A business can take years to build. It may require significant capital, physical premises, employees, equipment and a reliable supply chain.
Technology is changing that equation.
Today, an entrepreneur with little more than a computer, an internet connection and a good idea can create a digital product capable of reaching customers thousands of kilometres away.
That is why technology is creating a new class of entrepreneurs — people who can build businesses in one country while serving customers across the world.
Ugandan entrepreneur Nyanzi Martin Luther believes this is one of the greatest opportunities presented by the digital economy.
But, he argues, success starts long before an application is launched.
“When you start an application, you must have a goal. With that goal, you must plan the audience and the content,” Nyanzi says.
His argument is simple: technology businesses must solve a specific problem for a specific group of people.
A well-designed application can start with a small audience and gradually expand as users recommend it to others. Unlike many traditional businesses, its geographical reach does not necessarily have to be limited by the location of its premises.
That is the attraction of technology.
A shop must continually stock goods. A restaurant must buy food and other supplies. A manufacturer must keep producing physical products.
A software company operates differently. Once a digital product has been developed, the same product can potentially be distributed to thousands or even millions of users.
That does not mean software businesses are cost-free. They still require investment in development, servers, security, marketing, customer support and constant improvements.
But the ability to serve a growing market without reproducing the entire physical infrastructure of a traditional business gives technology companies a remarkable advantage.
“You invest once and you get much,” Nyanzi says.
The global technology industry has already demonstrated the scale of this opportunity.
Platforms such as WhatsApp and TikTok have moved beyond the countries where they originated and become part of everyday life in different parts of the world.
Their business models show another important lesson: a digital product does not necessarily need to charge every user directly. Revenue can come from advertising, subscriptions, transactions, partnerships and other services built around the platform.
The real asset is scale.
Africa’s opportunity
For African entrepreneurs, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge.
Africa has a young and increasingly connected population, but many local developers still depend on international technology companies for cloud hosting, application programming interfaces, software licences, advertising and other services.
Accessing those services can sometimes be difficult, particularly where international payments require bank cards or other financial arrangements that are not readily available to every developer.
This exposes a weakness in Africa’s digital economy.
Mobile money has transformed financial transactions across much of the continent, but the global digital economy does not always operate through the same payment systems.
A young developer may have a good idea, technical skills and potential customers, yet struggle to access the tools required to turn the idea into a functioning global business.
That is why digital education must go beyond teaching young people how to use social media.
Young entrepreneurs need to understand how digital businesses are built and sustained. They need to learn about cloud services, online payments, cybersecurity, digital marketing, intellectual property and the economics of running technology platforms.
Without that knowledge, Africa risks remaining a major consumer of technology without becoming an equally significant producer of it.
AI changes the equation
Artificial intelligence is now adding another layer to this transformation.
AI is no longer restricted to research laboratories or large technology companies. It is being used in classrooms, offices, newsrooms, businesses and creative industries.
People use AI to write, translate, analyse information, generate images and produce videos. Programmers use it to assist with software development, while businesses are experimenting with automated customer support and other applications.
For Nyanzi, AI demonstrates the same principle of scalability.
A technology company can develop an AI system and make it available to thousands or millions of people. Some users may pay subscriptions, while developers can pay to connect their applications to AI systems through APIs.
Individually, such payments may appear small. At scale, however, they can create substantial businesses.
The same applies to AI-generated media. A creator may pay for computing resources or credits to produce images and videos. Multiply that demand across thousands of users and a significant market emerges.
This is one reason AI is attracting so much attention from entrepreneurs and investors.
Governments face a difficult balancing act
The rapid development of AI has also created a difficult question for governments: how should the technology be regulated without preventing innovation?
Nyanzi worries that excessive regulation could discourage developers and investors at a time when countries are competing to build their artificial intelligence industries.
But regulation cannot simply be dismissed.
Governments must deal with legitimate concerns involving privacy, copyright, national security, misinformation, safety and the responsible use of increasingly powerful technologies.
The challenge, therefore, is finding a balance between protecting the public and allowing innovation to flourish.
The United States and China, among other countries, are investing heavily in AI while developing different approaches to its governance.
For African countries, the debate should also include education.
People need to understand what AI can do, where it has limitations and how it can be used responsibly.
AI is already part of everyday life
Perhaps the most striking feature of AI is how quickly it has moved from being a futuristic concept to an everyday tool.
A student can use it to explain a difficult subject. A programmer can ask it to assist with code. A business can use it to handle routine customer inquiries. A creative professional can generate images or other content with tools that were previously available only through specialised expertise.
People are also using AI for entertainment.
Its adoption across such different areas shows that the technology is not confined to one industry. It is becoming a general-purpose tool that can be adapted to different needs.
For Nyanzi, that should encourage young Africans to learn how the technology works instead of merely watching other parts of the world develop it.
Who will own Africa’s digital future?
Perhaps the most important question is not whether Africans will use technology. They already do.
The question is whether Africans will own more of the technology they use.
Africa has millions of technology users, yet many of the world’s biggest digital platforms were developed outside the continent.
Nyanzi wants the next generation of African entrepreneurs to think beyond becoming customers of foreign platforms.
The opportunity is to identify African problems, develop solutions and then take those solutions to the global market.
The internet has made that possible in a way previous generations could hardly have imagined.
A company can begin in Kampala and find customers in London. A developer can build a service in Nairobi and attract users in New York. A small team can create a product that eventually reaches millions of people.
There is, of course, no guarantee of success.
Technology is fiercely competitive, and thousands of digital products fail every year. Building an application is only the beginning; entrepreneurs must still find customers, generate revenue, protect their systems and continuously improve their products.
But the possibility of global reach has fundamentally changed the meaning of entrepreneurship.
That may be the real significance of the technology revolution.
For Nyanzi, artificial intelligence is not simply another fashionable technology.
“Everyone should adopt AI,” he says.
The larger point is that technology is becoming part of almost every sector of the economy.
For Africa, the opportunity is therefore not merely to participate in the digital revolution as consumers.
It is to build.
The entrepreneurs who learn to create technology, solve real problems and take their products beyond national borders could help shape the next phase of the global economy.
And perhaps the most important shift is this: the next global technology company does not necessarily have to start in Silicon Valley. It could start in Kampala.
