Artificial intelligence has become the hot topic in African political circles — and for good reason.
In April 2025, African Union ministers gathered in Tangier, Morocco, to discuss the future of AI on the continent, at a time when governments across the region are racing to develop strategies, attract investment, and expand digital infrastructure. The mood was upbeat, but beneath the presentations and speeches, a pretty uncomfortable question lingered in the air: as foreign companies rapidly push forward with data centers, cloud services, and AI systems across Africa, how much control will African countries actually have over all of it?
It is not a simple question — and the answer is far from obvious. For years, the focus of these discussions was on adoption: how governments, businesses, and public services could use the technology in everyday operations. Now, the script has flipped. The conversation has shifted to something deeper — ownership, governance, and the conditions under which AI systems are developed and deployed.
And that is exactly where things get interesting 👀
What is at stake when we talk about AI infrastructure
When we talk about AI infrastructure, we are not just talking about cables and physical servers scattered around. We are talking about an entire chain that underpins how data is collected, stored, processed, and turned into decisions — often decisions that directly affect people’s lives. In practice, this includes data centers, cloud platforms, language models, APIs, and the contracts that define who has access to what, under which conditions, and at what price. It is an invisible but extremely powerful layer that determines who actually calls the shots in the digital game.
In the African context, this discussion carries even more weight. Several governments have already put the issue on the table in a very direct way. Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Ghana have launched national AI strategies in recent years, all emphasizing the need to build local capacity and reduce dependence on foreign technology providers. Ghana’s national strategy, released in April, goes so far as to describe AI as a sovereign capability. On top of that, forty-nine countries, along with the African Union itself, endorsed the African Declaration on Artificial Intelligence, which calls for greater investment in African infrastructure, talent, and innovation, while proposing coordinated funding mechanisms.
But turning ambition into policy is not that straightforward. In South Africa, for example, a draft national AI policy was pulled from circulation earlier this year after officials identified references that could not be verified and appeared to have been generated by AI tools. This shows, in a very practical way, the challenges governments face when trying to regulate technologies that evolve at a breakneck pace.
Global competition, local leverage
This entire conversation is taking place against the backdrop of increasingly fierce global competition around AI. Major tech companies, cloud providers, and governments are all vying for access to data, computing power, and new markets. And here is an interesting detail: for African countries, this competition could actually open the door to negotiating better terms.
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Priyal Singh, a geopolitical analyst at Signal Risk, told Al Jazeera that the fragmented nature of the global AI industry could actually strengthen Africa’s position. According to him, African states will indeed have more room to maneuver on AI and data infrastructure, precisely because of how contested and fragmented this industry is among global leaders.
He pointed to the regulatory tensions around Starlink’s expansion in parts of Africa as an example of governments becoming more assertive in their dealings with tech giants.
The infrastructure gap nobody can ignore
But leverage in the AI era is not just political. It is also infrastructural — and this is where one of the continent’s biggest challenges lies.
Africa is still heavily underrepresented in the physical backbone of the global digital economy. Industry estimates suggest the continent accounts for less than one percent of global data center capacity, despite being home to about 18 percent of the world’s population. To put that in perspective, a McKinsey survey found that Africa’s five largest data center markets, combined, have less capacity than France alone. And across much of the continent, unreliable electricity supply remains a massive obstacle to expansion.
These limitations help explain why negotiations around data centers and cloud infrastructure have become so sensitive. It is not just about building buildings full of servers — it is about ensuring the energy, water, connectivity, and stability to keep them running. And all of that comes at a cost, both financial and socioeconomic.
The contested data center deal in Kenya
One of the most closely watched projects has been a 1 billion dollar data center development involving Microsoft and Emirati tech company G42 in Kenya.
The project drew attention after Kenyan President William Ruto highlighted the scale of its energy demands, warning that infrastructure of that size would require substantial additional electricity generation. Reports also pointed to discussions around commercial arrangements and long-term commitments tied to computing capacity. Kenyan officials maintain that conversations around the project are still ongoing.
Whatever the outcome, this episode illustrates the dilemmas governments face: attracting investment in AI infrastructure while weighing energy needs, financing costs, and long-term strategic dependence. It is a delicate balancing act — and every decision made now could echo for decades.
What countries gain and what they give up
The question of who builds Africa’s digital future goes well beyond Western tech companies. Sanusha Naidu, a senior researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue, told Al Jazeera that debates around diversification are usually more complicated than they seem.
According to her, whether it is diversifying away from Western companies or shifting toward Chinese firms, it all usually comes down to the cost-benefit factor. For governments, Naidu argues, the key point is what actually comes back through these partnerships — regardless of whether the company is American, European, or Chinese, policymakers need to weigh the broader impact of these investments on the country’s development.
She compared the current debates over AI infrastructure to earlier waves of foreign investment.
Data, surveillance, and sovereignty
The word sovereignty might sound too heavy for a conversation about technology, but it captures exactly what is being discussed here. Concerns about dependence go well beyond data centers.
Over the past decade, African governments have adopted a growing range of foreign-built digital systems — from cloud computing platforms and digital public services to surveillance technologies and smart cities. At the same time, debates around data governance, digital sovereignty, and where sensitive information should be stored and processed have become increasingly prominent across the continent.
Digital sovereignty means, in simple terms, a country’s ability to make autonomous decisions about its own technological infrastructure, its data, and the systems that run on them. It is not about closing borders or rejecting international partnerships — it is about making sure those partnerships happen on fair terms, with local governance and clear accountability. Similar arguments, by the way, have already been raised by supporters of plans to create an African Credit Rating Agency, designed to offer African-led assessments of sovereign financial credibility, rather than relying solely on established international agencies.
The public that is missing from the conversation
Despite how important this topic is, much of the discussion around AI governance remains concentrated among policymakers, regulators, and tech companies. And that is a serious problem.
Joseph Asunka, CEO of Afrobarometer, told Al Jazeera that the debate is still very far removed from ordinary citizens. According to him, these negotiations should not be conducted only at the elite level and then dumped on the population. He warned that if citizens do not trust government actions in this space, it creates a trust gap — something that could have negative implications for the adoption of fintech, e-commerce, and e-government tools.
Asunka added that concerns about data protection and digital security are already widespread among African populations, even though AI itself is not yet widely understood by most people.
Beyond dependence
This debate echoes older questions about economic sovereignty that have shaped African politics for decades. Independence-era leaders argued that political freedom meant little without control over economic resources. Today, similar questions are emerging around data, computing power, and digital infrastructure.
What worries many experts and African leaders is that the current model of AI expansion reproduces, in a way, dynamics that are already familiar.
That is why, alongside large-scale investment, governments and development agencies are also exploring ways to build local capacity. Projects like the United Nations Development Programme’s timbuktoo initiative aim to strengthen African tech ecosystems through support for innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital infrastructure. These efforts are still modest compared to the scale of global AI investment, but they reflect a broader attempt to ensure that African countries participate not just as consumers of AI systems, but also as contributors to their development.
Let us be honest: Africa is unlikely to become self-sufficient in artificial intelligence, and that is not even the goal for most governments. The continent remains deeply integrated into global technology supply chains and will continue to rely on international investment, expertise, and partnerships. The question is not whether Africa will use AI — that is already a certainty.
The question that still stands
The real question facing policymakers is about the terms on which that adoption should happen. As governments negotiate new investments, draft regulations, and build digital infrastructure, the decisions made now could define who controls the technologies that increasingly influence economies, public services, and the daily lives of millions of people.
Some paths are already being laid out with consistency. The first is regulation — creating clear legal frameworks around data localization, algorithm auditing, and accountability for companies operating in the country. Another is investing in human capacity, training engineers, data scientists, and specialists capable of negotiating on equal footing with major corporations. And then there is the dimension of regional cooperation, with the African Union playing a catalytic role in common policies and shared standards. If African countries can speak with a more unified voice, their bargaining power increases significantly 🌍
At the end of the day, as Asunka from Afrobarometer put it, these negotiations should not be conducted only at the elite level and then dumped on citizens. If the population does not trust their governments’ choices in this space, the trust gap that is created could undermine the entire adoption of technologies that promise to transform the continent. And maybe that is the most important takeaway from all of this: real sovereignty can only be built with real participation from the people.
