The Tropical Savannah is not Silicon Valley–Mitchell Elegbe Urges Entrepreneurs to Adapt Global Business Models for African Markets

African entrepreneurs should learn from successful business models and ecosystems around the world but adapt the underlying knowledge to the realities of the markets they serve, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe, has said.

Elegbe made this point during his keynote presentation at The Platform 2026, hosted by The Covenant Nation in Lagos, where he used his famous “Tropical Savannah” framework to describe the distinctive environment in which African businesses operate.

“The Tropical Savannah is not Silicon Valley. African entrepreneurs should learn from successful business ecosystems around the world, but the strategies and assumptions behind those models must be adapted to local market conditions,” Elegbe said.

For entrepreneurs building in African markets, this means looking beyond the surface of successful business models to understanding what makes them work. Differences in infrastructure, purchasing power, access to capital, logistics, market structure and consumer behaviour can significantly influence how a business should be designed, positioned and grown.

The principle is particularly relevant as Africa’s entrepreneurial and technology ecosystem continues to mature. While access to global capital, technology and knowledge has created new opportunities for businesses across the continent, entrepreneurs also have an opportunity to develop models that are grounded in the specific needs and characteristics of their markets.

Elegbe’s own experience with Interswitch provides an example of this approach. The company began by solving a specific problem within Nigeria’s payments ecosystem, developing an online, real-time payment system suited to the local market and subsequently building the people, technology, systems and partnerships required to support its growth.

The lesson, he suggested, is not to choose between global knowledge and local experience, but to combine both. Entrepreneurs can draw from established principles in business, technology and management while adapting them to the customers, economics and operating environments in which their businesses must succeed.

Ultimately, the “Tropical Savannah” is a call for African entrepreneurs to approach the continent’s opportunities with both ambition and context. The objective is not to reproduce Silicon Valley in Africa, but to build businesses that understand African markets deeply, apply global knowledge intelligently and develop solutions capable of achieving sustainable scale.