The article examines how Open Educational Resources (OER) address critical resource shortages in African higher education, where expensive proprietary textbooks and passive teaching methods limit quality learning. African universities increasingly recognize that creating and adapting OER—not just consuming it—ensures contextually relevant materials for local students. Notable initiatives include OER Africa's growing repository (downloads increased from 13,632 in May 2025 to 24,632 in September), SADiLaR's DH OER Champions program across South African universities, Nigeria's teacher education workshops, and institutional repositories at Kenyatta University and University of Cape Town. Rwanda exemplifies policy-level commitment with explicit OER support in its national ICT in Education Policy.
Despite this progress, mainstreaming OER across Africa remains challenging. Success requires local champions to ignite interest and provide initial implementation support, as resistance to open sharing persists without clear demonstrated benefits. The article recommends that African universities develop formal OER policies, integrate OER creation into faculty promotion criteria alongside research, invest in educator training, and adapt resources into local languages where appropriate to fully realize OER's potential for improving educational quality across the continent.