Minister of Communication, Technology and Innovation Salima Mornorma Bah has made the inaugural Builder’s List 2025.
Introduced by Techcabal, a future-focused publication that amplifies Africa’s technological advancement, the Builder’s list is an editorial project recognising the operators, engineers and policymakers building the pipes and platforms that power Africa’s technology. It is basically “a record of who is building, and what their work reveals about the system they are operating within”, a note on techcabal’s website reads.
Selections were based on material change within the calendar year in key metrics from infrastructure to policy or scale rather than reputation or momentum alone.
Bah’s making of the inaugural list is a coincidence of firsts. She stands as Sierra Leone’s Minister of Communication, aggressively engineering the landscape towards President Julius Maada Bio’s vision of making Sierra Leone the “Estonia of West Africa.” She has capitalised on the privatisation of the state’s fibre assets to drive digital growth.
Her efforts have led to the international bandwidth capacity making a giant leap from 90 gigabits per second (gbps) to over 500 gbps, laying the foundation for an open-access 5G standalone network.
Bah recognises that technology and innovation begin with having the infrastructure. “You can’t talk about technology or innovation if your infrastructure isn’t there,” she told TechCabal in a July interview.
This view has influenced her moves, which have landed huge investments attuned to over $132 million in direct government investment. This aligns with Bah’s view that internet access is “a basic human right” and that the government as a “conductor” has a responsibility to create the enabling environment to get the tech ecosystem’s rolling.
In addition to connecting universities via Starlink, Bah broke ground on the establishment of Felei Tech City, a 130 acre Special Economic Zone in Bo district. The facility, dubbed as a “living lab”, supports startups and data centres
The small size of Sierra Leone’s market has not been a limiting factor for Bah. Moved by limitless thoughts that shape bold actions, one of Africa’s is making a notable demonstration that even small nations can reach greater heights, with the right minds and resources.
