Will programming unlock Africa’s potential?

Many will agree with me that Africa is a land of great potential, blessed with a massive amount of natural resources and a conducive climate with a vast coastline. Diamond in Tanzania, gold in South Africa, cobalt in DRC, oil in Nigeria, and many more. Over the years, other continents have relied on Africa as their source of raw materials. Despite Africa’s richness, the continent is still wailing in poverty and unavoidable calamities like hunger, floods, tribal conflicts, and illiteracy. The digital era, though late, Africa has taken this opportunity and shows the potential of roaring back to life. Is this a good sign? Does Africa still have a chance?

Recently, various initiatives focused on giving an African kid an opportunity to learn to code have disrupted the traditional way of handling challenges in Africa. Now, we have seen startups sprouting from every corner of the continent aimed at solving real problems affecting Africa and seamlessly connecting the continent to the outer world. Bootcamps, incubators, and programming schools are now in almost every capital city to accelerate this revolution and potential awakening. In addition, it’s amazing how offshore schools are now offering remote classes to the population, hence allowing Africa to enjoy knowledge and skills resources that were not accessible before. What impact will it have on the continent?

Already, startups like Flutterwave, chipper cash, and Mpesa have revolutionized the payment system in Africa, money transfer has become easier unlike before. The unlock of money transfer blockers is just a step towards placing Africa on the next level. We have many more sectors being taken care of by the African youth who took the opportunity to utilize their programming skills for the better of the continent. For example, Oze is essential for growth in the SME sector, Lori, sendy and other railing companies have disrupted the transport industry. Without forgetting, we have lami digitizing the insurance sector giving a chance to the unreached population to access insurance services. And many more.

Was this the era that Africa was waiting for? No, in my opinion, Africa was given a rare equal opportunity to access digital resources and knowledge remotely since covid-19 disrupted physical learning and physical access to knowledge. This opened a window for a high number of Africans to access knowledge, training, and mentorship and join boot camps remotely. Lastly, this is only one sector I have written about, we have so many that are quietly making big strides and this gives me major hope on Africa standing back on its feet.