In some cases, African companies are "illegally" importing and selling the equipment to allow users to bypass expensive and often state-controlled internet service providers (ISPs), and to use the cheaper and faster connectivity provided by the world's richest man.

Many Africans living in countries where authorities haven't yet granted regulatory licenses to Starlink, which is a division of SpaceX, are also accessing its services using signal-boosting equipment.

The signal boosters enable users to link to a SpaceX "ground station" in Nigeria, which in January became the first African country to grant regulatory approval to Starlink services.

"The tech revolution is happening at a pace that most African governments just cannot keep up with," said Arthur Goldstuck, founder and CEO of World Wide Worx, one of Africa's leading tech firms.

"The genie is out the bottle. The sooner they realize that they can't control the uncontrollable, the better for them and the better for their people," he said.