Africa Quantum Consortium Memo
From Fiber to Qubits: Why Africa’s Digital Lessons Must Shape Its Quantum Leap
Our Digital Backbone: Lessons for Africa’s Quantum Future
Image credit: tiero/stock.adobe.com
We have successfully built a robust digital backbone for our continent. Today, 37 of our 38 coastal nations are connected by submarine fiber-optic cables, and mobile broadband is reaching deep into our rural areas. This is a monumental achievement, our "Phase One."
But this success comes with a critical lesson in sovereignty and strategy.
We laid the foundation, but risked ceding strategic control. Consider the reality of our subsea cables:
Foreign Dominance: The dominant players building our new digital arteries—Meta, Google, Amazon—are all US-based.
Systemic Fragility: A lack of diverse routes means countries like Guinea, Liberia, and Mauritania face outages if their single cable link is disrupted.
Insufficient Resilience: Of the 80 cable repair ships worldwide, only three serve Africa, with just one based at an African port. When multiple faults occur, we wait.
Fragmented Policy: We lack a single regulatory regime. Disparate laws and fees hinder the investment needed for a truly resilient network.
The lesson is clear: Infrastructure without strategic control is a vulnerability. We built the pipes, but others can dictate the flow. This is a mistake we cannot afford to repeat in the quantum realm.
[Source: Carnegie Endowment - Safeguarding Africa’s Digital Future]
(https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2025/06/subsea-cable-approaches-lessons-europe-africa-southeast-asia?lang=en)
The good news is, we have a blueprint for how to get this right. Look no further than the African Space Agency (AfSA). After a decade of effort, our continent has unified its space programs, presenting a single, powerful front to the world. This proves that continent-wide strategic alignment is not a dream; it is an achievable reality.
[Source: SpaceNews - Africa’s New Space Agency Presents a Unified Space Front]
(https://spacenews.com/africas-new-space-agency-presents-a-unified-space-front/)
In quantum, we are not starting from scratch. Our momentum is already building. African researchers have been pioneers, setting up secure fiber networks like Durban’s 2010 “Quantum Stadium” link and helping create the first Southern-Hemisphere quantum satellite link. This is our capability, proven on the ground and in orbit.
[Sources: Nature | EurekAlert]
(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01490-3) | (https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/953457)
The Path Forward: A Mandate for Action
The lesson from our digital past must inform our quantum future. The blueprint for continental collaboration already exists. The momentum in quantum is real.
Now is the moment to seize it. Check out our 2Q Roundtable event.
We, the stakeholders of Africa's future—policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and the diaspora—must unite behind a bold, continental quantum roadmap. Like AfSA, we must think and act as one. The time for siloed efforts is over.
We must invest boldly to ensure Africa leads, not lags, in the coming age of quantum computing, AI, and secure communications. Let's apply the hard-won lessons from our past to secure the technological sovereignty of our future.
The work begins now. Let’s not repeat history. Join the movement to shape Africa’s quantum future with sovereignty, strategy, and unity. The time to lead is now.
The Africa Quantum Consortium is the driving force uniting Africa’s top minds to collaborate, innovate, and propel quantum technology forward across the continent.