As the African Union (AU) commissioned its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy around July last year (2024), and with the setup of an AU Advisory Group on AI by the AU Peace and Security Council also in June last year, it appears Africa is yet again playing catch-up. But, as the saying goes, “it’s better late than never”. The Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy for Africa is properly crafted and implemented, and it will catalyze the transformation of Africa in the short to midterm and the achievement of the Africa Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Some of the key focus areas for the delivery of this project include entrenchment of democratic values, principles, and practices in politics; achievement of a capable institutional framework for leadership to be in place; achievement of peace, security, and stability for Africa, and more.
How ready is Africa?
To understand where we are in the global paradigm of AI, recall that about 3 months ago (in January 2025), when President Donald Trump was sworn in, within 24 hours, President Trump had secured over 500 billion US Dollars for AI infrastructure development in the United States of America. two days ago, during the biggest annual legislative strategy session for China, chaired by President Xi Jinping, to craft the 2025 strategy, the meeting deliberated extensively on AI and big data as one of the key policy directions. This will be China’s 15th five-year strategic blueprint (you can imagine how far they have come on AI). India has already done its own AI strategy since around 2018. So, this is where forward-thinking Countries are in terms of the conceptualization of the AI strategy, implementation, and impacts relative to where we are in Africa.
The Continental AI strategy for Africa has a 5 years implementation plan. But suffice it to say that some of the critical priority areas that must be addressed before the AI strategy can work include critical infrastructure, the political structures across the continent, and the political will of African leaders. The rhetorical question is, “Do we have the political structures and the governance framework that will enable achievement of those strategic visions and objectives at a time when fragmentation is the order of the day across the world?”. Specifically, in the case of Africa, there are conflicts across the Sahel, in Eastern Africa, specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, and South Sudan. We are witnessing the fragmentation of ECOWAS with the latest development in Guinea-Bissau, where President Umaru Sissoco Embalo, is threatening to pull out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). There has to be a unified approach to the AI strategy. It should be aligned to individual and continental aspirations or initiatives. Consequently, we have a lot of work to do in Africa. More importantly, it is how the leaders of the countries of Africa will ultimately harness AI to deliver good governance to the over 1.2 billion citizens of the continent, whereas we have issues of getting leaders of most Countries to practice real democracy or apply a good governance framework to the betterment of their citizens. Over 60 years or less since independence, the majority of African Countries are still grappling with the provision of basic amenities like clean drinking water, steady electricity, education, security, free, fair, and credible elections, etc. Therefore, while the AI Strategy is a welcome development, it is important for us to note that the foundations and building blocks of our Countries and Continent are fundamental to the success of the Continental AI Strategy.
There is a governance and regulatory framework in place for the execution of the AI strategy. How the respective countries key their strategy into the overarching continental strategy is the first step in the right direction. And how they are able to address the concerns of ethics and regulation of AI, especially when we already have the critical infrastructural deficit, and data integrity is very important. This is because the crucial data that will be used to populate the framework of AI are actually data that Africa mostly relies on the West or the Far East to give us, to leverage. Generating our own homegrown crucial and credible data that is very important; because in Africa, we put more “face value” on our data rather than looking at our realities and using the real critical data, and that is where and why we mostly lean on the data that are coming from countries or continents that may not like the data to be in line with our current realities for their own strategic objectives.
Interestingly, Nigeria already has a national artificial intelligence strategy that was formulated by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and domiciled in one of its Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) – the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR). South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, and some other Countries in Africa have crafted or are crafting their AI strategies and policies. 2025 to 2026 is the timeline for all the Countries in Africa to craft their AI strategy as part of “phase-1” of the implementation plan of the Africa continental AI strategy.
Critical infrastructure Deficit must be addressed
AI has come to stay. However, while we are plugging into AI, is energy/ electricity supply available, steady, or sustainable in the majority of African Countries? Critical Infrastructure deficit is a reality. Therefore, do all Countries in Africa have a national development strategy that has links or interlinks with these critical pillars for success? Infrastructure, in terms of energy, intermodal transportation, and even the bedrock of data for telecommunications (which are linked to energy as well), is fundamental. Thus, the dependencies and interdependencies are crucial to achieving the strategic national and continental AI objectives.
Furthermore, Countries must achieve “policy coherence” in their public sector for them to achieve these seemingly disparate but relational sectors like technology, energy, digital economy, logistics and supply chains, etc. That being said, we need to face that reality and prepare for it because if we don’t prepare for the impacts of AI (positives and negatives), the negative consequences will be more devastating if we allow AI to evolve without Africa catching up fast.
Human Capital Development
Serious investments in human capital development, especially the youth who are the ones actually driving the tech and private sectors in China and the US. The youth of Africa are the ones who will scale new heights and push the boundaries of new frontiers.
Public Service Culture and Political Will
A point to note is that AI will not change our political system or corporate culture as African countries or Africa as a continent. It is our intentions that will drive the change that will bring peace and development, which technology and AI will enable. This is because the AI, robots, and technology are programmed to do exactly what we want them to do.
Accordingly, the leaders of Africa should recognise that they have a role to play. Because AI is virtual reality. We need the human beings who are leading these countries to do the right things before we can safely, efficiently, and effectively deploy AI. With regard to how AI can be harnessed to achieve regional or continental security and peace, it is very important for us to understand that the technology is moving fast in terms of reconnaissance and surveillance, remote sensing, etc. Therefore, countries must build the capacities, competencies, and willpower to be proactive against risks and threats like terrorists so that they can be able to successfully react to risks and threats. Otherwise, AI will be just a buzzword in Africa.
Meanwhile, we should not lose sight of where we are in terms of our realities. For example, we are faced with heightening insecurity and conflicts across the continent. How have we leveraged the existing technologies to proactively quell potential crises or risks rather than allowing them to happen? As it is today, most national databases of countries across Africa are not up to par or synchronized across the board and effectively utilized for national security and development. This is worrisome considering the fact that the criminals, terrorists, and enemies are fully and effectively deploying technology in terms of communication, drones, deep fake AI, etc. Indeed, they are moving in tandem with the evolution of technology, and this makes them more formidable, as African countries are lagging behind. The risks and threats in Africa are escalating beyond any other region in the world.
There must be Peace for Development to happen
There must be peace before growth and development can happen. There must be stability in terms of the socio-economic well-being of our citizens across the countries in the continent for us to achieve the AI vision and objectives. Look at what is happening in Sudan, South Sudan, and DRC, for example, or in other parts of Africa. Even where there are no wars or battles, the socioeconomic headwinds in those countries MUST be addressed as part of the respective national and continental AI strategies because they are consequential to the achievement of the AI vision.
Ethics and Regulation.
The ethical and regulation issues of AI is a global concern. Nonetheless, with the ongoing international efforts to address the issues ethical and regulatory issues, I hope that it will be addressed on the continental and global platforms.
