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GITEX Africa 2026 Day 1 in Marrakech: Morocco’s AI governance push, 55,000 delegates, data centre commitments, and the continent’s largest startup showcase.

MTN is spending $240 million on an AI data centre in Lagos. Microsoft and G42 are spending $1 billion in Kenya. The investment is real. So is the power problem that could undermine it.

Eleven African countries have collectively spent more than $2 billion on Chinese-supplied AI surveillance systems. Not one has laws that adequately govern these deployments. For businesses in telecoms, financial services, and enterprise tech, the compliance exposure is real.

More Africans are graduating from university than ever before. More are also unemployed, underemployed, or working jobs that don’t require a degree. The credential trap is real.

African employers consistently say they can’t find workers with the skills they need. Most of them are spending less than 0.5% of payroll on training. The gap is of their own making.

Africa’s private tutoring market is worth over $6 billion — and growing fast. It is not a supplement to public education. It is the primary learning system for millions of students.

Dozens of African EdTech companies have shut down or pivoted since 2022. The companies that survived are training Africa’s workforce in ways the venture-backed startups never could.

Across Africa, banks are acquiring the fintechs they once dismissed as disruptors. The strategic logic is sound — but the integration risk is real.

Africa has added over 300 universities in a decade. Enrolment is up. Graduate employment is down. The continent is running a credential inflation crisis in slow motion.

After years of chasing consumers who couldn’t pay, Africa’s surviving EdTech companies are pivoting to government contracts — a harder sale with very different unit economics.