direct result of poor infrastructure (Layer 1) and a fragmented trucking industry (Layer 2).

• The Trust & Capital Gap: A lack of formal records prevents SMEs from accessing credit, stifling the very businesses that form our economy’s backbone.

You cannot fix a Layer 1 problem with a Layer 3 solution. An app won’t fix a pothole. But you can build a Layer 3 solution that is acutely aware of these constraints and is designed to navigate them brilliantly.

The Blueprint: Be a “Friction Solver”

The most successful tech ventures will be those that use technology as a force multiplier to solve fundamental, friction-costing problems. They follow a simple pattern: “How can we use technology to reduce the cost and friction of a fundamental economic activity?”

Reinforcing the Physical Foundation (Layer 1):

• Problem: “How might we create a dynamic, AI-powered platform to optimize Africa’s fragmented logistics, reducing the cost and time of moving goods by 30%?”

• The Solve & The Return: A digital freight matching platform. Businesses will pay a premium to save on their largest operational cost.

Formalizing the Economy (Layer 2):

• Problem: “How might we develop a ‘digital formalization’ platform that simplifies business registration, tax, and credit access for millions of informal SMEs?”

• The Solve & The Return: A simple SaaS tool. Monetize through subscriptions, transaction fees, or B2B data services for banks.

The Reality Check: The “Latent Costs” That Kill Startups

The collapse of well-funded ventures isn’t a failure of entrepreneurs, but of a model not designed for Africa’s reality.

Success requires navigating six “latent costs” that silently drain capital:

1. The Pioneer Cost: Building the ecosystem your company needs to survive.

2. The Infrastructure Cost: The hidden tax of unreliable power and expensive internet.

3. The Trust Cost: The astronomical expense of acquiring customers in a low-trust society.

4. The Talent Cost: The severe shortage of experienced scaling talent.

5. The Regulatory Cost: The uncertainty of navigating unclear and fragmented rules.

6. The Education Cost: The slow, expensive process of teaching everyone involved.

These costs mean you cannot simply “blitzscale.” Profitability on each transaction must be the Day One priority. Growth is secondary to proving you have a model that can survive the ecosystem’s inherent friction.

The Kenyan Playbook: A Practical Prioritization

For a market like Kenya, here is a practical way to prioritize, balancing Effort, Impact, and Cost:

• 🥇 Quick Win: SaaS for MSMEs. High Impact, Low Effort. A proven model to formalize the economy’s backbone with a fast path to revenue.

• 🥈 Strategic Bet: Farmer-to-Buyer Platform. High Impact, Medium Effort. Directly attacks food waste and farmer income, requiring a strong logistics partnership.

• 🥉 Moonshot: AI-Powered Logistics Optimizer. Massive Impact, High Effort. Would revolutionize supply chains but demands complex tech and data.

Start with a quick win to build capital and credibility, then advance to the strategic bets that define the future.

The Support System: Finding Backers for Foundational Tech

Thankfully, a growing vanguard of incubators now champions this foundational approach. Organizations like Catalyst Fund back climate-resilient startups in agriculture and clean energy, while Norrsken Foundation champions impact-driven ventures across health and education. Similarly, Saviu Ventures and R9 Labs explicitly target the hard tech and B2B solutions that optimize broken supply chains. Their focused support—blending sector-specific expertise and patient capital—is vital for those laying the essential pipes for our future.

Build the Boring, Critical Stuff

The future of African tech is not about copying Western models. It’s about building essential, often “boring,” infrastructure. The companies that will define the next decade are those asking: How do we move goods cheaper? How do we power homes reliably? How do we turn informal businesses into bankable entities?

By focusing on these foundational problems, you are not just building an app. You are building the future itself. And that is a business worth building.