What will Africa look like in 2050? Will Africa, which is currently missing out on opportunities, still be at a disadvantage?

It will still develop rapidly and occupy a leading position in the new round of technological competition. For example, can Africa become a leading space continent by then?

In current projections, Africa's future is a gloomy picture: scourges of conflict, poverty, and unemployment are spreading into the future. On the face of it, there seems little reason to expect a miracle of a sudden awakening in Africa that will enable the continent to achieve the kind of rapid transformation that Singapore and South Korea have experienced over the past 60 years.

However, this gloomy narrative has had obvious consequences: spooked investors and discouraging diasporas who would otherwise have considered returning to Africa. Most critically, it robs African youth of the opportunity to dream of a better life on the continent. These assumptions trap Africa in a "vicious circle" that further fuels prejudice against the continent.

We live in a world where stories of African geniuses are rare and subconsciously excluded.

Africa's aerospace industry is reaching new heights. In January, South Africa made history by launching three nanosatellites, the first to be designed and built entirely on the African continent. Ghana's cocoa growers will soon have access to agricultural advice thanks to a program that uses satellite imagery to monitor environmental conditions in Ghana.

Angola's second communications satellite was recently launched into space.

In other tech areas, African innovators are also showing why ignoring them would be a mistake. M-PESA, a pioneering mobile payment service launched by Kenyan companies in 2007, has since become a model for the global mobile banking industry.

Africa desperately needs a more nuanced future narrative that moves away from the standard playbook that depicts only refugees on boats and rebels in the jungle, without overshadowing the challenges facing the continent.

This will be critical to inspiring the next generation of engineers, scientists, statisticians, and astronauts who will help solve Africa's most pressing development challenges and help the continent make a potential leap.