Senegal Deep Dive Part I — An early African adopter whose ecosystem is dense, complex, and clamouring for more
In August 1960, the short-lived Mali Confederation was dissolved, with participants Senegal and Mali becoming fully independent. A melting pot with a rich historical legacy and arguably West Africa’s northernmost country, Senegal is politically among the continent’s most stable states.
While the country’s population size is middling compared to its African peers and is estimated to have the 19th largest economy on the continent, these statistics belie Senegal’s status as one of the continent’s digital leaders since its founding. Its proximity to Nigeria may mean that Senegal’s tech ecosystem does not receive the attention it deserves, overshadowed by its regional neighbour. However, discerning observers and tech ecosystem actors understand Senegal’s long relationship with technology, with its government recognising the importance of digital technology for some time.
In this three-part series, we will discuss Senegal’s tech ecosystem in detail, noting how the country has consistently punched above its weight in the field of technology, the historical forces that shaped its understanding of technology, and the opportunities and constraints within its local startup arena.
Part 1 focuses on the country’s history, the roots of technological infrastructure, and the state’s efforts in creating an enabling environment for its tech ecosystem. Part 2 discusses the Senegal ecosystem in detail, including vital actors and participants, while Part 3 considers the opportunities and challenges facing the local startup scene.
A powerful cultural influence in the Francophone world
Senegal has always been the darling of French-speaking Africa and boasts a history of cultural and intellectual influence in the French-speaking world. Bakary Diallo, Birago and David Diop, Christian Sankale, Cheikh Anta Diop, Blaise Diagne and, of course, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Senegal’s first president.
During French colonial rule, these men ignited the flame of a distinct West African identity which continues to thrive today. Senegalese poets, doctors, politicians, and artists have all contributed to the creation and dissemination of a post-independence consciousness: from shaping leaders of neighbouring countries attracted by this identity (such as the first president of Cote d’Ivoire, Felix Houpouhet-Boigny) to project the image of a tiny but culturally mighty nation punching far above its weight within French-speaking Africa. Not bad for a small country covering an area of 200,000 square kilometres with a population of 3.2 million in 1960.
France’s colonial influence played an important role in the country’s development. The oceanic city of Saint Louis was French West Africa’s cultural and commercial hub, allowing Senegal as a whole to benefit from the best infrastructure investment in the region. In contrast to the colonisation of Algeria, for example, the number of European settlers was negligible, which allowed the local population access to education and job opportunities without restriction. In this space, political, commercial, and independently-minded leaders emerged and thrived to Senegal’s benefit.
Today, Senegal remains a cultural and intellectual bright spot. Yet, economically it has given up some ground to Côte d’Ivoire, which after two decades of turmoil, is experiencing a sustained period of economic growth for the second time, with the first being the “Ivorian miracle” in the 60s. A similar pattern is emerging in the tech and startup scene, where Senegal’s reputational incumbency is being challenged by its regional neighbour.
The question is, how long will the status quo remain?
Ignition — the rising Western sun and Senegalese tech infrastructure
Senegal has been a forerunner in adopting internet and computer technology on the continent. We can trace back its tech legacy to the end of the 1980s and the creation of its first software company, ATI, by the “geek in a boubou” Amadou Top. After a career at IBM, which has had a presence in Dakar since 1948, Amadou Top became a prominent lobbyist and advocate for linking Senegal to international networks and putting in place infrastructure to support the internet’s development in the country.
In May 1998, during legislative elections marked by allegations of fraud, Senegal became the first country to implement an Open Data initiative by providing electoral information online, showing a national push for the early adoption of technology.
In the proceeding period, there have been sizeable public investments into the country’s telecommunications sector, assisted by international donors. These efforts, combined with the privatisation of national telecom operator Sonatel, the liberalisation of the telecommunications market, and the creation of a transparent regulatory agency, led to Senegal in 2010 having the second fastest internet network on the continent, only behind South Africa.
Senegal also benefited from relative political stability compared to its neighbours, which has helped Senegal establish itself as a regional economic hub and attract talent from the diaspora. This diaspora has been an important part of the engine that has invested in building the local startup ecosystem with the help of international donor agencies and foreign investors attracted to the country.
The culmination of these positive economic and technological forces was the establishment of the CTIC, the first tech hub in francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, in 2010 in Dakar, followed shortly by Jokkolabs. They have been the pioneers of the Senegalese startup ecosystem and include the work of leading figures such as Tidjane Deme (Partech), Karim Sy (Jokkolabs), Senam Beheton (serial entrepreneur, investor, ecosystem builder), Serigne Barro (People Input), to name a few.
Several outstanding tech products were developed during this period, with Senegalese software adopted by Amazon or Alibaba teams (chaperon), and others have climbed the charts on GitHub. Inspiring leaders emerged, influencing both political spheres and the younger generations of future entrepreneurs. Yet this positive dynamic was still limited to a young insider tech class with the right connections. To truly impact the country, these early achievements needed to be democratised and made easily accessible to all.
Starting the engine — developing and sustaining the ecosystem and infrastructure
In 2017, the Senegal government accelerated the transformation of the country’s tech landscape by promoting an ambitious strategy, Digital Senegal 2025, that aims to reform 28 industries and boasts a $1.4bn budget.
The initiative seeks to address 3 major areas of development:
- Legal framework
- Human capital
- Digital trust & cybersecurity
Furthermore, the strategy’s 4 primary objectives are:
- Open and affordable access to digital services
- Linking government institutions with citizens and businesses
- Promoting an innovative tech industry that adds value
- Enabling technology to contribute to priority sectors
The strategy benchmarks Senegal against different countries, including Tunisia, which has achieved notable success in these domains. Additionally, the strategy seeks to help Senegal promote its Startup Act (a law already on the books but slowly being implemented).
Whereas Tunisia has appointed the privately-held management company Smart Capital to support the implementation of its Startup Act, Senegal has assigned the execution of the strategy to five different government ministries. Under these ministries, there are +20 public structures across the country with overlapping mandates, often in unproductive competition. As a result, accessing the incentives at the heart of the Senegalese Startup Act requires navigating a byzantine bureaucracy.
One public institution, in particular, exemplifies this dynamic: the DER/FJ (referred to as “la DER”). Directly attached to the Presidency, the DER was granted the authority to act as a financial body to sustain the tech ecosystem and its startups and fill the funding gaps at pre-seed and seed stages. Specifically, the DER offers guarantee mechanisms to incentivise the banking system to provide loans and other financial services to whomever it considers insolvent entrepreneurs.
As the favoured counterpart of donor agencies in the country, la DER runs several bilateral programs that led it to diversify its activities: it now provides loans at a 4–5% per annum interest rate, assists ESOs in the country and also runs its own support programs. In its efforts to de-risk its financing and have a longer follow-up of entrepreneurs, the DER ended up developing activities that compete directly with those of another public entity, ADEPME. This case shows there is some room for optimisation.
Nonetheless, the impact of the DER on the Senegalese ecosystem is considerable: it has supported over 200 000 entrepreneurs since its inception. Beyond its direct impact, it went off with a bang within the Senegalese ecosystem in 2020 by facilitating the further involvement and investment of many private entities into the country’s ecosystem, including startups, ESOs, VCs, and other key players.
Another key part of the Digital Senegal 2025 strategy is the development of e-government services in parallel with the spread of digital literacy and culture in remote areas of the country.
Two distinctive efforts stand out concerning their potential impact:
- The Espaces Services Senegal: a network of 45 tech spaces, one in each territory, to facilitate digitised access to public services, train the population in digital skills, incubate local projects, and facilitate co-creation projects with the private sector
- Diamniadio Data Centre: a Tier 3 data centre inaugurated in 2021 in Diamniadio, it is an ambitious infrastructure project that will cement Senegal’s drive to remain the most technologically developed country in Francophone West Africa. The centre seeks to allow the development of more ambitious tech projects in the country (smart cities, cloud computing and so on) while maintaining the country’s relative sovereignty over its data and achievements.
That’s it for Part I of our deep dive into the Senegal startup ecosystem. In Part 2, we delve into the characteristics that define the Senegal tech ecosystem and the forces shaping it daily.
Abderrahmane Chaoui is an African ecosystem researcher, consultant, and writer.
