By 2050, nearly one in four people on Earth will be African. Whether this demographic shift becomes a source of global prosperity or instability may depend on something seemingly intangible: the stories being told about the continent today.
These narratives will determine whether Africa will sit at the table where decisions are made or find itself on the menu.
“Stories are trust bridges that let people suspend disbelief and emotionally invest in a future they want to see,” Eche Emole tells me. The CEO of the digital nation, Afropolitan, is flying above 37,000 feet when he replies. His storytelling worldview is perhaps best captured by two words: “Africa’s Rising”—the 2011-coined narrative that drew global belief in the continent’s promise.
Jumia became the poster child of this era, achieving unicorn status after an unprecedented $400 million Series C raise in 2016. The next five years would open the taps of global capital and the birth of six more unicorns.
Yet, for all the attention that followed, the continent has largely fumbled the narrative. This storytelling deficit became painfully apparent during the post-COVID capital retraction, which nearly crippled the ecosystem—and forced the continent’s founders to either focus on “fundamentals” or die.
Storytelling is dealflow
As Norrsken’s Abraham Augustine argues in this piece, a narrative deficit in African tech could hamper its collective ability to attract capital flow from both local and global sources. This is despite a rebound in VC deals tracked in the first half of 2025.
This story burden is both collective and individual. Promises like “banking the unbanked” no longer appeal to VCs allocating capital to hot AI startups in San Francisco. And what’s the promise of an exploding, digital-savvy population that cannot afford the pricing of technology-powered businesses?
What then is our compelling story? And, more importantly, how do we tell it?
Blessing Abeng, Founder at Onbrand, an outfit that amplifies narratives for VCs and governments, believes the highest-level operators have a unique responsibility to present our nuance to the world, but only if they can get past their siloed empires and actually work together.
“VCs have all this data about what’s going on with the startups they talk to, they see all sorts, but hardly talk to each other, leading to a closed feedback ecosystem that’s ultimately net negative,” she said.
Abeng believes the stories that will ring Africa’s bells to the world must be told in chorus—collective events, honest conversations, and data spotlights aggregated from the secret ledgers of the big funds and the WhatsApp chats of angel investors.
Founders lose when they tell the full story
Anyone with faint ears on the African tech ecosystem would have picked up the noise around the latest failures in African tech: Okra’s shutdown and Lidya’s messy founder exits amid customers’ cries for funds. Both companies had raised similar amounts—around $16 million each—and were once touted as sector-disrupting before cracks began to show.
Attendees of the US-NG Startup Investment summit would later learn that harsh local regulations contributed significantly to Okra’s failure—a narrative still underdeveloped, story-wise.
Ayobami Olajide, Partner at VC firm Escape’s Velocity, ascribes this trend to the secretive, low-trust economy that African startups operate in. “There’s no incentive for founders to go beyond shiny stories. It could backfire, and they have to worry about red-eyed regulators.”
But the real issue runs deeper: many startups simply don’t know how to use storytelling strategically. Incubators, MBAs, and coding expertise don’t automatically translate into the creativity—and frankly, ingenuity—needed to genuinely connect with audiences on a deeper level.
When founders fail on this individual level, the accumulated result is a dry appetite for the continent. Global investors see Africa like an early-stage startup: high on potential, uncertain on execution. In this context, storytelling that strikes hearts, moves people, and amplifies narratives isn’t optional. It’s the ecosystem’s best shot at survival.
Storytelling is MOAT for VCs too
“Beyond your capital, why should a founder contact you?”
Nnamdi Oranye, founder of early-stage VC firm Disruptive Ventures, poses this question to highlight why storytelling has become essential in an increasingly competitive venture landscape.
Oranye believes compelling long-form content is the future of storytelling on the continent. “We need more encyclopedia-style references, long-form essays, and books that stay in public consciousness beyond a week or two,” he explained.
Emole terms this “narrative capital” as the new attraction for strategic founders.
Jubril Oguntade, COO, FirstFounders Ventures Studio, agrees: “We’ve seen that the careful documentation of a fund’s experiences through reports and data sharing drives attention from LPs, family offices, and institutional investors.”
VCs that do this effectively are solving two problems: showcasing Africa’s talents as investable while capturing mindshare among early-stage founders seeking first-check investors. This creates a powerful flywheel effect, particularly valuable on a continent where early-stage investors typically see the highest returns and clearest exit paths.
Africa, rise with stories
Africa may be the world’s poorest continent by GDP, but its wealth in stories and culture remains unmatched.
If the continent’s tech ecosystem hopes to command the kind of capital rush that the AI mania has proven possible, then compelling narratives must drown out the schadenfreude that erupts whenever a startup fails.
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Caleb Nnamani is a former reporter who covered startups, venture capital, and blockchain. He is now Chief Storyteller at Blacktrigger.
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