Soweto based technology company, Khoi Tech, made a significant impact at the recent G20 Tech Summit that was hosted by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from September 26-30, 2025.

The multidisciplinary summit featured the International MSMEs Tech Challenge, high-level ministerial meetings with technology ministries from 35 countries, and the AI for Africa Conference. African tech companies from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya distinguished themselves in the innovation challenge, while ministerial discussions consistently emphasized the urgent need for technology transformation and sovereignty across the continent.

Khoi Tech CEO Seati Moloi joined fellow South African tech companies for bilateral talks with Spanish government and business delegates. The South African delegation was led by Ms. Jeanette Morwane, Chief Director of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) including Ms. Karabo Mlambo, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI).

The discussions proved highly productive, culminating in concrete agreements designed to foster robust economic ties. The key outcomes include establishing formal partnerships for strategic collaboration between South African SMMEs and Spanish tech firms, creating a framework for the transfer of cutting-edge research and intellectual property, and enhancing market access to pave the way for South African companies into the Spanish and broader European market, with reciprocal opportunities for Spanish businesses in South Africa.

Technology Sovereignty for Africa.

For centuries, Africa’s narrative has been defined by resource extraction. Today, a new resource, data, is being mined raising the specter of digital colonialism. In response, Digital Sovereignty is emerging as a powerful concept, the collective right of African countries and other emerging nations to control their digital destinies through three interconnected pillars; Technology, Devices, and Data.

Building the Home Grown Digital Systems To Create Technology Sovereignty.

Technology Sovereignty represents strategic agency of reducing critical dependency while having the capacity to choose, adapt, and build what serves African interests. This means controlling the core software, standards, and platforms that drive economies, moving beyond dangerous dependency on proprietary systems from the US, Europe, or China.

For Africa, this involves developing local solutions like Kenya’s M-Pesa, setting context-appropriate digital policies, and building foundational infrastructure like South Africa’s JINX, CINX, and DINX internet exchange points that keep local traffic local, reducing costs and improving speed.

South Africa emerges as a continental leader through its “South Africa Connect” broadband policy and robust tech sector.

A Phased Path to Local Manufacturing That Will Lead To Device Sovereignty.

If technology is the nervous system, devices are the hands and feet, the physical interface with the digital world. Device Sovereignty addresses Africa’s total reliance on imported electronics through pragmatic, phased approaches to local assembly, manufacturing, and design.

South Africa’s blueprint combines innovative strategy with proven execution. Khoi Tech exemplifies this through its integrated ecosystem approach. Beginning with overseas contract manufacturing for its successful Khoi Afriwatch smartwatch and Khoi Afripods TWS, the company established its brand while developing proprietary SaaS platforms for health-tech, wellness, logistics and sports team data analytics. Their devices serve as IoT nodes feeding data into these platforms, creating end-to-end solutions for patient monitoring, athlete performance analysis, and driver safety. With market position secured, Khoi Tech is now transitioning manufacturing to South Africa while expanding its device portfolio including internet broadband devices.

Data Sovereignty, Harnessing the New Oil.

As the fuel for modern economies, particularly AI, data represents a crucial national strategic asset. Data Sovereignty challenges the current model where African data stored on foreign corporate servers gets used to train AI that’s then sold back to the continent, creating a perpetual dependency.

The Shield for Our Digital Territory Is Legislative Protection.

These three pillars require the protective framework of deliberate government policy. The most critical immediate step is enacting and enforcing a mandatory 30% local procurement quota for all technology related purchases by government departments, agencies, parastatals, mobile operators and internet service providers.

The transformative impact would lead to re-circulating billions of Rands within the local economy, creating thousands of high skilled manufacturing and software engineering jobs, and providing the essential demand that enables local startups to survive, scale, and compete globally.

This proven strategy employed by China, South Korea and India to build domestic tech champions requires South Africa to act now. This represents not isolationism, but necessary market creation to ensure Africa’s digital revolution is built by and for Africans.

Advocacy Opportunity With The Minister.

Seizing the platform of the G20 Tech Summit, the CEO of Khoi Tech held a side discussion with Minister Solly Malatsi to advocate for a national technology sovereignty strategy. This proposal calls for robust policy enforcement to protect strategic sectors, including a mandate for government departments to procure 25% of their devices from local consumer electronics OEMs. This direct support for the local tech industry is a crucial step toward fostering job creation and combating youth unemployment and poverty.

The Sovereign Blueprint for African Unicorns.

Khoi Tech exemplifies the blueprint for creating African tech unicorn, leverage global influence to build sovereign, integrated ecosystems. The model reveals that true scalability springs from the synergy of Technology, Device and Data Sovereignty. For Africa, this is the strategic imperative, to transition from a digital consumer to an architect of its own destiny through protective legislation and local championing. The formula for a self determined, prosperous digital age is here, we must now build it.

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