Africa is currently undergoing a critical phase in its history and is facing a triple structural impasse: persistent structural and institutional fragmentation, chronic technological dependence, and heightened vulnerability to global geopolitical dynamics.
Unlike the historical trajectories of industrialised nations, Africa’s growth has not been accompanied by the strengthening of internal productive capacities. Structural transformation remains a promise unfulfilled, blocked by a lack of industrialisation, poor coordination of production policies, and weak support institutions (research, innovation, and finance). The continent is now seeking a path to economic, technological, and strategic emancipation.[1]
Rather than reflecting a classical process of industrialisation, Africa’s current trajectory appears to be marked by a blockage in productive transformation, which significantly hinders the creation of economic synergies. Practical experience reveals that the inadequacy of African statistics and the absence of structured information management frameworks prevent any kind of economic planning based on reliable data.
The political ambition behind Agenda 2063[2], which aims to “transform Africa into a global powerhouse of the future,” has not yet been translated into a coherent and systematic institutional approach to shared and inclusive development.
Africa at a Crossroads
Africa’s industrial landscape is marked by low density and extreme heterogeneity. Productive institutions — universities, research centres, development banks, innovation agencies — often operate in silos, disconnected from coordinated ecosystems and integrated value chains. This lack of coordination blocks the upgrading and scaling of African productive systems.
Information Deficiency and Lack of Strategic Steering
The absence of reliable, coherent, and up-to-date economic information systems — both at national and continental levels — is a major limiting factor. This structural statistical deficiency, often highlighted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, undermines Africa’s ability to plan, anticipate, and mobilise strategically. In the absence of solid data, industrial policy remains largely reactive and short-term in nature, with little potential for coherence or harmonisation.
This vision of a sovereign and prosperous Africa, supported by a renewed model of competitive intelligence, stems from the deep aspirations of African peoples to take control of their own destinies and unlock the value of their unique resources[3]. Enhanced with digital tools and rooted in local contexts, this intelligence could become a foundation for industrial and geopolitical sovereignty. The challenge is no longer about catching up but inventing a new paradigm of industrial and technological development[4] — one grounded in actionable data and meaningful information.
Africa must now design an alternative model of industrial and technological development, based on the strategic exploitation of high-value information. This model should be based on enhanced information governance — one that can guide production choices, strengthen endogenous innovation capabilities, and support a durable form of technological sovereignty.
Moving Beyond the “Endless Catch-Up” Model
In this context, competitive intelligence — understood as the capacity to collect, analyse, and leverage strategic information to guide public and private action — must be reimagined as a true lever of industrial sovereignty[5]. In Africa, CI is still too often confined to a defensive function (competitive monitoring, asset protection). Yet, when combined with digital tools, territorial data exploitation, and proactive governance, it can become a central pillar of a self-driven, resilient development model.
This shift in perspective requires:
The establishment of national competitive intelligence agencies connected to local territories;
The integration of informal data into official statistical frameworks;
And the alignment of training, financing, and innovation strategies with industrial priorities defined at the territorial level.
Africa must not settle for an endless catch-up model based on Western or Asian trajectories. In the face of climate challenges, digital transformation, and the pursuit of technological sovereignty, it has a historic opportunity to invent a unique productive paradigm rooted in its own social and ecological realities. This post-catch-up model does not rely solely on heavy industry, but rather on frugal innovation, smart valorisation of local resources, and even a hybrid approach that bridges the formal and informal economies.
From Extractive Industry to Embedded Industry: Rethinking Africa’s Productive Model
Africa remains on the margins of the Fourth Industrial Revolution[6]. Special Economic Zones, often designed to attract foreign capital, contribute to a form of outward-facing industrialisation that generates little sovereignty[7]. Here, competitive intelligence can serve as a tool for strategic redirection — identifying technological niches that align with local resources and supporting the emergence of “embedded” industries that are knowledge-intensive and high in added value[8].
The goal is to shift rapidly from raw material exportation to locally anchored technology value chains — particularly in agro-industry, renewable energy, biotechnology, and digital technology. This kind of “contextual industrialisation” requires a blend of self-awareness, research, sovereign financing, and active economic diplomacy. Clearly, “Africa cannot build its future without the mobilisation of key actors and the activation of territorial resources”[9].
Augmented CI: Making Oneself Visible
Traditional CI models focus on the collection, analysis, and securing of strategic information[10]. But in an African context, marked by asymmetries in informational power, it is essential to evolve toward augmented CI[11] — one that integrates AI, big data, real-time sensors (IoT), indigenous knowledge systems, and weak signals from social dynamics[12]. This hybrid model allows for a more nuanced mapping of industrial vulnerabilities, critical dependencies (especially in strategic raw materials), and latent reserves of industrial sovereignty[13].
The question is not so much about monitoring others, but about making ourselves visible to ourselves. Too often, African states operate blindly within value chains they do not control. A Pan-African CI system — based on the sharing of industrial data and local innovation — could serve as the foundation for a cognitive sovereignty essential to any serious industrial strategy. Such initiatives are in line with emerging work on territorial innovation systems and the need to build collective cognitive capacities for sustainable, endogenous development[14].
Towards Geo-Economic Sovereignty through Strategic Control of Flows
The prevailing model of geopolitical power now rests as much on the control of flows — of data, materials, capital, and knowledge — as it does on control of territory. Africa, long viewed as a continent to be crossed or exploited, must now become a structuring force in global power dynamics by developing a continental-scale strategy of augmented competitive intelligence.
Undoubtedly, “the competitiveness of a territory is directly influenced by the ability of local actors to generate, access, understand and transform knowledge and information through interactive learning.”[15] This process can be significantly amplified by augmented CI — combining big data, AI, and collaborative systems — to identify, analyse, and strategically exploit industrial, technological, and social development opportunities across the continent.
Such a strategy should aim to strengthen Africa’s collective negotiation and influence capacity through control of logistics corridors, digital infrastructures (such as sovereign cloud systems and a pan-African 5G network), and ownership of technological patents developed by African companies and researchers — including those from the diaspora.
Augmented CI would enable African nations to anticipate influence operations, negotiate on equal terms with industrial powers, and form strategic alliances based on mutual interest — far beyond extractive or predatory logics.
Conclusion: African Sovereignty through Augmented Competitive Intelligence
Africa does not need to copy the industrial trajectories of other continents. It can — and must — define a new relationship to power based on enhanced intelligence: harnessing its human capital and territories, networking its knowledge systems, and reclaiming sovereignty over information, knowledge, and technology. Such ambition demands a decisive break from the legacy of dependency and a bold embrace of a geo-economic stance — one powered by augmented competitive intelligence, no longer a support function, but the driving engine of development strategy. It is time for Africa to assert itself as a geo-economic power, with augmented CI at the heart of a pan-African industrial and technological strategy.
Dr Mohamed Bacha
[1] African Development Bank: African Development Report 2015 – Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Overcoming Barriers to Sustainable Development. Abidjan, 2016.
[2] https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview
[3] Claude Ake. A Political Economy of Africa. New York: Longman Inc. 1981.
[4] Joseph E. Stiglitz, Andrew Charlton : Pour un commerce mondial plus juste : comment le commerce peut promouvoir le développement – Fayard (2e édition), [Paris], France, 2007 [traduit de l’anglais (américain) par Paul Chemla]
[5] Matthew Harrison Harvey et alii. : Promouvoir la transformation numérique des économies africaines ‘ Document d’analyse et de méthodologie – Global System for Mobile Communications ((GSMA) – London – Mai 2024
[6] Carlos Lopes : Africa in Transformation : Economic Development in the Age of Doubt – Palgrave Macmillan; 2019
[7] Hasina N.E : Quatrième révolution industrielle : l’Afrique doit refaire son retard technologique – .03/06/2024 – in https://www.capmad.com/fr/technologie-fr/quatrieme-revolution-industrielle-lafrique-doit-refaire-son-retard.
[8] Mathias Guérineau: From Models of Innovation Diffusion and Transfer to Deployment – A New Conceptualisation of the Downstream Phase of Innovation Processes in Multinational Firms – Doctoral Thesis, University of Paris-Saclay – December 2017.
[9] Lamara Hadjou: The Two Pillars of Territorial Development – Coordination of Actors and Territorial Resources
Revue Développement durable et territoires. Économie, géographie, politique, droit, sociologie
Publisher: Réseau « Développement durable et territoires », 7 July 2009.
[10] Intelligence économique et stratégique : Les systèmes d’information au cœur de la démarche – Cigref – 2003
[11] Hafsa EZ-ZYN et alii. : Le potentiel et les limites de l’intelligence économique et stratégique à l’ère du big data et de l’IA – IJAFAME – Volume 4, Issue 2-2 (2023)
[12] Digital Economy Report 2024: Shaping an environmentally sustainable and inclusive digital future – United Nations. Economic Commission for Africa – 2024
[13] Offo Élisée Kadio, « De l’IA et de la science des données pour aider à transformer l’Afrique », Communication, technologies et développement [En ligne], 15 | 2024, mis en ligne le 29 juin 2024, consulté le 09 mai 2025.
[14] Rodrigo Arocena & Judith Sutz. : Looking At National Systems of Innovation from the South, Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1) – 2000, pages 55-75.
[15] Abdelkader Djeflat : Les systèmes territoriaux d’innovation émergents (STIE) et la gouvernance: Examen des expériences européennes (Italie) et Maghrébines (Algérie, Tunisie, Maroc) – Revue de Recherche sur l’Economie de la Firme, I’Industrie et le Territoire, Université d’Oran, Labo LARATED, pp. 71-92
