NAIROBI, Kenya, October 14 – African governments are moving to develop rules for artificial intelligence (AI), but questions remain about whether ordinary citizens have a say in how the technology is developed and used.
Africa accounts for about 18 percent of the world’s population but has an estimated 0.6 percent of global data centre capacity, according to figures cited by the Africa Data Centres Association and the World Economic Forum. The United States, by comparison, holds nearly 45 percent.
However, the infrastructure gap is only part of the challenge. The continent also faces questions about who shapes AI policies, whose interests they serve and whether the technology reflects Africa’s languages, cultures and public needs.
When the African Union adopted its Continental AI Strategy in July 2024, only six African countries – Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Mauritius, Rwanda and Senegal – had standalone national AI strategies. Globally, 67 countries had developed national AI frameworks between 2017 and 2023.
With the AU’s first implementation phase running from 2025 to 2026, governments are developing frameworks that focus largely on economic growth, investment and competitiveness. A midterm review is scheduled for 2027.
The push for AI rules comes amid concerns about the limited representation of African languages in major AI models. A 2025 study found that only 42 of Africa’s roughly 2,000 languages were supported, with just four – Amharic, Swahili, Afrikaans and Malagasy – receiving consistent coverage.
Researchers have described the concentration of language data in a small number of languages as “language data flaring”, leaving most African languages largely unsupported.
Kenya faces additional concerns as it prepares for the 2027 General Election. About 40 percent of registered voters are aged between 18 and 34, while Trust Lab researchers identified 17 major coordinated disinformation campaigns in 2025.
An Anthropic report on AI misuse also documented the removal of an account used by a single actor to produce Kenyan political content at scale, highlighting how AI tools can be used to generate political messaging cheaply.
The council comprises six members drawn from journalism, governance, open technology, language AI, data infrastructure and financial technology. They are Kofi Yeboah, John-Allan Namu, Maha Jouini, Chido Dzinotyiwei, Charlette N’Guessan and Obinna Okerekeocha.
APiAC will operate for an initial two-year term, holding quarterly meetings. It will commission research, convene public discussions, issue policy advice to governments and other councils, and provide public-interest input on philanthropic investment priorities.
The council will not act as a regulator or implement AI projects. Instead, it will assess whether Africa’s AI development expands public participation, democratic engagement, cultural expression and shared prosperity.
“We kept seeing the same pattern in rooms where AI strategy was being decided,” said Maurice Otieno, co-founder and executive director of Samawati Collective.
“Plenty of expertise on infrastructure, investment, and regulation, and very little on what any of it means for ordinary people. We didn’t want to build another institution to fill that gap. We wanted a small group of independent minds who could say, in public, what others in those rooms can’t or won’t.”
Kofi Yeboah, programme officer at the Mozilla Foundation, said the debate should go beyond infrastructure investment to include who makes decisions about AI.
“The infrastructure gap gets all the headlines, but a gap in who decides is harder to close,” Yeboah said. “Openness and accountability can’t be bolted on after the systems are built. Africa has to help write those norms.”
John-Allan Namu, founder and journalist at Africa Uncensored Limited, said AI’s influence on political information makes accountability an important issue for newsrooms ahead of the 2027 election.
“My job is to ask who holds power and who answers for it,” Namu said. “Those questions now apply to algorithms that shape what voters see. Newsrooms need to be asking them before 2027, not after.”
Maha Jouini, an AI governance expert and founder of Chifaa, said the effectiveness of AI policies should be measured by how well they protect people with limited power.
“Every government is drafting a framework right now,” Jouini said. “The test of each one is simple: does it protect the person with the least power? Governance isn’t a brake. It’s how a society decides what innovation is for.”
Chido Dzinotyiwei, co-founder and chief executive of Vambo AI, said AI models that fail to understand how Africans speak risk excluding large sections of the population.
“If a model can’t follow how people actually speak, it isn’t serving them, however advanced it is,” Dzinotyiwei said. “That has to be a design decision from the start.”
Charlette N’Guessan, lead data solutions, AI ecosystem and government partnerships at Amini and founder of Afrokwary, said data ownership and access would shape Africa’s position in the AI economy.
“Data is infrastructure, and the continent is mostly a source of it,” N’Guessan said. “Who collects it, who owns it, and who benefits will decide whether Africa takes part in this economy or just supplies it.”
Obinna Okerekeocha, founder of the Naija AI Film Festival, said trust would depend on how openly AI systems communicate with the people who use them.
“Millions of Africans already depend on digital systems that decide whether they can save, borrow, or trade,” Okerekeocha said. “Trust comes from explaining things honestly. AI will earn it or lose it the same way.”
Samawati Collective said the council would remain independent of funders, governments and commercial interests, with its positions determined by members and its conclusions made public.
