By: Anton Fester - Managing Director, Sedna Africa

Following the recently held G20, one message must rise above the noise: Africa is not a passive participant in the global economy — it is a builder, an innovator, and a formidable industrial force. And nowhere is this more evident than in the continent’s digital and industrial transformation now unfolding across mining, ports, energy and infrastructure.

At Sedna Africa, we are living this reality every day. Our work across the continent is proof that technological excellence is not something Africa must import — it is something we export.

A world first: African innovation, underground in Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, we achieved what many in the global OEM and mining industry thought impossible: A world-first automated solution enabling machines to operate autonomously deep underground, powered by two cutting-edge mobile private networks and an autonomous edge compute layer.

We did not take an off-the-shelf Wi-Fi radio and hope for the best. We engineered bespoke industrial-grade wireless communications — the kind that withstand heat, dust, vibration, and the brutality of real mining environments. This is Africa solving African problems — and setting global benchmarks while doing so.

We now supply the rest of the continent’s leading OEMs with these mission-critical networking elements, proving that African capability can stand toe-to-toe with any organisation, anywhere in the world.

Moving beyond mining: Transforming African ports

Our expansion into maritime private networks marks the next chapter. In Mozambique, Sedna has deployed the first ever private mobile network at the Port of Beira, one of Southern Africa’s most important gateways.

For decades, ports relied on narrowband systems pushing kilobytes of data. Today, Sedna enables a connected, paperless, data-driven port environment. This is what open-for-business looks like. Next stops: Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana — with Nigeria now firmly in our sights.

Building the next generation of industrial infrastructure

Africa’s future industrial competitiveness depends on much more than connectivity. It depends on resilience. That is why Sedna is expanding into energy and infrastructure monitoring through distributed fibre sensing — effectively turning buried fibre into digital nerves.

These systems detect excavation, vandalism, pipeline tampering or leaks within seconds, preventing small disturbances from becoming catastrophic outages. For utilities and energy networks, this is the difference between resilience and shutdown.

Quality, Standards and Trust — Africa competes because it is ready

Our ISO-911 journey has become one of our strongest advantages across Africa. Heavy industries see it, recognise it, and value it. It has overturned the old misconception that Africa cannot offer both quality and value. With a favourable currency environment and a deep engineering bench of African specialists, Sedna delivers both. And we do it consistently.

A bold investment in a bold future

Our latest move — a R5 million Network Operations Centre in Johannesburg — strengthens our position as Africa’s industrial connectivity nerve centre. From here, Sedna monitors and manages private networks across mining regions, ports, and industrial hubs in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique. This investment is not short-term. It signals our belief that Africa’s industrial transformation is accelerating — and Sedna intends to be at the forefront.

Africa needs partners who look beyond the headlines

News cycles are short. Political and economic fluctuations are real. But long-term industrial investment requires those willing to see beyond the immediate horizon.

Across the continent we see exactly that: serious capital flowing into mining, infrastructure, energy, and logistics. Investors are choosing Africa because the fundamentals are strong — and because companies like Sedna are proving that world-class technology can be built, deployed, and maintained right here.

As long as the strategy is sound and organisations are prepared to weather short-term wobbles, Africa offers returns few markets can match.

The world is big enough for everyone to succeed — Africa must claim its share

Africa’s industrial connectivity market alone sits at nearly $15 billion. Ports, mines, energy networks and manufacturing hubs are modernising at pace. The question is not whether Africa can compete. The question is whether we choose to. 

Sedna’s answer — in technology, in investment, in execution — is unequivocal: Yes. Africa can compete. And Africa is open for business.