Africa’s digital economy is filled with new fiber, data centers, and cloud platforms, but many enterprises still struggle to convert that available capacity into results. That was the takeaway from the Enterprise IT panel at Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025, a panel that shifted the focus from infrastructure builds to execution – the people, processes, and culture that turn technology into business outcomes.
Speakers included Sayo Oshadami, Director of Solutions Architecture & Engineering, Equinix (moderator); Dr. Yele Okeremi, Chief Executive Officer, Precise Financial Systems; Hakeem Adeniji-Adele, Deputy Managing Director, eTranzact; Dr. Yemi Okeremi, Group Managing Director, YyConnect; and Okechi Osuagwu, Regional Account Manager, Vertiv.
The session examined why projects stall after hardware arrives and what it takes to scale products effectively. “The real challenge is not what we’re building, but whether we are using the best of what we already have,” Oshadami said.
Two experienced founders argued that the gap begins with mindset. “Africans expect solutions from people they’re better than – until we create and own value, we’ll always chase others,” said Dr. Yele Okeremi, CEO of Precise Financial Systems. Dr. Yemi Okeremi, Group Managing Director of YyConnect, added: “We don’t celebrate ourselves enough. Despite all odds, we are still playing at the same level as developed economies.” Both emphasized moving from consumption to value creation and shifting from “project delivery” to “product ownership.”
Localization was another key issue. Imported systems often underperform in African conditions – such as inconsistent bandwidth, power fluctuations, and varying compliance requirements – unless they are adapted. The panel called for “tropicalized” solutions and increased local Research & Development so enterprise software reflects real-world operating conditions.
Culture, not code, often determines scale, said Hakeem Adeniji-Adele, Deputy Managing Director of eTranzact. He described culture as the “silent saboteur” when accountability is unclear and cross-functional collaboration is rare. “Infrastructure is the foundation, but execution is the engine. Fail fast, fail forward,” he said, encouraging teams to adopt agile methods, aligned incentives, and closer links between business and engineering.
Governance and innovation can align if designed together, panelists argued. Oshadami inquired how CTOs leading change can work with compliance officers responsible for risk mitigation. The group supported co-designed controls – integrating compliance into DevOps pipelines and conducting iterative risk assessments – so speed doesn’t compromise safety.
Vendors also feel the pressure. Okechi Osuagwu, Regional Account Manager at Vertiv, said capacity must grow with demand surges and new workloads: “Innovation is outpacing infrastructure. Only modular, scalable systems can keep us ahead.” This means standardizing architectures that allow enterprises to expand without disruptive rip-and-replace cycles.
The panelists agreed on items that need to change now: build local for local – prioritize indigenous software and “tropicalized” platforms suited to African operating environments; institutionalize execution by encouraging ownership, learning from failures, and cross-functional delivery while focusing on outcomes, not just deployments; co-design governance by incorporating compliance early in development to reduce friction and surprise audits; and scale sustainably by using modular infrastructure and investing consistently in talent so teams can iterate rather than restart.
The panel’s blunt conclusion was that connectivity and cloud are no longer the main obstacles. Human systems – mindset, culture, governance, and product discipline – will determine which African enterprises turn today’s infrastructure into tomorrow’s growth.
Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025 was convened by Africa Hyperscalers and sponsored by Nokia, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), IHS Towers, Vertiv, Equinix, and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
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