Why AI is gaining prominence in Africa's new investment agenda

Senthil Kumar, Personal Systems Technology and AI Specialist, Middle East East Africa, HP, and Snehar Shah, CEO, IXAfrica Datacent. [Esther Dianah, Standard]

Kenya is rapidly cementing its status as the technology hub of Africa, making the commercialisation of artificial intelligence a priority topic.

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is actively transforming sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and Fintech in Kenya and Africa.

However intricate, AI is a plus for the country’s innovation and efficiency and, by extension, the larger economy.

At the inaugural AI Everything Kenya X GITEX Kenya Summit, it was highlighted that the role of AI should be viewed as an investment agenda.

It has also been projected that, while Africa’s AI market could reach $16.5 billion (Sh2.2 trillion), realising this growth trajectory will depend on how rapidly East Africa can transition AI from pilot programmes and fragmented innovation into commercially scalable infrastructure, enterprise deployment, and revenue-generating real-world applications.

It is against this backdrop that global institutions and industry pioneers gathered in Nairobi beginning yesterday and continuing through Thursday to construct a new AI blueprint that reflects Africa’s diversity, ingenuity, and economic aspirations.

The summit marks an ambitious new chapter in East Africa’s quest to assert digital sovereignty, advance critical infrastructure, and chart its own AI destiny.

According to Special Envoy for Technology in the Office of the President Ambassador Philip Thigo, the continent still lags in AI infrastructure, connectivity, and energy, but we possess everything around artificial intelligence.

He added that the continent possesses green minerals, data, talent, emerging computer infrastructure, modern innovations, and opportunities for investment and the creation of new industries. “Africa’s role in AI must be articulated as an investment agenda. AI is not about ICT; AI is literally AI everything,” Amb Thigo said.

It was also reiterated that building an AI economy must be accessible, inclusive, and relevant to African realities across agriculture, banking and financial services, climate resilience, cybersecurity, data centre infrastructure, ecommerce, education, energy, healthcare, and trade.

The inaugural summit also examined the conditions needed for East Africa to transform tech-critical sectors through AI integration and deployment. Director General of the Tanzania ICT Commission, Dr Nkundwe Mwasaga, stated that the outcomes of the gathering will translate the transformative potential of AI into gains for East African businesses, industries, and economies.

“However, our region must work together with international partners to strengthen the five pillars of the AI-driven digital transformation: digital skills, security and trust, telecommunication services, the economy, and research, innovation and entrepreneurship. The transformation of businesses, industries, and economies will lead to digital sovereignty in our region,” said Dr Mwasaga.

As AI reshapes economies, public services, and digital trade, it was stressed that sovereignty now extends beyond data localisation to encompass ownership of compute infrastructure, access to strategic datasets, interoperable regulatory frameworks, and the ability to develop AI systems aligned with national priorities.

Highlighting Kenya’s expanding cloud, compute, and renewable energy advantages, Snehar Shah, CEO of iXAfrica Data Centres, said Kenya is very well positioned for innovation.

“We have pragmatic regulation, we have data protection frameworks, we have renewable power, and we are now bringing hyperscale cloud infrastructure into the country. We have really set the platforms, the fundamentals, and the foundations to make AI available locally for enterprises and consumers to use,” Snehar Shah said.

“When we talk about digital sovereignty in the age of AI, it is no longer just about where the data sits. It is really about who controls the data, who controls the AI, and where the compute happens,” said Personal Systems Technology and AI Specialist at HP Middle East Senthil Kumar.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (INTIC) in Mozambique Dr Lourinho Chamane said that building capacity in AI development and entrepreneurship is important for countries not to be only consumers of AI products and services but also producers and contributors to the digital economy.

“We also believe it is important to develop small language models that support AI for local languages as part of digital inclusion,” he said. As global platforms race into frontier markets, the requirements for African-built AI to become export-ready were outlined.

Winnie Mangeni, Founder and CEO of PAWA AI, an Africa-built, Mozilla- and NVIDIA-backed platform that unlocks AI access for more than 200 million Swahili and other African-language speakers, said East Africa is not waiting to be a consumer of AI; it is actively building the infrastructure, talent, and policy frameworks to lead.

“Building African-focused AI solutions has shown me just how much untapped potential exists here, and what excites me most is the opportunity to move beyond theory into practical collaboration,” she said.

Trixie LohMirmand, the CEO of the global organiser of GITEX, reiterated that East Africa has immense potential to become an epicentre of AI innovation and to develop globally competitive infrastructure.

“AI is no longer a technology shift; we are talking about a new geopolitical and economic restructuring. East Africa has already shown the world how it can leapfrog industries through digital innovation, and now has the opportunity to become a globally competitive AI and infrastructure powerhouse by building sovereign capabilities across cloud, compute, talent, investment, and research,” she added.

“Collaboration is the new currency in the global AI race. We must ensure emerging markets are fully integrated into this transformation and have equal access to the world’s innovation economy,” LohMirmand, the CEO of the global organiser of GITEX.