Commentary

Human Capital

Africa’s demographic future will not be secured by education alone. The harder task is building the people, firms and public institutions capable of converting human potential into productive capacity.

The Bets Got Bigger

It has been the greatest honor of my life representing Malawian youth and [social] entrepreneurs in the inaugural cohort of the #BigBets fellowship, operationalized by the Rockefeller Foundation.

‘Saving’ Africa

Africa today produces less than 2 percent of global manufacturing output and just 1.4 percent of global manufacturing exports. Manufacturing value added on the continent reached about $351 billion in 2025, which sounds substantial until you remember the size of the continent, its population and its ambitions. Manufacturing contributes about 10.8 percent of African GDP compared with 16.5 percent globally. Those numbers bother me.

Cyber-Physical Infrastructure

A cyber-physical infrastructure company is not a website shop. It is not a digital agency. It is not even a standard software startup. A CPI is a systems company. It sits at the intersection of software, hardware, data, sensing, operations, logistics, control, and physical assets in the real world.