India Stack has become a reference point in nearly every serious conversation about digital public infrastructure. The core components—Aadhaar (digital ID), UPI (real-time payments), DigiLocker (document storage), and consent layers like Account Aggregators—have enabled India to build one of the most ambitious digital ecosystems in the world.
The numbers are striking:
- Over 1.3 billion Aadhaar IDs issued
- 11 billion UPI transactions processed monthly
- 500+ banks and fintechs integrated through open APIs
- Public and private services operating on a shared digital spine
It’s no surprise that development institutions are encouraging governments across Africa to build their own “Stack.” The ambition is valid—but so is the caution.
The question isn’t whether Africa should build digital public infrastructure. It’s how to do it—on its own terms, for its own context.
What’s Worth Learning?
There are elements of India’s approach that African countries can and should adapt:
1. Start with Infrastructure, Not Applications
India Stack didn’t begin by digitizing services—it began by building the digital rails that services could run on. Identity, payments, and data exchange came first. This made it possible to scale everything else. African governments can benefit from taking a similar sequencing approach: build shared infrastructure first, then layer services on top.
2. Prioritize Openness and Interoperability
India’s use of open APIs, public codebases, and vendor-neutral procurement helped ensure that its infrastructure could scale across both the public and private sectors. African digital ecosystems will benefit from avoiding closed systems that lock out competition or collaboration.
3. Build with Consent in Mind
India’s consent architecture—especially in the financial sector—offers useful lessons. It embedded citizen agency into system design, even as scale accelerated. As digital public infrastructure becomes more data-driven, this principle becomes non-negotiable.
Where Direct Replication Fails
Despite the successes, there are important limitations—and risks—in trying to replicate India Stack in Africa without adaptation:
1. India Had a Centralized State and a Single Market
India’s national government had significant legal and political authority to drive digital identity and payments reforms across states. In many African countries, governance is more decentralized, and markets are more fragmented. What works at a national scale in India may require regional collaboration or multilateral agreements in Africa.
2. India Had a Deep Pool of Domestic Tech Capacity
The presence of world-class public technologists (like iSPIRT) was critical to India Stack’s architecture. Most African countries still rely heavily on external vendors, consultants, and donor-funded contractors. Without strong internal capacity, infrastructure becomes hard to maintain—or becomes captured by private interests.
3. Trust, Inclusion, and Data Protection Standards Were Contested
India’s Aadhaar program has faced multiple legal and civil society challenges regarding surveillance, exclusion, and data misuse. African governments must learn from these lessons—not just the success story. In low-trust environments, especially where marginalization is historical and ongoing, inclusion and rights protections must be built in from day one, not retrofitted.
What Africa Needs to Build Instead
Rather than replicate India Stack, Africa needs to define what an Africa Stack looks like—one that reflects:
- Pan-African mobility, given the volume of cross-border movement and trade
- Multi-lingual, low-literacy user interfaces, designed for a broader digital inclusion base
- Offline-first capabilities, given persistent connectivity gaps in rural areas
- Sovereignty-first procurement models, that reduce dependency on foreign infrastructure providers
- Regional standards, that allow smaller states to interoperate and negotiate from a position of strength
In short: a digital architecture rooted in Africa’s political economy—not just its technology needs.
Louer Group’s Role
At Louer Group, we work with governments and regional institutions to:
- Translate global models like India Stack into actionable frameworks suited to African contexts
- Design digital public infrastructure aligned with local priorities, market realities, and institutional capacities
- Develop national and regional governance models that preserve interoperability without centralizing control
- Build internal capacity to manage platforms and avoid vendor capture
- Ensure inclusion, trust, and citizen rights are embedded—not assumed
We don’t sell off-the-shelf solutions. We help build systems that fit.
Final Word
India Stack is a success story—but it is India’s story. Africa must write its own.
The question is not whether to build shared infrastructure. The question is: What kind of infrastructure, for whom, and with what safeguards?
If African governments take that question seriously, the result can be just as transformative—on Africa’s own terms.
Louer Group is ready to walk that path with them.
