Digital Twin Technology in Africa: Opportunities, Challenges and Research Perspectives

International audience Digital Twin (DT) technology has emerged as a transformative paradigm across developed economies, enabling real-time synchronization between physical assets and their virtual counterparts for predictive analytics, process optimization, and lifecycle management. However, its adoption trajectory in Africa presents a distinct landscape characterized by unique opportunities, infrastructure constraints, and context-specific innovation pathways. This paper provides a systematic review of the current state of digital twin technology in Africa, examining its techno-logical foundations, emerging applications, implementation barriers, and strategic perspectives for sustainable deployment. Through an analysis of real-world projects across Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa, this study identifies key success factors and development hurdles specific to the African context. The findings reveal that while digital twin adoption in Africa remains nascent compared to developed regions, significant momentum is building in sectors such as smart cities, heritage preservation, mining, and healthcare. Barriers including infra-structure limitations, data scarcity, high implementation costs, and lack of standardization persist, yet innovative frugal digitalization strategies are emerging. The paper proposes a strategic framework for scaled DT deploy-ment tailored to Africa's diverse socio-economic conditions, emphasizing hybrid architectures, capacity build-ing, and public-private partnerships. This review contributes to the strategic discourse on leveraging advanced digital technologies for sustainable development across Africa, aligning with continental digital transformation agendas and providing actionable insights for policymakers, researchers, and industry practitioners.