Major AI, DPI initiatives to support Africa single digital market unveiled

Pan-African digital transformation organization Smart Africa announced major partnerships and initiatives at this year’s Transform Africa Summit which took place recently in the Guinean capital Conakry.

The deals involved countries from across the continent, African entities like Youth Connekt Africa and Ascend Digital Solutions, and multi-national organizations including Visa, Orange, Microsoft and Google. All are geared toward digital integration as Africa works towards creating a single digital market. focused on AI strategy, digital infrastructure, tech innovation, and talent and digital skills development, among other areas. Specifically, the agreements focus on AI strategy, digital public infrastructure (DPI), tech innovation, and talent and digital skills development.

In the course of the summit, host Guinea announced its alignment with Smart Africa’s continental digital agenda, commitments to expand broadband, build sovereign data centers, and link digital transformation to the country’s mining-driven economic boom under the Simandou 2040 strategy.

Digital transformation partnerships

Meanwhile, in the course of the summit, a number of other digital transformation initiatives and partnerships where unveiled.

Smart Africa unveiled SANIA, a platform whose purpose is to “bring together investors, startups, accelerators, and institutions to create seamless linkages and scale innovation across borders.”

“Africa has the money, the investors, the startups, and the innovation — but too often, these ecosystems operate in silos. SANIA is here to bring them together and connect them,” Smart Africa’s Director of Digital Transformation and Services, Ralph Oyini, said of the platform.

Smart Africa, and some of its member states, also sealed some Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with partners not only to support a single African digital market, but also to boost human and institutional capacity through the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) for a more robust African digital economy. The Smart Africa Digital Xchange (SADX), a new framework designed to enable cross-border digital identity verification for digital trade and services across Benin, Ghana and Rwanda, was also unveiled.

Two years ago, six African countries signed the Smart Africa Trust Alliance (SATA) declaration which signaled their intentions to foster collaboration on personal data and digital identity interoperability, with digital trade being one of the things at the back of their minds.

Africa AI Council is born

As part of the push to drive Africa’s AI adoption and digital transformation, the Smart Africa Board also unveiled the Africa AI Council.

The Board is made up of 42 heads of state, the African Union Commissioner for Energy and Infrastructure, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and key representatives from the private sector and development partners. The Board is chaired by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

According to an announcement, the AI Council’s launch followed many months of ample consultations with diverse stakeholders, and is expected to play a leading role in AI governance and innovation on the continent. It will provide “strategic, actionable recommendations that will propel Africa toward a future where AI is accessible to all, responsibly deployed, and truly benefits Africans.”

The Council is made up of seven African ICT ministers. They include prominent voices in Africa’s development of digital ID and DPI like Togo Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation Cina Lawson, Nigeria Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani, Kenya Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo Gitau and Rwanda Minister of ICT and Innovation Paula Ingabire. The Council also includes eight independent members representing organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, telco Orange, Microsoft and Google.

“With the establishment of the Africa AI Council, we take a decisive step toward shaping an AI-driven future rooted in African values, responsive to African challenges, and designed to unlock African potential,” said Lacina Koné, Smart Africa director general and CEO.

“These 15 exceptional leaders bring the expertise, vision, and commitment needed to ensure that Africa becomes a creator, not merely a consumer, of AI technologies.”

Guinea launches digital pillar of its 2040 development strategy

The summit saw the official launch of the digital transformation aspect of Guinea’s development strategy dubbed Simandou 2040.

This pillar was launched on day-two of the summit which took place under the theme “AI for Africa: Innovate Locally, Impact Globally,” per a news release from Smart Africa.

Simandou 2040, which was launched in October, has digital technology as one of its six major pillars. By this, the government intends to build solid digital public infrastructure as a propellant of the West African nation’s industrialization.

The Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Digital Economy, Rose Pola Pricemou, said after the lunching that technology is the backbone of the government’s ambitious program which aims at making the country a truly digital state.

The same day, Guinea also unveiled a digital procurement platform Telemo, developed thanks to collaboration between the country and Rwanda, in another palpable example of South-South digital cooperation. According to the partners, the platform will streamline the public procurement system and contribute to the fight against corruption in the sector.

A training institution labelled the Simandou Academy was also inaugurated, and will serve as a training hub for digital skills and capacity enhancement. Guinea projects to have the digital economy contribute about 20 percent to its GDP in the years ahead.

Article Topics

Africa  |  Africa AI Council  |  cross-border data sharing  |  data exchange platform  |  digital economy  |  digital identity  |  digital public infrastructure  |  Guinea  |  interoperability  |  procurement  |  Smart Africa