Smart Africa Calls for Local AI Innovation and Energy Investment to Strengthen Africa’s Digital Future

Smart Africa  has urged African countries to focus on building local artificial intelligence applications and investing in energy infrastructure as the continent seeks to strengthen its position in the global AI ecosystem.

The call was made during the “Building where compute is scarcest” roundtable at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, where Smart Africa’s Director of Digital Infrastructure, Skills and Empowerment, Thelma Quaye, led discussions on the theme, Who Controls Frontier AI, alongside stakeholders exploring equitable access to advanced AI technologies.

The organisation argued that recent disruptions to access to frontier AI models demonstrate the risks of relying on technologies controlled by external providers. It said Africa should move beyond viewing access to frontier models as the ultimate objective and instead concentrate on developing capabilities that cannot easily be restricted.

According to Smart Africa, one of the continent’s strongest opportunities lies in building AI applications tailored to local needs, including African languages, agriculture and healthcare challenges. It noted that solving these problems does not necessarily require the most advanced frontier AI models, but rather a deep understanding of local contexts and priorities that global AI developers may not address.

The organisation also identified renewable energy as another strategic advantage for Africa’s AI ambitions. Citing data from the African Development Bank, it noted that Africa has an estimated renewable energy potential of approximately 24,000 terawatt-hours annually, significantly exceeding the projected 945 terawatt-hours required to power the world’s entire data centre footprint by 2030. Kenya was highlighted as an example, with more than 80 per cent of its electricity generated from renewable sources.

However, Smart Africa acknowledged that significant obstacles remain. It pointed to high financing costs for energy projects across the continent, which are estimated to be three to seven times higher than in Europe. It also noted that infrastructure constraints, including grid capacity limitations and payment guarantee challenges, have delayed major data centre investments, such as the Microsoft and G42 project at Olkaria in Kenya.

Smart Africa concluded that strengthening Africa’s energy infrastructure and developing AI solutions rooted in local realities will be essential to ensuring the continent plays a greater role in the global AI economy. It added that achieving these goals will require collaboration among governments, development partners and the private sector rather than efforts by African countries alone.