Small tech projects deliver bigger returns, CIO100 data shows

By Tawheda Ali October 16, 2026

2 minutes read

CIO100 Awards — R-L Carol Odero, Head of Content - Africa at CIO Africa, Deborah Mutungi, Group IT Manager at Sarova Hotels, Gilbert Mutai, CIO at Car and General, and Mumbi Ndung'u, Executive Director at Power Learn Project during a panel discussion at the CIO100 Partners Breakfast held at the Pullman Nairobi Upperhill.

African firms are getting better returns from low-cost technology projects than from big-budget programmes, according to an analysis of entries for this year’s CIO100 Awards.

Projects costing less than $10,000 (about Sh1.3 million) reported a median return of 3.6 times their investment, compared with about twice the investment for the largest-budget projects.

The share of these smaller projects has more than doubled to 27.2 per cent of entries, up from 12.7 per cent in 2023.

The findings are based on submissions from nearly 1,300 organisations across 10 countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda and Uganda.

“The figures suggest that organisations can achieve meaningful results by investing in smaller projects that solve specific problems, rather than relying only on expensive, large-scale technology programmes,” said Arnold Ng’ang’a, a senior manager for consulting services at Deloitte.

Firms are also leaning more on their own technology teams. Some 38.2 per cent of projects entered were built without an external vendor.

Artificial intelligence (AI) dominates spending plans, but actual use lags. While 84.8 per cent of entrants named AI as an investment priority for the next 12 to 24 months, only 61.8 per cent of projects used the technology.

That is up from 54.8 per cent last year. About a quarter of projects, 25.7 per cent, used generative AI.

“The gap between planned investment and current adoption shows that many businesses are still working through the practical questions of implementation, skills, data and governance,” said Harry Hare, chairman of CIO Africa by dx5.

The submissions also point to overconfidence on cybersecurity. Although 82.5 per cent of organisations rated their security maturity in the highest category, only 38.6 per cent had tested an incident-response plan.

Such plans set out how a firm responds to a cyberattack, including who takes charge and how systems are restored.

The gap is growing more costly as firms adopt AI tools, cloud services and connected systems, which give cybercriminals new openings and allow attackers to work faster.

Winners will be announced at the CIO100 Awards and Symposium in Diani from November 25 to 27.

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