Last month at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which took place for the first time on African soil, I saw a 14-year-old girl pitch an idea for an app to alleviate the traffic light problem in South Africa, writes Perry Kamel, senior business development Manager for SMEs in Africa at Microsoft.

Traffic light outages are a huge challenge in the country and this app alerts drivers to lights that are out and calculates the time it will take for them to get through. The driver can then decide whether to continue or find an alternative route.

When asked if Africa is ready for digital transformation, I always say: Where there are problems in Africa, there are disruptions. Innovations like this traffic light app – or the now famous M-KOPA Solar – are proof of this.

But if these innovations are to succeed, we as ecosystem players still need to collaborate better and make some much-needed changes in the way we support SMEs. Below are three areas of focus that I believe can fundamentally change the way Africa’s SME ecosystems function.