Africa is the most promising continent this century. Why?
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Population growth. By 2030, Africans will comprise 20% of the global population; this will rise to 25% by 2050, and to 40% by 2100. Currently, Africa has the highest fertility rate, with up to 5–6 live births per woman. All of these people can fit there, as Africa's territory is nearly twice the size of Russia's and is rapidly urbanizing.
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Economic growth. In 2030, international organizations predict it will be around 4–4.5% per year – the highest among other emerging regions. It’s driven by technological catch-up, agricultural innovation, trade openness. However, higher growth also means higher risks, especially given the short history of political stability.
To enter this continent, we selected 10 countries with the largest GDPs: South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ghana.
To rank these countries in 2025, we used our Andersen GeoTech Index – a geometric aggregation of 10 global indicators, including AI readiness, mobile connectivity, network readiness, e-government and GovTech maturity, innovation, digital competitiveness, open data, digital quality of life. To project development by 2030, we used an inertia scenario where the average annual change for each indicator from 2020 to 2025 is maintained from 2026 to 2030.
In 2025, the Andersen GeoTech Index leader in Africa is Morocco – followed by South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Angola.
Morocco’s edge comes from case-level digitalization, improving data openness, network readiness. South Africa’s balance reflects deeper transactional services and a stronger skills base. Egypt’s platform investments are in place and poised to scale with better affordability and reliability. Kenya’s competitive mobile markets and builder ecosystem sustain momentum. Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are rising on disciplined service design and expanding 4G/5G. Nigeria’s vast demand is constrained by price and reliability. Algeria, Ethiopia, Angola carry rural coverage, affordability, core-system gaps.
By 2030, the ranking shifts: Egypt leads, then Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Algeria, South Africa, and Angola. The fastest improvers are Ethiopia and Nigeria, with Egypt and Côte d’Ivoire also climbing strongly. Three dynamics explain the pattern: coverage only becomes real usage when affordability and reliability improve; public value jumps when countries move from digitized forms to digitized cases integrated with core systems; and innovation compounds when governments publish machine-readable data and refresh talent pipelines.
So, Morocco is the best place to enter Africa in 2025. One can also consider Egypt, which may lead by 2030, or Ethiopia, as the fastest-growing country in our index.
