Dickson Omoha

Finding our place (as Africa) on the global stage
__A big week of in Spain!

If you are in the mobile industry, there is one must-attend event you cannot miss. It’s called the Mobile World Congress (MWC), and is held in Barcelona every year. Everyone who matters in the industry turns up: senior leadership officials, global mobile industry executives, tech leaders, device manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and of course, hundreds of thousands of interested spectators.

Although there are thousands of exhibits, what has always been disappointing to me is the lack of meaningful representation from Africa, particularly amongst the exhibitors.

It's not that Africa isn't innovative! I guess maybe at first we felt a little intimidated, or just daunted when we saw all the giants who always turn up. MWC is the largest and most important connectivity event of the year!

Over the years, I still always encouraged our people to attend and show our work, however modest in scale.

“We belong here and we must demonstrate that right by showcasing our own innovations!"

While we usually used the occasion of the MWC to announce something interesting each year, we decided Cassava Technologies would go BIG this year by showcasing our work in AI.

Here are two major new products for the telecom industry that we're particularly proud of:

#1. Cassava Autonomous Network ("AI AutoNet"):

Whilst this might sound a bit geeky for some of you, the telecom engineers were really excited to see this. It is a vendor-agnostic GPU-accelerated network intelligence system we developed jointly in collaboration with NVIDIA to help engineers to much more quickly identify faults that cause network failure, using a SuperComputer... our Mufungi.

It is the first major from our AI Factory!

Faults that would normally take hours to identify and rectify will now be identified and addressed in minutes!

As Cassava AI we own the actual “IP” (intellectual property) for the . We sell this solution as a “software” to other mobile operators. We have already received orders from operators across Africa, and even Latin America.

It's very cool but a bit complicated to explain. Here's a link to a technical blog from our AI team for those of you interested in the details: https://www.cassavatechnologies.com/launch-of-cassava-autonomous-network-agentic-ai-for-4g-and-5g-radio-access-networks/

#2: Cassava AI Model Exchange (“CAIMEx”):

Most of you are already able to access AI models like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, XAI, Llama, etc., simply by downloading them on your phone from an App Store.

What most people don't realise is that from a technical perspective, mobile operators are still struggling with new requirements (such as bandwidth, latency, data costs). If you have been to Europe or the US, you will know that these Apps are too slow in Africa, and also costly from a data usage point of view.

CAIMEx is a multimodal LLM platform that allows mobile operators to use our “plug and play” solution for these problems.

Now while I didn't attend MWC this year, I was definitely not surprised when our teams came back buzzing!

“Chairman, we've had enquiries and pre-orders from operators across the world. They could not believe that a company out of Africa is able to develop such highly complex AI solutions!”

These two products, AI AutoNet and CAIMEx, are . We sell them through a B2B business model in which our customers are mobile operators (not their customers).

AI is here guys, and it is through a company of African heritage!

And here's more!

Our company Sasai Fintech, not to be outdone by the AI guys, also announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Western Union. They will now be using our technology to deliver remittances into Africa from South Africa. More on this later. Wow!

Please check out Afterthought 6 for more very important AI-powered from us at MWC as we work together to !

For entrepreneurs, here are my two takeaways:

+ Marketing - Cost = Profit.

Here you see we are developing products based on a deep understanding of an industry we're in, and the needs ("Problems") we've identified that require innovative . Once we have imagined, created, and tested a , we then go to where the customers are and market directly to them.

, vision, and action: Don’t be intimidated, and don’t be a spectator. Find your place on the global stage. At this year's MWC, four African companies (Cassava Technologies, MTN, Axian, and EthioTelecom) took part in an inaugural ribbon-cutting ceremony supported by GSMA as they opened the "African Pavilion" for the first time! Our Group President and CEO, Hardy Pemhiwa cut the ribbon for Cassava.

Do you see any more takeaways?

These are exciting times, if you but know what to do with them...

No one can afford to stand still.

If you haven't gotten started learning to use AI tools, you're already late. I say this to you as a caring friend, not to sell you a single thing.







Image caption: Cassava Technologies-led discussion last week on our African Language Models initiative. Stay tuned!

Why I’m Questioning Everything I’ve Built I’ve spent my career as a venture capitalist focused on growth, scorecards, and reports. But after visiting the slave cells in Senegal and Jamaica, I’m facin...

Every big idea starts as just a dream in someone’s mind.

“What is now proved was once only imagined.”

reminds us that today’s reality was yesterday’s imagination. Don’t be afraid to dream big—what you imagine today could change the world tomorrow! ✨

What’s one idea you’ve been dreaming about lately?

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard! Adams Dadi Iliya, Hudu M Aliyu

The conversation between Don Jazzy and Grok Ai shows an incredible upgrade in Grok 3.0

Grok is now alive, understand better, interacts better, and trust naija on this.

Check out the conversation 👇

"That’s what they said about the pigs."
Those words hit deep. I paused. I laughed. But I also reflected.

Mr. Strive Masiyiwa story about his mother’s pig farming venture wasn’t just a funny childhood memory—it was a blueprint for clarity in business decision-making.

Here’s what I took away

Not all knowledge is equal.
Reading a few articles or watching a YouTube video isn’t enough. Casual knowledge is not actionable knowledge. There’s a difference between knowing something exists and knowing how to navigate it.

Simple is deceptive.
If someone tells you “it’s easy” or “it’s simple,” be skeptical. Simplicity is often built on years of hard-earned expertise that’s hidden from the surface.

Avoid get-rich theatrics.
Many opportunities sound good—until you lose your savings chasing hype. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up playing casino with your destiny.

Discipline is saying No.
Not every shiny opportunity deserves your attention. In fact, focus is a form of innovation—saying no to distraction so you can go deeper where your roots are.

Entrepreneurship is not desperation.
It’s not about “chasing money.” It’s about solving problems with competence, clarity, and character.

So here’s what I’m reminding myself today:
Don’t confuse curiosity with mastery. Don’t call a gamble innovation.
Know before you leap.

Thank you, Mr. Strive Masiyiwa, for the reminder. Some lessons don’t expire.

‎From Coffin Art to Creative Power: Why We Must Channel Africa's Genius Beyond the Grave
‎We buried a man inside a lion-shaped coffin.
‎Another in a pineapple.
‎Another in a teapot.
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‎Ghanaian funerals are art. Powerful, expensive, communal, sacred—art that tells stories of identity, pride, and legacy.
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‎Thanks to Regula Tschumi’s 20-year documentation of this hidden world, the world can now see the beauty and detail of Ghana’s funeral culture. It’s not just performance. It’s precision, symbolism, and soul.
‎But here’s the truth that haunts me:
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‎Why must Africa’s creativity only shine in death?
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‎Why must our most breathtaking craftsmanship—handmade figurative coffins, regal palanquins, poetic choreography—be locked in ceremonies that end in silence?
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‎We are a continent of makers, of dreamers, of designers.
‎And we’ve proven it again and again… at funerals.
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‎Now, imagine if that same level of creativity, cultural symbolism, and obsession with detail was channeled into solving our biggest problems.
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‎What if the coffin carvers collaborated to build ergonomic chairs for African school kids?
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‎What if our palanquin makers designed solar-powered tricycles for last-mile delivery?
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‎What if our funeral dancers used their sense of rhythm and unity to choreograph community movements around climate action, sanitation, or mental health?
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‎We already have the creativity. We just need to redirect the stage.
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‎I’m not asking us to abandon our culture. No. I’m asking us to elevate it.
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‎Let’s celebrate the genius of coffin-makers like Benjamin Aidoo—not just as entertainers, but as entrepreneurs and engineers in disguise. Let’s honor the Ga traditions—not just as ceremonies, but as creative industries worth reimagining.
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‎Africa doesn’t need to import innovation. We need to redirect the innovation we already express.
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‎Photo Credit: CNN

Enjoy Earth, little guy 💔

What They Don’t Want You to Know About Startup Failure

We hear it all the time: “9 out of 10 startups fail.”

But the real question is:
Why do we treat failure like a personal flaw instead of a system failure?

A friend of mine built a logistics startup that served thousands of customers.
It was lean. It was loved. It was growing.

But when it was time to scale,
he couldn't raise money.

Why?
Because he didn’t “look like a founder.”
Because his traction was local, not loud.
Because he didn’t fit the deck-first, valley-mindset pitch template.

So he shut it down.
Not because the business didn’t work…
But because the ecosystem didn’t work for him.

This is what they don’t want you to know:
Many African startups don’t fail because they’re bad ideas.
They fail because they weren’t built to perform for external eyes.

We’re funding storytelling, not strategy.
We reward familiarity, not feasibility.
We prioritize pitch fluency over user truth.

So we lose brilliant founders.
We lose working models.
We lose time trying to look like someone else’s success story.

🧭 What if the problem isn’t our failure rate…
But the systems that define what success is allowed to look like?

What would happen if local traction was treated like global proof?

🔍 Truth Note:
Some startups don’t fail. They’re shut out.

Daily Quotes inspired by Strive Masiyiwa and Life experiences

Check my previous post: for the full story 👇

‎The Lie We Tell About “Innovation in Africa”
‎
‎We love to say,
‎"Innovation is thriving in Africa."
‎But that’s only part of the truth.
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‎A few weeks ago, my friend told me a sad experience of a founder who had just pitched a product to a federal government agency.
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‎It worked. It solved a real problem.
‎But they told him:
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‎“We’re waiting to see if someone in Europe has built something similar.”
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‎🔴This wasn’t about funding.
‎🟢This wasn’t about policy.
‎🔵This was about mindset.
‎
‎And that’s the lie:
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‎We say we want “African innovation.”
‎But we secretly wait for external validation before we trust it.
‎
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‎The real crisis isn’t lack of talent.
‎It’s that we celebrate innovation on stage…
‎...but reject it in decision rooms.
‎We award ideas — but we don’t deploy them.
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‎If innovation is the engine, then trust is the fuel.
‎And too often in Africa, we’re trying to run that engine on fumes.
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‎We don’t lack brilliant solutions.
‎We lack a system that believes in what we build.
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‎So what does it look like to create trust-based ecosystems that back local ideas before they trend abroad?
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‎What policies, procurement systems, investor frameworks, and leadership cultures must shift?
‎
‎Because if we don’t fix that part,
‎we’re just innovating for export.
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‎🔴Truth Note:
‎Innovation doesn’t die for lack of funding. It dies quietly in the shadow of borrowed confidence.
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‎– Dickson Omoha
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