Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries and societies around the world. In Africa, it holds immense potential to tackle deep-rooted challenges in healthcare, education, financial inclusion, and unemployment.
By Dumisani Moyo, marketing director at SAP Africa
Yet, while the AI technology gap dominates the conversation, the more urgent issue is the need for bold leadership.
AI is often positioned as the next frontier of human progress. In Africa, that promise is constrained by significant barriers including inadequate infrastructure, limited investment, poor internet access, and fragile data ecosystems.
According to the United Nations, while 85% of Africa’s population has access to 3G, only 38% use the internet, well below the global average of 68%. This highlights a disconnect between infrastructure availability and meaningful digital inclusion.
Despite pervasive challenges, AI innovation is gaining momentum across the continent. In Zimbabwe, Dr. CADx uses AI to enhance radiology diagnostics. In Kenya, M-Shule delivers personalised learning via SMS, expanding access to education in areas with limited internet. In South Africa, Aerobotics uses AI to help farmers boost crop yields. Founded in Cape Town, the company now operates in 18 countries, with its largest market in the US. In Nigeria, LifeBank uses AI and data analytics to connect hospitals with critical supplies such as blood and vaccines.
Yet we play a limited role in the global AI value chain. According to the World Economic Forum, between 2022 and 2023, the continent attracted only $641-million in AI-related venture capital, a mere 0.3% of the projected $184 billion in global AI investments.
Initiatives like IndabaX are working to change that narrative. Since 2018, this community-led network has brought together AI stakeholders across Africa to strengthen skills in machine learning and AI. By 2024, it had expanded to 47 countries, and plays a vital role in building local expertise and advancing continent-wide engagement.
Partnerships pave the way
Harnessing AI’s full potential requires more than technical expertise. It demands foresight, coordination, and a clear strategy shaped around Africa’s unique opportunities and challenges.
While some governments have launched national AI strategies, AI is still often seen as a futuristic concept in many boardrooms. Universities face the challenge of updating curricula fast enough, and policymakers often struggle to keep pace with rapid technological change.
Encouragingly, initiatives are gaining momentum across the continent. Rwanda’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), in partnership with the World Economic Forum, places AI at its core. Ghana’s National AI Strategy targets growth across healthcare, education, ethics, and capacity-building. South Africa’s Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (PC4IR) has prioritised AI alongside other transformative technologies. Kenya’s Blockchain and AI Task Force is already looking at how emerging tech can drive development, financial inclusion, and job creation.
But closing the gap will take bold action and a broad-based effort that engages Africa’s youth across every stage of the AI value chain, from classrooms to boardrooms. With 60% of the population under 25, Africa is the world’s youngest and fastest-growing continent. That youth represents a powerful force for innovation provided they are equipped with the technical skills, leadership, governance, and strategic insight to solve local problems at scale.
Leadership critical to reap AI benefits
Without leaders who can envision the possibilities, commit resources, and invest intentionally, even the most advanced technology will fail to deliver impact.
AI is more than a tool. It has the potential to influence policy, shape education reform, transforms business models, and redefine systems across healthcare, finance, and governance. If Africa does not play an active role in designing, applying, and regulating AI, others will define the future on its behalf. This poses significant risks, including systems built on foreign datasets that misrepresent African realities or fail to address local needs.
Closing the leadership gap requires building a new generation of decision-makers who not only understand technology, but also grasp its wider social, ethical, and economic dimensions. Africa needs leaders who can think strategically about AI and create environments where inclusive innovation can thrive.
Unlocking Africa’s AI potential
To thrive in the AI era, Africa must co-create, co-innovate, and lead. Bridging both the technology and leadership gaps demands a coordinated and sustained effort across four key areas:
- Invest in Leadership Development – Beyond technical training, intentional investment is needed to develop leadership capacity. Policymakers, educators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders must be equipped with the skills, mindset, and confidence to shape AI strategies that drive inclusive and sustainable progress.
- Localise AI in National Agendas – AI should be deeply integrated into national and regional development plans. Governments must embed AI in education, public services, and innovation ecosystems. Importantly, this must go beyond adoption to localisation, ensuring AI reflects African contexts. The African Development Bank estimates that AI could contribute as much as $1.2 trillion to Africa’s GDP by 2030, highlighting its immense transformative potential.
- Foster Public-Private Collaboration – Collaboration between government, industry, academia, and civil society is essential to build robust AI ecosystems. To achieve this, Africa must develop, and champion AI solutions grounded in local languages, data, and social realities.
- Tell Africa’s Own AI Story – According to UNESCO, Africa is home to one-third of the world’s languages, yet 15% of them are at risk of extinction. Here, generative AI holds transformative potential to document, preserve, and even teach endangered languages to younger generations, safeguarding a vital part of Africa’s cultural heritage. However, this requires homegrown AI solutions grounded in local languages, data, and social realities, such as Masakhane, a grassroots initiative that brings together researchers, linguists, and native speakers to build tools for African languages.
Africa stands at a defining moment. Shaping a truly African AI future will require a shared vision, bold leadership, and deep collaboration across government, business, academia, and civil society.
As the African proverb says, “Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.”