Tech Champions

Cybercrime: African business leaders need to change their outlooks and approaches

In depth
This article is part of the dossier: Top 50 tech champions

By Frédéric Maury, Nathalie Kienga

Posted on Thursday, 5 May 2022 10:53, updated on Tuesday, 8 November 2022 15:26

The deployment of digital technologies in Africa has grown dramatically over the past two decades. The internet penetration rate, which was less than 1% of the population in the 2000s according to the World Bank, has now reached 43.2% (Internet World Stats, 2021), including 25% of users connected every day.

This is part 10 of an 11-part series.

An increase that continues to accelerate since, between October 2018 and April 2019, more than nine million individuals obtained internet access for the first time.

READ MORE How Africa is increasingly being targeted by cybercriminals

Also in this in Depth:
Tech titans

Africa’s Top 50 digital champions 2022

For the second year in a row, The Africa Report and Jeune Afrique are publishing an exclusive ranking of the 50 people that are leading the continent's digital revolution. In order to give more visibility to these tech champions, we decided to shake things up by dividing our ranking into three parts. 

Tech Champions

Africa’s Top 50 digital champions: 30 leaders at start-ups, telcos and tech giants

They run Chipper Cash, Opay, Wave, TradeDepot, Andela, MTN, Vodacom, Orange, Google, Amazon, Terraco and Huawei. The African tech industry’s 30 most important bosses feature in our exclusive ranking.

Tech Champions

The 10 investors at the forefront of the digital transition

Their names are often only known to specialists. We have selected 10 investment fund and seed fund managers specialised in financing start-ups.

Tech Champions

Regulators, lobbyists, influencers: 10 trendsetters at the heart of the digital transition

Whether they are heads of regulatory authorities, lobbyists, incubator founders or influencers, they are working to accelerate digitalization on the continent.

TECH CHAMPIONS

Chipper Cash: American network, African success

Having raised $250m and earned itself unicorn status, the fintech firm, which owes its success in part to its founders' close proximity to Silicon Valley, had a wild 2021.

Tech Champions

Is Senegal the new El Dorado for African developers?

The number of developers is growing faster in Senegal than anywhere else on the continent. But due to a lack of opportunities at home, some of them are forced to look overseas.

Tech Champions

Mobile money: Coura Sène, at the crest of (the) Wave

A French-trained engineer, the regional director of American start-up Wave in the UEMOA zone embodies Senegal's success on the pan-African tech scene.

Tech Champions

Google’s ‘Mr Africa’? Ten things to know about Nitin Gajria

Appointed chief of the multinational in Africa just before the Covid-19 pandemic, 43-year-old Gajria has not been able to travel the continent the way he would have liked. In March, he made one of his first official trips to Lomé to mark, with the Togolese government, the landing of the Equiano submarine cable.

Tech Champions

‘We’ve done the heavy lifting,’ says Cassava Technologies’ Hardy Pemhiwa

For Liquid Intelligent Technologies (#167), the pandemic has produced yet another example of Africa leapfrogging. “We saw a five-times increase in data throughput,” says Hardy Pemhiwa, the chief executive of Liquid’s holding company, Cassava Technologies, recalling the huge demands suddenly placed on its vast fibre-optic network on the continent in 2020. Many companies were forced to digitalise to survive.

Tech Champions

Start-ups: African champions in the consolidation era

Some twenty start-ups on the continent have reached the Series C financing stage. To maintain their growth rate, mergers and acquisitions are a choice option.

Digital subscription
Digital subscription

Give yourself a headstart:
Get full access to The Africa Report on all your devices.