Africa Must Develop Local Technologies – Sam Jonah

University of Cape Coast Chancellor Sir Sam Jonah warned Africa of becoming mere consumers of imported artificial intelligence (AI) technologies without developing its own. Speaking at the Methodist University International Conference 2026, he compared Africa's risk to its historical experience with gold exports, where it shipped raw materials and brought back finished goods.

Jonah called on African leaders, particularly universities, to train more people to develop software and digital technologies. He urged entrepreneurs and developers to focus on solving local problems in agriculture, healthcare, logistics, energy, and finance, rather than replicating solutions from countries like the UK and the US.

He emphasized the need for job creators, not just job seekers, and stressed that African universities must produce people who can write code. Jonah cited mobile money as an example of Africa's capacity to innovate, noting its emergence from financial challenges faced by mobile phone users without access to bank accounts. He highlighted the importance of sustainability, ethical leadership, and inclusion in Africa's development, warning that technological advancement could deepen inequalities if benefits were limited to those with access to electricity, the internet, and digital devices.

He urged governments, businesses, and universities to ensure digital policies and platforms expand access to education, finance, technology, and economic opportunities, particularly for underserved communities. Jonah also called for responsible use of digital technologies to strengthen transparency and environmental protection, citing satellite data and digital public procurement systems as tools for tracking illegal mining and improving accountability.

At the two-day event, he was joined by the Vice Chancellor of the Methodist University, Prof. William Baah Boateng, dignitaries, and students.