Rebecca Enonchong
AppsTech

Rebecca Enonchong has established herself as one of Africa’s most influential figures in the digital economy. Founded in 1999, her enterprise software company, AppsTech, has become a remarkable success story, serving clients in more than 40 countries. “Technology is one of the simplest ways to build our economy,” she often says, recalling that her passion for innovation began the very first time she touched a computer. Beyond building a global technology company, Enonchong has devoted much of her career to nurturing Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. She co-founded ActivSpaces, one of Central Africa’s leading innovation hubs, and later led AfriLabs, the pan-African network of innovation centres spanning 80 hubs across 27 countries. She also chaired the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), helping connect early-stage startups with investors across the continent. These initiatives have supported the emergence of hundreds of African startups, many of them working at the forefront of artificial intelligence. In the United States—her mother’s homeland—she also founded I/O Spaces, an incubator dedicated to African entrepreneurs in the diaspora. A visionary but also an outspoken critic, Enonchong argues that Africa’s greatest digital obstacle is often political rather than technological. “The biggest challenge for the digital sector in Africa is the state,” she says. “Too many governments see the digital economy as a hobby for young people,” rather than as a driver of growth and sovereignty. As an inspiration to a new generation of African tech leaders, she advocates close collaboration between entrepreneurs, governments, investors and civil society, believing that only a shared effort can unlock the continent’s digital future.