A showpiece of African tech entrepreneurship

still own the lion’s share of the business.

I reckon that at this rate, CSquared could easily grow into the continent’s most significant broadband fibre play over the next five years.

Now, people who read my tech columns and follow my commentary via the African Tech Round-up podcast often ask me if I am anti-capitalism because I seem to come across as wholly distrusting of big business.

While I confess that I do possess a quasi-Marxist streak, I genuinely appreciate the virtuous potential of responsible forms of capitalism to deliver socio-economic benefits for society.

However, here’s what I resent. Africa is often treated as this perpetual foreign aid project, where “impact-driven” case studies are used to sell Africans on how committed Silicon Valley biggies are to making the world a better place.

Meanwhile, behind the PR smokescreen, calculated dollar-moves are made by the same to try and secure monopolistic access to and control over some of the digital economy’s most valuable commodities – not least, data and broadband infrastructure.

For instance, I’m frustrated by Facebook’s persistent disingenuous take on the so called virtues of Free Basics and the fact that no one seems to question whether or not it’s in Africa’s best interest for Google to work towards becoming one of Africa’s most significant fibre infrastructure players.

This as Google is simultaneously poised to become one of the largest foreign corporate players in the continent’s growing public renewable power scene – courtesy of their $12m investment in South Africa’s Jasper Solar Power Project, and their imminent assumption of a 12.5 percent stake in Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Power project – Africa’s largest wind energy project to date.

In principle, I am not against foreign capital making its way to the continent to help us build the infrastructure we need to participate more meaningfully in the digital economy, provided we all grasp that “access” doesn’t equal “inclusion”.

That’s why I appreciate the Afrobytes Tech Conference organisers’ emphasis on the importance of approaching Africa’s tech industry as a serious business opportunity rather than as a foreign aid project.

The time for cap in hand activism is over. It’s time for all Africans (citizens, entrepreneurs, investors, corporations and policy makers) to adopt a blatantly commercial investment mindset and bet on ourselves. That way, we’ll start to see through the proclaimed value of partnering with foreign investors looking to strike deals on the basis of “social impact” that comes at the expense of cold, hard commercial benefits.