Africa's AI moment: Is Africa ready to reap the economic benefits of AI?
With the right investments in artificial intelligence (AI), Africa's GDP could see an uplift of more than $1 trillion by 2035, according to Boye Ademola, CEO of Bazara Tech.
At the Infra for Africa Forum, Ademola highlighted a Bazara Tech study from G20 meetings in South Africa, revealing that agriculture, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, finance and inclusion, and health and life sciences sectors stand to gain the most from AI investments. However, for these gains to materialize, Africa must boost its digital infrastructure, a sector where the continent lags behind G20 nations.
Ademola urged Africa to focus on "smart AI investments" rather than chasing parity with advanced economies, emphasizing the importance of creating impactful AI use cases that transform industries. Américo Muchanga, Mozambique's minister of communications and digital transformation, stressed that reliable and affordable energy is crucial for unlocking Africa's digital potential, particularly for AI data centres.
Uche Orji, CEO of Vitesse Africa, agreed, emphasizing energy as the single biggest constraint to AI deployment on the continent. Leslie Maasdorp, CEO of British International Investment, advocated for a balanced approach to investing in AI and Africa's digital economy, supporting both digital infrastructure and digital entrepreneurs.
Charles Murito, Google's policy lead for Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighted the need to address Africa's usage deficit, the gap between network coverage and actual connectivity, and stressed the importance of smartphone affordability to enable widespread AI application usage.
Written by urgent.news from Africa Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
