Africa’s Tech and AI Boom

The Real Question Is Who Owns the Value

Africa is entering a historic digital moment. Everywhere you turn you can feel the shift. More smartphones. More data being consumed. More AI tools being tested by both governments and startups. More data centres rising from Lagos to Nairobi to Johannesburg.

But beneath the excitement sits a quieter and more complicated story. It is the story of ownership. The story of sovereignty. And the story of value extraction.

Because as Africa generates more data than ever before, the key question becomes very simple. Who truly owns this new digital wealth.

This article brings those conversations together into one honest summary of where Africa is right now and where we need to go next if we want to build a digital future that actually benefits Africans.

The Explosion of Artificial Intelligence and Data Infrastructure Across Africa

Over the last two years the continent has been experiencing rapid growth in artificial intelligence. According to Mastercard, Africa now has an AI market valued at over four billion dollars with projections that it could grow to more than $16 billion within the decade.

African consumers are also driving global data consumption. Mobile data usage is growing around 30% to 40% every year which is almost double the global average. These numbers matter because data is the fuel that powers artificial intelligence. Whoever holds the capacity to store that data and process it holds the power.

This is why data centre development has become a major topic. The African data centre market was valued at roughly $3.5 billion dollars in 2024. It is expected to nearly double by 2030. Yet Africa still holds less than 2% of global data centre capacity while carrying almost 18% of the world’s population.

In simple terms, the demand is here. The growth is here. The energy is here. What is missing is infrastructure at scale.

The Ownership Question That No One Can Ignore

This is the core issue. Data is the new oil, but in Africa the ownership of both the oil and the refinery is still unclear.

Many of the largest data centres on the continent including some of the most advanced facilities in South Africa and Kenya are owned or heavily financed by foreign entities. Cloud storage for African businesses still largely relies on servers located in Europe or the United States. Even when data is generated locally it often leaves the continent before any value is extracted from it.

This creates a silent imbalance. Africa produces the data. The world processes it. The world monetises it. Then the world sells it back to Africa in the form of artificial intelligence tools predictive models advertising insights and digital products that Africans must pay for.

There is a growing conversation in policy circles that African data is a sovereign asset. The argument is simple. If a country can protect its minerals land and natural resources then it should also protect data produced by its citizens and businesses. Because without that protection, Africa risks entering a new era of digital dependency.

The Future Depends on Local Infrastructure and Local Capability

There are positive signs. The International Finance Corporation has invested $100 million into the Raxio Group to expand data centres across Ethiopia, Uganda, Angola and Ivory Coast. Nigeria has seen an increase in private sector data centre projects with Lagos emerging as a major digital hub for West Africa. Kenya continues to strengthen its position as East Africa’s tech capital.

But infrastructure is only one part of the story. The next question is capability. African engineers, researchers and founders need access to local storage and cloud environments so they can build their own models which reflect African languages behaviour patterns and business realities.

A report by Microsoft in 2025 showed that no African country had reached even 20% AI adoption through local capacity. Which means that most AI tools used across the continent are still imported. The data is African but the value is not.

Key Questions Every African Founder, Policy Maker and Investor Must Now Ask

Who owns the facilities where your data lives? Where does your data travel before it is analysed? Who benefits financially from the insights created from that data? What share of the value is returned to Africa? Are there laws or policies supporting local data storage and data sovereignty? Are African engineers able to build with African data or is that work happening overseas? Are global cloud providers offering equitable partnership or long term dependency?

These questions are not theoretical. They shape the next decade of African technology.

Why This Matters for Sellobees and the Entrepreneurs We Serve

Sellobees positions African entrepreneurs at the centre of the next digital wave. This means encouraging founders and businesses to see data not only as something they collect during operations but as an economic asset with long term strategic value.

When African businesses build AI products, partner with tech firms or expand into new markets, they must understand where their data is hosted and who can access it. They must consider whether the economic value created from that data stays in Africa or leaves immediately. They must ask whether the infrastructure supporting their growth is locally controlled or externally owned.

The story is no longer about adoption. It is about ownership.

Africa should not only generate the data. Africa should benefit from it.

A Closing Thought

Africa is standing at a turning point. The continent is full of young innovators, growing digital ecosystems, new data centres and massive AI potential. But the real opportunity is to ensure Africans hold the keys to the infrastructure and to the value chain.

If Africa wants to lead in the next digital chapter it must not only participate. It must own.

We are not simply building a digital future. We are deciding who it will belong to.

November 18th 2025, Pero Ositelu - Founder, Sellobees