Despite the constant threat of conflict, Tripoli is emerging as an unlikely hub for digital innovation. Co-working spaces have appeared where bombed-out offices once stood, start-ups promise fintech solutions to cash shortages, and social media is awash with talk of a “Libyan tech moment.” For a city better known internationally for militia rule, power cuts and institutional paralysis, the narrative is seductive. It suggests a capital finally leapfrogging its political crisis through technology.

Libya is a young country by any measure, with a population dominated by under-35s who have grown up navigating disruption, informality and rapid change. This generation is digitally fluent, pragmatic and largely unencumbered by nostalgia for state-led solutions that no longer function. For many young Libyans, technology is not an abstract promise but a practical tool — a way to create income, visibility and connection in an environment where traditional pathways have collapsed. In that sense, Tripoli’s emerging tech scene reflects less an imported fantasy than a locally driven impulse to build, improvise and adapt.

Talk of a technology-driven awakening in Tripoli has gained unexpected momentum. Innovation has become a fashionable shorthand for hope, invoked as proof that Libya’s capital is moving forward despite political paralysis. In official speeches and start-up circles alike, digital tools are increasingly framed not just as economic opportunities, but as substitutes for the absent state — a way to function around collapse rather than confront it. Internet access has grown steadily, with over 70 per cent of Libyans reported to use mobile phones and around 60 per cent connected to the internet, providing a ready platform for apps, social commerce, and mobile-based services to reach a wide audience.

Libya’s dried-up banks: The daily struggle for cash

What has fuelled this moment is less a sudden breakthrough than a convergence of necessity and accommodative regulation. In the context of chronic cash shortages and a banking system strained by years of political fragmentation and low public trust, the Central Bank of Libya has increasingly encouraged digital payments. In 2025 officials reported strong

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