At the recent Africa Business Forum in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia's capital and seat of the African Union), a stark warning was issued to policymakers: Africa's growth model, long reliant on expanding labour, capital, and commodity exports rather than productivity gains, is no longer sufficient to generate the tens of millions of jobs the continent's young population will need in the coming decade. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's 2026 Economic Report on Africa argues that frontier technologies — including artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics, and clean energy — must be integrated into agriculture, manufacturing, and public services if the continent is to achieve resilient development amid climate shocks and tightening global finances. Countries such as Senegal and its neighbours stand to benefit from this shift, but experts warn that without urgent reforms in education, data infrastructure, and innovation financing, Africa risks reproducing its traditional commodity dependency in digital form.