Story Highlights
- The African Union (AU) approved a strategy to adopt AI across public and private sectors in member states to drive development and well-being.
- The strategy includes fifteen action areas focusing on governance, skills, research, and infrastructure to support AI growth.
- Implementation will occur in two phases (2025-2030), emphasizing regional cooperation and ethical AI use.
The African Union (AU) Executive Council has approved the “Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy,” which proposes the adoption of AI in the public and private sectors among member states, including Nigeria.
This was disclosed in the Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy document published on the AU website on Friday, August 9, 2024.
The AU Strategy on Artificial Intelligence (AI) was adopted by the AU Executive Council during its 45th Ordinary Session held between July 18 and 19, 2024, in Accra, Ghana.
Endorsement of the AI Strategy
The strategy was unanimously endorsed by the African ICT and Communications Ministers of the AU in June 2024, among others.
Nairametrics previously reported that over 130 African ministers and experts virtually convened between June 11 and 13, 2024, for the AU’s 2nd Extraordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT.
They eventually endorsed a Continental AI Strategy that will guide African countries to harness artificial intelligence to meet the continent’s development aspirations and the well-being of its people.
Key Recommendations of the Endorsed Strategy:
– Develop Africa-owned AI infrastructure: An AI infrastructure is an integrated environment of hardware and software designed specifically for AI and machine learning workloads, paving the way for data processing and deployment.
– AI Regulation:The strategy recommends guidelines that will moderate the boundaries of AI usage on the continent.
– Funding for AI-based Research: The strategy calls for financial support aimed at enriching the knowledge base of Africans on AI capabilities and functionalities.
What the adopted Strategy now proposes for African countries
As disclosed in the document, the AU Executive Council backed the adoption of AI in the public and private sectors of African countries, among other proposals.
Here are the fifteen action areas proposed by the adopted strategy:
- Establishment of an appropriate AI governance system and regulations at regional and national levels.
- Promoting the adoption of AI in the public sector, with a view to delivering efficient services to citizens, businesses, and others.
- Adoption of AI in the core sectors outlined in Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Adoption of AI by the private sector, including small and medium enterprises.
- Creating an enabling environment for a vibrant and inclusive AI startup ecosystem.
- Ensuring the availability of high-quality and diverse datasets for AI, which highlights building the underlying infrastructure for AI, like computing platforms such as high-performance computing, data centers, and cloud services.
- “The seventh area of action focuses on information integrity, media, and information literacy,” the document stated.
- Promoting AI skills and talent in schools, colleges, workplaces, and among the population, including the provision of upskilling and reskilling programs and requirements for jobs at risk.
- Promoting research and innovation in AI through partnerships between academia and the private and public sectors.
- Adoption and implementation of ethical principles for AI that respects diversity, inclusivity, and African culture and values, among others.
- Adoption and implementation of technical standards to ensure the safety and security of AI systems across the continent.
- Accelerating public and private investment in AI in Africa.
- Promoting regional cooperation and coordination with the participation of relevant stakeholders from academia, civil society, media, governments, and the private sector to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of AI in Africa.
- Accelerating African participation in global AI governance.
- Promoting AI-related partnerships between Africa and the rest of the world, with a view to mobilizing financial and technical resources for AI development in Africa.
More Insights
The Continental AI Strategy proposes a five-year timeframe between 2025 and 2030 for implementing the actions in the fifteen areas, and it will be implemented in two phases:
Phase One (2025 to 2026) will focus on the creation of necessary governance frameworks, national AI strategies, resource mobilization activities, and building capacities at the AU, RECs, specialized agencies, and Member States.
Phase two will focus on the implementation of core projects and actions of the continental AI strategy.
According to the document, only six countries (Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Mauritius, Rwanda, and Senegal) have developed stand-alone AI strategies as of July 2024.
Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda are said to be “addressing AI in combination with other emerging technologies, such as blockchain, or in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
Meanwhile, the AU observed that other countries, such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Uganda, have taken significant steps to define AI policies and establish institutions to drive AI development.
What You Should Know
The adoption is a follow-up on the AU’s call for developing countries to have increased representation and influence within global Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance structures.
Nairametrics previously reported that the AU Mission to the United Nations (UN) disclosed this during a special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) three months ago.
This endorsed strategy is expected to constitute Africa’s contribution to the Global Digital Compact and the United Nations Summit of the Future in September 2024.
The committee submitted the strategy to the African Union Executive Council in July 2024 for consideration and final adoption in line with AU rules and regulations.
The development is coming after a pan-African telecom company, MTN Group, and Huawei Technologies collaborated to build a technology innovation lab aimed at accelerating digital transformation and sustainable development across Africa.
The Nigerian government is also looking forward to digital transformation across the nation.
Some months back, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, visited SecureID Limited’s state-of-the-art facilities, commending the firm’s role in Nigeria’s digital transformation.
