Cross-border payments; Egypt invests in GenAI for universities
Weekly news digest
Good morning, and welcome to Africa AI News – Weekly News Digest.
In this week’s issue - someone asks a really good question. If AI is doing such a great job of facilitating cross border payments, why is it still so expensive to settle across Africa’s borders? In a heartening sign of the maturing of AI in Africa, and despite (or maybe because of the relative infancy of the tech on our continent, people are asking hard questions about AI’s impact on the industries and people it should serve.
This is the last issue for 2024, starting up again on Friday 10th January.
Happy New Year to our subscribers, and if you got this and haven’t yet subscribed, hit that button. May 2025 be a grand year of more peace and plenty than 2024!
On with this week’s issue!
/Roger
AI eases cross-border payments, but not costs
#Africa #payments - Media has been beset with stories about AI making cross-border payments better, faster, more. Africa has not been left behind in the AI revolution and many have deployed AI to improve cross-border payments for local and international customers. But how come costs have not come down? (The East African)
Policy
How can Kenya not suffer a tech colonialism
#Kenya #policy - A detailed writeup of the Pulitzer Centre Town Hall in Nairobi examines the issues of fairness and equitable pay for Africa’s AI workers (follow on story from last week’s digest). (Pulitzer Centre)
Kenya’s Philip Thigo named Apolitical global AI pioneer
#Kenya #government - Philip Thigo is Kenya's Special Envoy on Technology has been named one of Apolitical’s 2025 Government AI 100 - recognition for his pioneering work driving AI policy in East Africa. (CIO)
Egypt plans AI and data regulation
#Egypt-#AIlaw - Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is drafting laws to regulate AI, data exchange, and classification. This was announced during a meeting with The World Bank's vice president for Digital Transformation. (Ahram Online)
Nigeria’s publishing industry gets muscular
#Nigeria #publishing #policy - Nigerian publishers got together to examine the impact of AI on journalism and publishing, and demand more involvement in policy and legislative changes that impact them (The Nation)
Education
Egypt invests $200 million in digital universities
#Egypt #education - Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has allocated EGP 10 billion ($200m) to upgrade public universities’ digital infrastructure, including a Generative AI integration pilot at Ain Shams University. (Daily News Egypt)
Nigeria launches free AI academy
#Nigeria #edtech — Nigeria's Ministry of Innovation in partnership with Intel and the Commonwealth Secretariat unveiled a free online AI academy offering courses on AI fundamentals and ethics. Participants can compete for internships with Intel, fostering talent for the nation's digital economy. Register here. (Vanguard)
AI training for Tanzanian highschool girls
#Tanzania #education - Tanzania’s Apps and Girls starts training courses in AI tech for secondary school girls to encourage interest in tech (The Guardian TZ)
Employment
Uganda employers fed targets 2025 for full AI integration
#Uganda #labour - The Federation of Uganda Employers is advocating for the adoption of AI to boost workplace productivity and efficiency by 2025. The chief executive officer, Douglas Opiyo believes AI-powered tools can enable organizations to achieve more with fewer resources. (NTV Video)
R&D
Ethiopia eyes sovereign AI future
#Ethiopia #GenAI—Ethiopia’s policies and green energy resources position it as a potential leader in sovereign AI development. Initiatives like the Digital Ethiopia strategy and Ethiopian AI Institute aim to create generative AI systems aligned with local culture and sustainability goals. (Andalem)
Applications
Tanzania’s NHIF revolutionises healthcare access
#Tanzania #healthcare — The National Health Insurance Fund launched AI-powered claims processing and new online tools, cutting registration time and improving service delivery. New packages, such as Serengeti Afya, aim to broaden access to affordable healthcare. (Daily News)
Tired of writing up Scope of Work docs? Sounds like a job for an LLM.
#SouthAfrica #GenAI - CloudZA, a dev company in SA, launches Kaptur, an LLM-based tool to generate Scopes of Work for projects. (ITWeb)
Security
Nigeria to deploy AI for tackling security in 2025
#Nigeria #security - The government of Nigeria has allocated almost N5-trillion to “security” in this coming years budget, with a chunk expected to be spent on AI powered policing and counter terrorism tech. (News Central)
Compliance
Staying on the right side of SA’s POPIA for AI app devs
#SouthAfrica #POPIA #compliance - Thinking you’re ready to go launching your new AI service? First run through this analysis of how AI tech needs data that may fall foul of Protection of Personal Information (POPIA) law. (Mondaq)
Data Centres
Raxio data centres achieve Tier III certification
#Ethiopia #Mozambique #datacentres — Raxio Group has secured Uptime Institute Tier III certifications for its data centres in Mozambique and Ethiopia. These state-of-the-art facilities meet stringent performance standards, highlighting Raxio's commitment to providing reliable, efficient infrastructure across Africa. (Business Wire)
[ This newsletter was AI edited & human edited ]