At the GITEX Africa fair in Marrakesh, Morocco, this week, a thriving ecosystem of African tech startups showcased their innovative solutions tailored to address the continent's distinct challenges and overlooked needs. Despite obstacles such as inequality and limited digitalization, these homegrown entrepreneurs are shining a spotlight on Africa's burgeoning tech scene.

One such entrepreneur is Jean-Charles Mendy, a 40-year-old Senegalese national who launched an app three years ago with his business partner, aiming to empower the African diaspora with better control over the money they send back home. "The market for sending money by Africans in the diaspora is huge," Mendy told AFP on the sidelines of the gathering that drew about 1,500 startups, companies, and banks.

The app, currently available only to the Senegalese diaspora, enables direct payment of bills, including electricity or phone expenses, or conversion into vouchers for supermarket purchases. Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa reached over $50 billion last year, according to the World Bank, and Mendy's solution addresses a pressing need. "People in the diaspora find that they sacrifice too much for their money to be misused," he said.

"All solutions we have put in place are a combination of European solutions used to meet African needs, thanks to technology," Mendy added, highlighting the innovative approach of adapting existing solutions to the continent's unique challenges.

The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private sector arm, recognizes Africa's startup ecosystem, particularly in mobile payments, as the world's fastest-growing. However, significant inequality, lack of digitalization, and a challenging financial environment persist across the continent.

Despite these obstacles, African entrepreneurs are making strides in addressing critical needs. Bennie Mmbaga, head of investments at Maua Mazuri, a biotechnology startup aimed at boosting banana yields, shared how foreign investors initially struggled to "understand the need" for their innovative approach. "In East Africa, bananas are used for everything," he explained, noting that although Tanzania has some of the largest banana plantations in the world, yields fall far behind other countries, partially due to a virus that has been particularly rampant since 2020.

Today, Maua Mazuri helps 1,000 farmers with resistant seeds and generates up to $655,000 in revenues per year. "Investors realize now that there is a need," Mmbaga added, underscoring the growing recognition of the continent's unique challenges and the potential for tailored solutions.

Health care technology is another burgeoning sector in Africa, where more than half of the 1.4 billion people currently live in poverty and lack medical coverage, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). "Governments spend only six percent of their GDP on health care," said Mactar Seck, head of innovation and technology at UNECA. "We have to do something. Half of Africa's population doesn't have health care coverage."

Renee Ngamau, a co-founder of CheckUps, a company providing "tech-enabled" medication and delivery services in remote areas of Kenya and South Sudan, is addressing this gap. Through its mobile app, patients find access to affordable medical coverage without age or medical record criteria, get small loans from a partner bank, or promptly get in touch with the nearest nurse. Recognizing the unique structure of African families, CheckUps allows beneficiaries to share their benefits with extended family members and neighbors.

In Kinshasa, doctor and entrepreneur Ulrich Kouesso launched LukaPharma, an app that maps nearby pharmacies where medication is available in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital. The app solves the challenges of finding pharmacies in the city of 15 million people, identifying unlicensed "fake pharmacies," and locating coveted medications, especially anti-cancer drugs.

As Kouesso noted, "People are not aware of the potential that technology can bring to solving their problems. Knowing that the Congolese population is around 100 million, imagine the potential lives that can be saved with such an application, and also the potential in doing business."

While Africa's tech ecosystem faced a 46 percent decline in valuation last year, with half of its active investors lost, according to the Partech Africa private equity fund, the continent's homegrown entrepreneurs are undeterred. By tailoring their innovations to the continent's distinct needs and leveraging technology to solve local challenges, these startups are paving the way for a more inclusive and prosperous future for Africa.