Africa’s startup ecosystems are growing rapidly across individual countries, but the absence of regional coordination continues to limit their ability to scale into globally competitive technology platforms, speakers warned during a panel on Startups × Government: Closing the Creation and Adoption Gap at GITEX Africa in Marrakech.
While national governments are increasingly supporting innovation through digital transformation programs and public-sector technology procurement, fragmentation across regulatory environments, infrastructure access, and financing ecosystems remains one of the biggest structural barriers to continental-scale growth.
Alpha Amadou Dia, Director of Operations and Investment Lead at DPENP–CEAC, said efforts to support startups at the country level risk losing impact without alignment across regions where markets, infrastructure systems, and investment frameworks intersect.
“On a country level, you can do what you can for startups to grow, but if you don’t align at the regional level, where the real scale exists, you are limiting the outcome,” he said.
The discussion highlighted that scaling innovation across Africa requires coordinated investments in digital infrastructure, access to long-term capital, and shared platforms capable of supporting emerging AI and data-driven applications.
Governments, speakers noted, remain the single largest anchor customers for digital solutions in most emerging markets. Palani Panneervel, Chief Executive Officer of ICT Infracon, emphasized that public-sector demand – particularly through e-government programs – plays a decisive role in shaping early-stage technology ecosystems and creating viable markets for startups deploying new services.
As artificial intelligence begins to reshape digital service delivery, this procurement role is expected to become even more significant, positioning governments not only as regulators but as infrastructure catalysts for innovation adoption.
The panel also underscored the importance of governance frameworks that balance innovation incentives with public trust. Rami Abi Akl, Head of the Digital Affairs and AI Department at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, argued that trusted AI systems depend on regulatory environments capable of protecting citizens while enabling experimentation and investment.
He pointed to the European Union’s AI Act as an example of how governments can create guardrails that support innovation without concentrating benefits among a small number of actors. Ensuring broad access to infrastructure, he added, will be essential if AI is to become a shared economic platform rather than a specialized capability limited to a few markets.
Energy availability and sustainability were also identified as emerging constraints on Africa’s AI ambitions. As compute-intensive workloads expand, countries will increasingly need to align digital infrastructure strategies with renewable energy planning and more efficient “frugal AI” deployment approaches that reduce power consumption without limiting innovation capacity.
Speakers agreed that closing the gap between innovation creation and adoption will require governments to move beyond policy support toward acting as coordinated infrastructure partners across borders. Without regional frameworks for shared standards, interoperable platforms, and aligned investment strategies, Africa risks producing strong national startup ecosystems that struggle to translate into continental digital markets.
As African governments expand digital public infrastructure and implement frameworks such as the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol, the challenge ahead will be ensuring that innovation ecosystems are not only created locally, but enabled to scale regionally.
