Africa bypassed millions of landlines by moving directly to mobile phones. It bypassed parts of conventional banking through mobile money. Now another leap may be taking shape: countries are beginning to build connected digital infrastructure without first recreating the fragmented systems developed over decades in richer economies.
The concept is called Digital Public Infrastructure, or DPI.
Rather than creating another consumer app, DPI builds underlying digital rails that can support identity, payments, government services and data exchange across multiple institutions.
UNDP describes it as a potential “leapfrog catalyst” for African economies.
From one billion phones to connected economies
The starting point is already enormous.
Africa has moved from around 25 million mobile subscriptions in 2001 to more than one billion today.
Mobile technologies and services contributed approximately $240 billion to the continent’s economy in 2025, equivalent to 7.8 per cent of African GDP, according to GSMA.
But connectivity alone is no longer enough.
More than 500 million Africans still lack a verifiable digital identity, while over 80 per cent of workers remain in the informal economy.
That creates an opportunity to build something different.
Instead of separately constructing conventional banking, identity and government systems before digitising them, economies can potentially begin with interoperable digital infrastructure.
Interoperability becomes the breakthrough
This week, mobile-money aggregator pawaPay argued that Africa’s future is unlikely to be dominated by a single pan-African super-app.
The bigger opportunity could be underneath the apps.
If banks, wallets, telecom operators and payment platforms can communicate across networks and borders, consumers and businesses do not need to belong to the same financial ecosystem to transact.
That changes the economics of digital finance.
The important asset becomes the rail connecting platforms rather than the platform itself.
Leapfrogging enters its second generation
Africa has already demonstrated the model.
Limited fixed telephone infrastructure helped accelerate mobile adoption. Limited bank-branch coverage created conditions for mobile money. Sub-Saharan Africa now has more than one billion registered mobile-money accounts.
The next generation could connect those achievements.
Payments can link with digital identity. Identity can connect people with government services. Digital transaction histories can support credit. Cross-border interoperability can connect businesses with regional markets.
UNDP believes this infrastructure could also help countries exploit the estimated $450 billion economic opportunity associated with the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Building tomorrow without rebuilding yesterday
That is what makes leapfrog economies different.
The absence of legacy infrastructure can be a disadvantage — but it can also remove something developed economies struggle with constantly: legacy systems.
Africa does not necessarily need to reproduce every stage through which Europe or North America developed.
Mobile phones already demonstrated that.
Mobile money demonstrated it again.
If interoperable digital infrastructure succeeds at scale, the continent’s next leap may not simply be another technology.
It may be an entirely different route to building an economy.
Newshub Editorial in Africa – 18 September 2026
Ask NF GPT
If you have an account with ChatGPT you get deeper explanations,
background and context related to what you are reading.
Recent Comments