With the embrace of legal technology steadily gaining momentum in Africa, some experts predict the possibility of the region surpassing the rest of the world, like it did with the mobile phone revolution.

To the surprise of observers globally, users of mobile phones across Africa grew exponentially from 25 million in 2001 to almost 650 million in the space of 10 years — far more than what was reported in Europe or even the United States.

The revolution is also believed to have spurred the growth of Africa's mobile money market, which is currently worth two-thirds of the global market.

Many believe a big part of the reason for the leap was the fact that landline phones were not as common across Africa, allowing rapid adoption of mobile phones, which were easily affordable and came at the same time as major investment by telecoms companies.

So could a similar thing happen in the field of legal technology?

Steven De Backer, the founder of African-focused legal intelligence company, Afriwise, said the region stands a chance in succeeding in legal technology by creating solutions that promote access to law and justice, as opposed to solutions for law firms.

"Where I strongly believe that Africa will be able to leapfrog compared to the rest of the world is in terms of law tech," he said, defining law tech as solutions that solve a legal problem not addressed by the current legal market.

The former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lawyer explained that a farmer in a remote village in Nigeria whose rights have been violated may not be able to get legal assistance due to the huge gap in access to justice.

"You can actually give a solution to those people. They can just text a chatbot or go on online, and then ask the question, and they will get a response. "