扬卡认为，非洲的创新者正在发现，开发一款新产品或一项新服务，往往也意味着与政府建立一种新的关系。
Yinka’s view Africa’s innovators are discovering that building a new product or service often also means building a new relationship with the government.
上周日，Flutterwave首席执行官奥卢格本加“GB”·阿格博拉告诉我，这家金融科技领军企业是在2022年于肯尼亚遭遇监管挑战后，“以最艰难的方式”吸取了这个教训。阿格博拉说：“我们必须开展倡导工作，必须影响政策制定。”他解释道，Flutterwave开始将监管机构视为“我们业务中的一方利益相关者”。这一视角有助于我们理解非洲的创新。
Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola told me this past weekend that the leading fintech player learned that lesson “the hard way” after regulatory challenges in Kenya back in 2022. “We have to engage in advocacy. We have to influence policies,” Agboola said, explaining that Flutterwave began treating the regulator as a “stakeholder in our business.”That is a useful lens for African innovation.
现实中，这类公司常被描述为科技企业，但它们试图解决的许多问题其实是制度性问题。当然，世界各地的企业都会游说政府调整监管 regulations，使其有利于自身。但在发展中经济体，创新者必须走得更远——建设支付通道、物流网络或医疗保健系统，而这些基础设施在更富裕的国家已被视为理所当然。在非洲部分地区，与政府合作，有时甚至帮助重塑政府体系，本身就成为创新的一部分。
Often these types of companies are described as technology businesses, but many of the problems they are trying to solve are institutional. Of course, businesses the world over lobby governments to shift regulations in their favor. But in developing economies, innovators must go further — building payment rails, logistics networks, or healthcare systems that companies in richer countries take for granted. In parts of Africa, working with the government, and sometimes helping reshape it, becomes part of the innovation itself.
Food4Education创始人瓦维拉·恩吉鲁上周在Semafor的“下一个30亿”会议上告诉我们，她于2012年开始在肯尼亚为25名儿童提供餐食，如今已为超过70万名儿童提供餐食。为了做到这一点，她的组织不仅建设了厨房和供应网络，还与郡政府合作，为学校供餐提供资金，即便这些工作并不在原有职责范围之内。
Food4Education founder Wawira Njiru told us at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion last week that she started feeding 25 children in Kenya in 2012 and now feeds more than 700,000. To do that, her organization built kitchens and supply networks, but also worked with county governments to fund school meals, even where those responsibilities did not fit existing mandates.
“我总是说，要走到他们所在的地方去，而不是要求他们走到你希望他们所在的地方。”恩吉鲁在谈到监管机构时说。这意味着要理解政府的激励方式、寻找支持者，并弄清楚哪些机构实际上能够提供资金。
“I always say, meet them where they are, not where you wish them to be,” Njiru said of regulators. That meant understanding government incentives, finding champions, and figuring out what agencies could actually fund.
要在非洲扩大业务规模，意味着必须应对不同的监管制度、金融体系和政府机构。那些了解这些机构的企业，不仅在学习其所在经济体的实际运作方式，也正在塑造这种运作方式。
Scaling across Africa means navigating regulatory regimes, financial systems, and government institutions. Companies that understand those institutions are learning — but also shaping — how the economies where they operate actually work.
非洲企业需要做的，不只是开发应用、融资或部署人工智能。它们还需要让新创意在周边经济环境中真正落地，并推动政府参与其中。
African companies will need to do more than build apps, raise money, or deploy AI. They will need to make new ideas work inside the economies around them — and bring government along.
卢旺达视角：据该公司非洲区首席执行官称，卢旺达在邀请Zipline解决一个棘手的医疗配送问题后，将一套物流方案建成了国家基础设施。
The View From Rwanda Rwanda turned a logistics solution into national infrastructure after asking Zipline to solve a difficult healthcare delivery problem, according to the company’s Africa CEO.
凯特琳·伯顿在纽约举行的Semafor“下一个30亿”大会上表示，政府最初请Zipline改善血液配送，做到昼夜不停且不受天气影响。
Speaking at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion in New York, Caitlin Burton said the government initially asked Zipline to improve blood deliveries around the clock and in all weather.
该公司不仅搭建了无人机网络，还增加了订购平台、库存管理系统，以及供监管机构使用的空中交通管理工具。
The company built more than a drone network, adding an ordering portal, inventory management system and air traffic management tools for regulators.
伯顿说：“当我们兑现承诺后，他们围绕它重塑了整个体系。这令我们印象深刻，也让我们明白，只有这样才能成为国家基础设施。”无人机或许已经成为卢旺达“飞行救护车”的象征，但伯顿表示，Zipline更了不起的成就是设计了一套契合政府需求的系统，而非仅仅展示技术能做到什么。
“When we delivered on that, they changed their whole system around it,” Burton said. “That was really impressive to us, and that’s how we learned that this is how it becomes national infrastructure.”The drones may be the symbol of Rwanda’s “flying ambulances,” but Burton said Zipline’s bigger feat was designing a system that fit what the government needed, not simply what the technology could do.
值得关注的是，联合国贸易和发展办公室在最近一份报告中称，监管趋同可使非关税监管成本降低15%至30%。
Notable Regulatory convergence can cut costs non-tariff regulations by 15-30% the UN Trade and Development office said in a recent report.