Cybersecurity & Tech

TechTank: Realizing Africa’s Potential: A Conversation with author Landry Signé

Chinasa T. Okolo, Landry Signé
Monday, January 13, 2025, 12:00 AM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

By 2050, Africa will be home to 25% of the world’s population and a combined $16 trillion in business and consumer spending, presenting immense opportunities for investment, industrialization, and poverty reduction. But how can the continent balance this growth with the challenges it faces?

On this episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Chinasa T. Okolo speaks with Landry Signé, a senior fellow in the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings and author of the forthcoming book “Realizing Africa’s Potential: A Journey to Prosperity.” The conversation explores Africa’s emerging industries—ranging from health care to green economies—and the role of technology, innovation, and strategic leadership in driving sustainable development. They also delve into the critical roles of policymakers, international partnerships, and intraregional trade in unlocking Africa’s long-term prosperity.

Listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast.


Chinasa T. Okolo is a fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation in the Governance Studies program at Brookings and a recent computer science Ph.D. graduate from Cornell University. Her research examines how African governments can facilitate effective AI and data governance, investigates the socioeconomic impact of data work in the Majority World, and analyzes datafication and algorithmic marginalization in Africa.
Landry Signé is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He was previously a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings. His career and research span the areas of global political economy, global governance and sustainable development, global business and emerging markets, strategic management and leadership, fragility, state capacity and policy implementation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Globalization 4.0, and the political economy of Africa and developing countries.
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