but they won’t always be with the hyperscalers.
Partnerships are essential to African digital transformations, just like our partnership with Smart Hands Africa (SHA), ATOMNIA’s pan-African distribution partner. SHA’s CEO, Anton Jacobsz, has some 30 years’ experience building and scaling technology businesses across Africa and is interviewed here.
As CEO and Managing Director of some of Africa’s leading technology distribution businesses, Anton has spent much of his career helping global technology vendors expand into African markets while building the local partner ecosystems needed to support long-term growth. During his leadership tenure, he played a key role in expanding operations across Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, contributing to significant business growth and market development throughout the continent.
In this interview, we ask Anton: will Big Tech partnerships lead the technological way, or will African businesses be more drawn to smaller, more innovative and nimble tech vendor partners? What sectors face the biggest challenges, and what is essential for deciding on tech partner potential for Africa? With over three decades of experience in delivering technology across the entire continent, Anton’s answers are insightful — and they pull no punches.
If you haven’t read part one of Anton’s interview, AFRICA’S BIGGEST DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION CHALLENGE IS NOT AMBITION, IT’S EXECUTION CAPACITY, you can read it here.
Hyperscalers vs agile innovators
WILL IT BE THE HYPERSCALERS THAT LEAD AFRICA’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OR SMALLER MORE AGILE TECH INNOVATORS?
Anton says, “On the hyperscaler versus innovator question, I think businesses must be brave, but not reckless. Hyperscalers are important, but they are not always the answer to every African challenge. Sometimes the right solution is a more agile innovator that understands cost, deployment realities, flexibility and partner-led growth.”
That philosophy underpins Anton’s partnership with ATOMNIA to deliver the OMNIA all-in-one connection protection and detection solution across the entire continent. At a recent event in South Africa, OMNIA was demoed to a full-house of invited guests from across the technology sector, and seasoned tech experts shared powerful reactions:
“The possibilities that OMNIA brings and what this technology can do are unreal”
“It’s a very appropriate product for Africa with all its restraints like consistent power supply and connectivity – OMNIA can be applied anywhere. This is a total solution and it’s affordable”
“what OMNIA does is solve all of the network problems we’re facing by providing reliable and secure internet connectivity”
OMNIA, the all-in-one SD-WAN networking and SASE cybersecurity solution, is being welcomed across Africa in ways that highlight how the continent is now adopting technology differently. In ATOMNIA’s opinion, this reflects a bold, forward-thinking and future-proofing approach: rather than relying only on Big Tech brands, African organisations are seeking partnerships with nimble, agile innovators who keep data sovereign — within Africa — and who work through local distributor partners that provide on-the-ground support.
By ensuring that smaller tech vendors and providers work with African distributor partners and local services, the future of African nations, careers and communities can remain within Africa too.
Visit the Smart Hands Africa website here
Sectors facing the biggest digital challenges
WHAT INDUSTRY SECTORS IN AFRICA FACE THE BIGGEST DIGITAL CHALLENGES?
Anton says, “The biggest challenges are faced by organisations where digital systems are now critical, but internal IT and cybersecurity capacity is limited.”
That includes:
- Financial services and fintech.
- Healthcare.
- Education.
- Mining and industrial sectors.
- Retail and hospitality.
- Legal and accounting firms.
- Government and public services.
- SMEs generally.
With OMNIA’s modular components, there is a solution that can be tailored to the specific needs of each of these sectors. Large enterprises usually have bigger budgets but also highly complex environments; in contrast, SMEs often face a different set of challenges: they are highly dependent on technology but lack dedicated cybersecurity, compliance or IT teams, and they frequently have smaller IT budgets.
Anton goes on to explain that challenge: “Less budget, less IT skills, legacy systems, poor cyber awareness at leadership level. vendor complexity, limited access to trusted partners outside major cities and security being treated as a once-off project instead of a continuous discipline, are laying SMEs open to attack, couple that with cybercriminals already believing that businesses in Africa are an easy target, with 60% more attacks in Africa already and the scale of the issue comes into sharp focus.”
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises employ roughly 80% to 84% of the entire workforce in Africa — that’s hundreds of millions of people relying on these businesses for employment, the means by which they support their families. SHA, working with OMNIA, is determined to help protect these smaller businesses by providing a world-class network and security product at a price SMEs can afford and with the 24/7/365 support they need.
How Smart Hands Africa fits in
That is where Smart Hands Africa fits in. SHA help OEMs, distributors, resellers and end customers access trusted technical skills and services across Africa. SHA is building a model that connects technology innovation with local execution. And with OMNIA’s scalable modular approach to delivering next-gen network, cybersecurity, XDR threat detection, multi-layered encryption and secure remote access solutions to multi-cloud and IoT.
In practice, that means African organisations can access advanced solutions like OMNIA in ways that are deployed, supported and evolved through local partners who understand the realities of each country and sector. It also means OEMs and distributors can scale across Africa with confidence, knowing there is a trusted execution layer on the ground.
What defines the right tech partners for Africa?
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL FOR DECIDING ON TECH PARTNER POTENTIAL FOR AFRICA?
Anton explains, “At Smart Hands Africa, we are interested in solutions that can solve real African problems, can be delivered through partners, and can scale across multiple countries, It’s not only about size, but also about alignment, capability and intent.”
A strong partner has:
- Access to customers.
- A clear market focus.
- Technical or sales capability.
- A willingness to learn.
- The discipline to build pipeline.
- The ability to execute and support customers.
- Trust and credibility in their market.
Anton adds that SHA looks for partners who want to build a business, not just add another logo to their website. A “no-no” is a partner who wants the benefit of the brand or solution but is not prepared to invest time, training, customer development or execution. Another no-no is misalignment around ethics, customer ownership or service quality.
That is why SHA looks at technologies such as OMNIA, RidgeBot, Automize RPA and services partnerships like Supermicro. The aim is not simply to resell technology but to build an ecosystem where African partners can access innovation, skills, services and commercial models that help them grow.
For Smart Hands Africa, the goal is to become the trusted execution partner for OEMs, distributors, resellers and customers who want to scale technology services across Africa.
The final word must go to Anton from Smart Hands Africa:
The opportunity in Africa is enormous, but the winners will not be the companies that simply bring technology into the market. The winners will be those who can combine innovation, local partnerships, skills development and trusted execution.
That is what Smart Hands Africa is building.
We want to help Africa digitise securely, practically and inclusively — not by copying old models, but by building a partner-led services ecosystem designed for the realities of this continent.
We, at ATOMNIA, couldn’t agree more.
