Africa’s expanding tech industry proves that it will be a competitive force in the coming years according to experts and researchers. The motherland, which is home to 54 countries and over 1.2 billion people has always been a place of great resources and powerful minds.
The continent is set to shake up the $4 trillion industry as it continues to shape into an impressive incubator for tech innovation. The number of active tech hubs (which act as a space for start-up companies to grow) grew by 50 percent between 2016 and 2018, according to a recent study.
Today, there are at least 442 active tech hubs on the continent. Countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, and Kenya were all listed as some of the most thriving breeding grounds for the developing technology centers, according to the study.
One of the more specialized components of Africa’s evolving tech ecosystem is the fact that both its creators and users are both growing in numbers. A We Are Social report found that in 2017 Africa saw the fastest growth rates of Internet users– increasing by 20 percent.
Omoju Miller of GitHub, told Fortune that Africa will soon be taking San Francisco’s place as the future global hub of technology.
“We are the at edge of another kind of technology frontier, and this time around, it is not happening in San Francisco, it is taking place in Africa,” she said.
While in Kenya, Miller said she was able to use apps like Uber to get rides and different food delivery services on her phone. She also mentioned the accessibility of buying products from tech company Jumia, which is similar to Amazon.
“We are talking about very small villages and yet in these small villages you can still use mobile payments,” she said. “This is going to radically change what the technology environment is going to look like.”