AI Governance in Africa: Current Landscape and Key Challenges

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to drive socio-economic development in Africa across vital sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and public services. However, infrastructure deficiencies, skills shortages, and policy and regulatory gaps present significant hurdles to realising these benefits. This post provides a summary of the current AI governance landscape in Africa, the key challenges, and the emerging trends shaping the continent’s AI future. Please find the full report here and attached for download.

Continental Efforts

The initial continental effort in AI governance began with the Malabo Convention (2014), which focused on data protection and privacy. Despite slow progress, with only 15 countries having ratified it as of 2023, it helped lay the groundwork for subsequent regulatory measures. In 2019, the AU established a Working Group on AI, leading to the development of the Artificial Intelligence Blueprint, spearheaded by Smart Africa. A significant milestone came in 2024 with the African Union’s (AU) Continental AI Strategy, designed to align AI development with broader goals such as Agenda 2063. This strategy emphasises regulatory cohesion, infrastructure development, and building essential skills for AI innovation across the continent.

Institutions like AI4D Africa, Smart Africa, and APET (the African Union High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies) are advancing AI governance, but there is still no continent-wide body solely focused on AI governance, research, and innovation. While APET offers strategic advice on AI alongside other technologies, its broader mandate leaves room for a specialised AI institution. A central body dedicated to AI regulation, research, and global governance—similar to the European AI Alliance or the UK’s AI Safety Institute—could unite stakeholders, harmonise policies, and drive AI-specific research and development across Africa.

Further opportunities for policy harmonisation lie within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is working to standardise digital policies across Africa. The Pan-African Parliament has pushed for ratification of the AU’s Cyber Security and Data Protection Convention, and is another avenue for harmonising AI policies across African nations.

Domestic Efforts

According to the 2023 Oxford AI Readiness Index, Mauritius (53), Egypt (53), and South Africa (47) lead in AI readiness. However, Sub-Saharan Africa's average AI readiness score is 30.2, significantly lagging behind regions like Latin America & Caribbean (41.5) and East Asia (51.4). National AI strategies in Africa have tended to focus on responsible AI usage, data privacy, and infrastructure development. Challenges such as inclusivity, labour displacement, and public AI awareness have received less focus.

Countries including Nigeria are developing AI-focused institutions, such as the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, which promotes both governance and local talent development. Despite these positive examples, most African nations lack dedicated institutions and comprehensive AI frameworks, and many are still in the early stages of development.

Government AI Readiness Index 2023 (Top 20 African Countries)

Source: Oxford Insights, DataPhyte.

African Participation in Global AI Governance

Africa’s role in global AI governance is growing, but there is still potential for deeper global engagement. Countries like Senegal have joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), and Rwanda is set to host the Global AI Summit on Africa in 2025. Expanding Africa's participation in international forums could help ensure the continent’s unique needs are reflected in global AI standards. By collaborating internationally, African nations can strengthen their influence on global AI policies, enhance their credibility as hubs for safe and ethical AI development, and attract the investment needed to build AI capacity across the continent.

Challenges in AI Governance

A review of the literature found several major challenges to responsible AI development in Africa:

1. Regulatory Gaps: Many African nations lack comprehensive regulations specific to AI, including in data privacy, algorithmic accountability, and bias prevention. Copying regulatory frameworks from other regions, such as the EU, may not fully address Africa’s unique socio-economic challenges (Arakpogun et al., 2021). 

2. Infrastructure Deficiencies: AI requires stable internet, electricity, and affordable data—areas where many African nations face significant limitations. Expanding connectivity and digital infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, is critical for scaling AI applications (Okolo et al., 2023 and Effoduh et al., 2021).

3. Skills Development: Building a skilled workforce is a requirement for strong AI governance and innovation. Initiatives in countries like South Africa and Nigeria are laying the groundwork, but there remains a considerable gap in AI education and expertise across the continent (Kiemde & Kora, 2022).

4. Ethical and Social Considerations: AI governance must account for Africa’s socio-cultural diversity to avoid algorithmic bias and data misuse (Kiemde & Kora, 2022 and Hassan, 2022). Ethical AI deployment requires frameworks that ensure fairness, accountability, and transparency (State of AI in Africa Report, 2023).

Emerging Trends in AI Adoption in Africa

AI is already proving its potential across various sectors in Africa. In healthcare, AI aids disease diagnosis in South Africa, while in agriculture, tools like Google’s 'Nuru' assist Tanzanian farmers in detecting crop diseases early. In finance, AI-driven technologies in Kenya and Nigeria are boosting financial inclusion and enhancing fraud detection. These examples highlight AI's ability to drive socio-economic progress.

As AI adoption grows, it becomes crucial to establish sector-specific governance frameworks tailored to industries such as healthcare, agriculture, and finance. Moreover, as AI converges with other advanced technologies, adaptive and agile policies will be needed to address emerging challenges, such as the impact of AI-enhanced biotechnology on biosecurity.

Conclusion

Africa is making progress in integrating AI into its policy frameworks and deploying the technology across key sectors, with the African Union’s Continental AI Strategy providing a solid foundation. As outlined in the strategy, fully realising this vision will require continued improvements in infrastructure and skills development, addressing policy and governance gaps, and tackling social and ethical challenges. Strengthening institutions at both national and continental levels and fostering collaboration—regionally through the African Union and internationally—will also be key in helping AI to drive inclusive growth and benefit broader African society.