Africa-Press – Botswana. Technology is an important tool for sustainable development. In 2015, when world leaders gathered at the United Nations and decided on 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved globally by 2030, they couldn’t have imagined that, five years to the culmination of the set period, the world would be nowhere near reaching these goals.
The United Nations 2024 SDG Report shows that “only 17 per cent of the SDG targets are on track, nearly half are showing minimal or moderate progress, and progress on over one third has stalled or even regressed.”
While progress on the SDGs tells a worrying story, technology continues to be a catalyst for advancement on several fronts, including climate change, quality education, reduced poverty, sustainable cities and communities, decent work, and economic growth, among others.
Increasingly, technological solutions are becoming central to accelerating progress on the international targets, and African tech companies are at the forefront, championing the cause. Agricultural technology companies are promoting reduced hunger by extending affordable food in the midst of worsening economic conditions; edtechs create access to quality education for children and adults in every region; healthtechs are extending global medical standards to the most rural areas; and many more are building businesses that boost decent work, economic growth, inclusive industrialisation, and innovation.
Lady Kay, Head of Communication and Social Impact (SDGs) at Salad Africa, tells Techpoint Africa that social impact is an important part of the work at Salad Africa.
“We are tracking four SDGs: SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth, SDG 5 – Gender equality, and SDG 1 – No poverty.”
Africa bears a significant brunt of the challenges the SDGs seek to solve; hence, it is no surprise that Africans are driving the initiative for a more sustainable continent. From software to hardware, tech companies across Africa are making a dent in the SDGs through calculated efforts at socially impactful initiatives and simply by serving their customers.
“By integrating CSR and ESG into our core business functions, we aim to make tangible contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in areas like quality education, decent work, and innovation,” Esther Momah, Lead for Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at SystemSpecs, says.
No poverty (SDG 1)
Eradicating extreme poverty is the first goal on the United Nations’ SDG agenda, and one that means a lot to Africa. A significant percentage of Africa’s population lives in extreme poverty, further exacerbated by worsening economic conditions and conflicts across the continent, including Nigeria, Congo, and the Horn of Africa. In 2025, 438.6 million people lived in extreme poverty in Africa, with Nigeria having the highest number of poor people.Ending decades of ingrained poverty across a continent is not a straightforward goal, but financial inclusion makes a difference. Africa is home to many fintech companies that help people save, invest, get loans, and use buy-now-pay-later services. These platforms play a significant role in fighting poverty, one user at a time, with investments as low as $1.5 and up to 22% annual interest on savings.
In West Africa, for instance, PiggyVest and Ejara are making financial tools more accessible to everyday people, ensuring that low-income earners can have better control of their finances, build a savings and investment culture, and earn extra money on their savings. Salad Africa is extending credit facilities to SMEs and contributing to business success.
“By unlocking credit for SMEs, we [Salad Africa] are contributing to SDG 1. When small businesses get access to credit, there is an increase in business revenues and financial stability. And we are committed to tracking the progress on this goal,” Kay says.
Over the past seven months, Salad has unlocked almost $1 million in credit for SMEs and is set to deploy $17 million over the next year.
PiggyVest, which has been around for nine years, helps over 5.5 million Nigerians save and invest their money. Many users have shared stories of how the platform helped them start a business, pay school fees, or buy their first car.
“For SDG 1, we achieve this by building digital tools that enable millions of Nigerians, particularly underserved populations, to consistently save as little as ₦100 daily, whether or not they have a regular income; invest safely in vetted opportunities for as little as ₦5,000; and set and achieve their financial goals. These tools help them grow their wealth over time, which helps break cycles of financial instability,” Boluwatife Akindele, Senior Content Strategy Associate at PiggyVest, tells Techpoint Africa.
Similarly, in a 2024 survey of its users, Ejara found that 52% of the women who used the platform said it was their first time saving money.
Clean energy, sustainable cities, and climate change (SDGs 7, 11, and 13)
African tech companies are developing solutions that increase access to clean energy for all income levels, contributing to more sustainable cities and supporting climate action. In 2021, four in five people who lived without electricity were in sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, several technology companies are implementing solar solutions to address Africa’s unstable power supply. Grid Africa is one such. The South African energy company is committed to providing affordable, sustainable energy and offers customers 100% financing on solar installations, ensuring that low-income earners in South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Kenya are not excluded from stable electricity.
And they are not the only ones on this path. Technology companies like Hohm Energy, which raised $8 million to scale rooftop solar across South Africa, and Ugandan d.light, which received $3.4 million in 2024 to provide solar home systems to refugees in Uganda, are all working hard towards transitioning individuals and businesses to a more sustainable energy source.
Additionally, African electric vehicle (EV) companies are creating a pathway for more sustainable cities by reducing the reliance on fossil fuels for mobility. As early as 2015, before electric vehicles became so popular, Kenya’s Robert Achoge had built Africa’s first solar-powered bike. In Tunisia, Pixii Motors, an EV company, is redefining mobility through its smart electric scooters “all while being kind to our home,” the company affirms.
Similarly, driven by sustainability and innovation, African EV company Spiro operates 22,000 electric motorbikes across seven African countries, and NEV Electric manufactures a range of electric vehicles — commercial city buses to personal SUVs — designed for African roads.
Recently, South African Zimi received a funding grant to supply power to South Africa’s national grid with power from electric vehicles.
Africa is considerably closer to sustainability than it was in 2015.
Gender equality and reduced inequalities (SDGs 5 and 11)
Inequalities are rife across the world. In Africa, women are only halfway to achieving gender equality with men. The UN goals for reducing inequality in all its forms are centred on empowering previously marginalised people and societies. Achieving these goals requires a dogged effort to create opportunities for people who previously did not have them, and African technology companies across the board are fervent in their pursuit of overall equality.
Evidence of this is in the number of women in top positions at these companies. At Salad, for instance, 75% of senior management, 50% of board advisors, and 40% of employees are female.
In addition, SystemSpecs hosts an annual Children’s Day Essay Competition that encourages children and teenagers to use technology to reimagine solutions for Nigeria’s future.
“The strategy reflects the interconnectedness of social impact, tech innovation, and sustainable development and is explicitly aligned with four SDGs: SDG 4 – by fostering educational opportunities in tech; SDG 5 – by spotlighting female participation in ICT; SDG 8 – by planting the seeds of entrepreneurship and innovation; and SDG 10 – by promoting inclusivity and reaching students across all regions and backgrounds,” Momah says.
By making wealth-building tools accessible to people across all income levels and employment types, PiggyVest helps reduce financial inequalities in Nigeria.
“Every year, we also give back to our community of users in one way or another to assist with some of their basic needs during the holidays. In December, we delivered groceries to over 200 families nationwide, marking our largest PiggySanta outreach to date. This is in addition to many other partnerships across health, education, and technology that significantly improve the lives of Nigerians across the country,” Akindele says.
The room for more impact
Technology for impact has become a key aspect of business in Africa, but there is room for more impact.
“Africa’s burgeoning tech ecosystem holds immense potential to drive progress towards the SDGs. By leveraging technology, we can address structural challenges in education, healthcare, and economic development more efficiently,” Momah tells Techpoint Africa
Kay adds that companies need to track their impact from the beginning, noting that it differentiates them.
“Investors and partners are no longer interested in only financial metrics; they also want to see your impact metrics.”
As the world moves closer to the deadline, business operations must be intertwined with social impact, as this is the only way Africa can make headway in sustainability.
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