Leveraging co-opetition to drive business growth across Africa

With the world’s evolving economic landscape, the notion that businesses must survive by out-muscling each other is slowly giving way to a mindset rooted in pragmatism.

As Africa seeks to address infrastructure gaps, fragmented markets, and resource limitations, blending cooperation with competition is a viable strategy to build resilient, functional business ecosystems.

For decades, African businesses have operated in silos. They fiercely guide their supply chains, information, and market access. This mindset trickled down from various international businesses’ playbooks.

Stemming from the understandable instinct to survive challenging markets, this unyielding competition mindset often stifles innovation, limits scale, and keeps markets fragmented. As a result, Africa has not always unlocked the full potential of its vast resources and growing customer base.

The world is changing, and so must we. Co-opetition calls for businesses to look beyond zero-sum games and instead see how aligning strengths and unlock shared value. This is especially urgent in Africa where infrastructure and resource gaps have negatively impacted business growth and development.

Consider the matatu industry, for example. Before the late Transport Minister, John Michuki, implemented the now famous “Michuki Rules”, every individual matatu operated on its own. Imagine one 14-seater vehicle competing directly with the combined might of the Kenya Bus Service fleet.

After the rules were implemented, matatu Saccos sprang up across the country, creating a unifying ecosystem for owners and operators which in turn managed to protect owners’ interests better when faced with market forces.

The same thinking is working well in agriculture. Smallholder farmers who have long been at the mercy of middlemen are increasingly forming cooperatives that allow them to negotiate better prices for inputs, access shared storage facilities, and secure markets collectively.

This isn’t a new concept to farmers. Unfortunately, many of the cooperatives that were formed during Kenya’s early years have, in recent times, broken down.

First, it is imperative for businesses to remember that co-opetition is not about abandoning the spirit of healthy competition.

On the contrary, it sharpens it by freeing businesses from inefficient operations like duplicating costly infrastructure. Second, co-opetition thrives on trust and good governance. Businesses that choose to collaborate must have clear rules and fair benefit-sharing models.

Third, policy and regulatory frameworks need to evolve to support co-opetition. While antitrust laws exist to protect the consumer from the power of monopolistic practices, they should not stifle legitimate collaboration that improves efficiency and customer services.

Regulators and businesses alike need to distinguish between collusion that harms markets, and co-opetition that builds them. Public-private dialogue is essential to design clear guidelines that encourage businesses to collaborate responsibly without fear of penalties.

The spirit of co-opetition is the convening factor of the 2025 Business Ecosystems Summit in Kisumu. Investors, businesses, governments, foreign missions and many more will meet at the lakeside city between 6 and 8 August to figure out how they can work together to foster functional business ecosystems and drive collaborative investment with the goal of empowering more than 500 MSMEs, contribute to the creation of 100,000 jobs, and secure USD 10billion in deals.

The summit will look at ways of enhancing collaboration and addressing challenges such as trust deficits, short-term mindsets, and regulatory constraints that may deter co-opetition. Opening lines of dialogues among multiple stakeholders will be crucial in driving the growth of business ecosystems.

Africa is a continent of complex challenges and myriad opportunities. As we gear for integration and growth under frameworks like the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), now is the time to enhance co-opetition. In the end, the businesses that understand that growth is not a zero-sum game are the ones that will thrive.