I’ve watched companies across South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria pour budgets into ERP systems designed in Stuttgart or Redmond. These are good systems — for the markets they were built for. But African manufacturing has a different reality:
African engineers who’ve stood on factory floors, dealt with generator switchovers, and navigated multi-country compliance are uniquely positioned to build the next generation of manufacturing software. Not by copying SAP, but by designing systems that embrace the constraints rather than fighting them.
Before signing your next R110M ERP contract, ask: does this vendor understand that your Kenyan plant runs on backup power 4 hours a day? Do they know that your procurement team needs to switch between three currencies in a single purchase order? Have they tested their system on a 2Mbps satellite link? The answer is usually no. And the workaround costs more than building something right.
Learn the business first. Technology is the easy part. Understanding why a quality inspector on a factory floor in Lekki needs different workflows than one in Johannesburg — that’s the knowledge that makes you irreplaceable. Visit the floor. Watch the processes. Then build.