Smart Africa forms AI Council; Ethiopia AI R&D centre approved
Africa AI News weekly digest...
Good morning, and welcome to Africa AI News – Weekly News Digest.
After the AI industry had an absolute freak-out over DeepSeek from a previously unknown Chinese startup that could do for peanuts what took the US-led industry a king’s ransom, things have settled down a bit - but with a palpable new energy in the space as researchers realise they can do great things without needing great resources.
The political will is there: Smart Africa, a coalition of 40 nations, announced the launch of the Africa AI Council at a meeting in Morocco this week. The new council will be tasked with fostering innovation, digital transformation, and workforce development. However, no details will be released until April’s Global AI Summit on Africa in Kigali exactly how this will work. But what is heartening is that a lot of the top-down policy work seems to be transitioning to actual execution of the various national strategies.
Other stories — a number of new research and education institutions are springing up focused on AI, or even dedicated to AI, but now more increasingly publicly funded. This stands in stark contrast to what has been the pattern until now, of education initiatives being heavily funded by gobal tech giants.
As usual if you have any stories you’d like to share, reply to this mail and we’ll get it out there.
On with this week’s issue!
/Roger
Policy
Smart Africa forms Africa AI Council to strengthen digital economy
#Africa #AfricaAICouncil – Smart Africa, a coalition of 40 nations representing over one billion people, has announced the formation of the Africa AI Council. The news was shared at the High-level Meeting on Artificial Intelligence for Africa held in Rabat, Morocco this week. The 15 inaugural members of the council will be announced at the upcoming Global AI Summit on Africa in Kigali, Rwanda. (Africa AI News)
Nigeria creates AI Trust to drive execution of AI strategy
#Nigeria #policy — Nigeria has set up a National Artificial Intelligence Trust, consisting of ten technocratic experts, and senior government figures, notably the Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, and the Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. The Trust’s mandate includes mobilising resources, providing oversight, and guiding AI development in Nigeria. (CIO Africa)
Kenya convenes key stakeholders to review AI principles
#Kenya #AIprinciples — Kenya brought together 120 stakeholders from government, academia, the private sector, civil society and international partners this week to review and discuss the country's AI Statement of Principles. The outcomes of the convention will inform the country’s approach to AI policy development. (KICTANet)
Morocco military pushes AI-driven cybersecurity
#Morocco #policy #security — Morocco’s defence head called for greater continental collaboration to tackle cybersecurity attacks that Africa is experiencing, especially in attacks on Cloud services. The event gathered Moroccan and international specialists, high-ranking officials, representatives of Arab and African cyber security agencies, company executives and academic scholars. (Morocco World News)
R&D
Ethiopia first AI research centre approved
#Ethiopia #education — Early days, but the start of more local R&D. The council of Minister has approved a new regulation to establish the first-ever AI research centre in Ethiopia. (Ethiopian Business Review)
CoEs
Angola AI-tastic oil-oriented performance centre
#Angola #education — Known to most as Schlumberger, the US oilfield services giant SLB has opened a 3,200 ft2 centre to serve as a collaborative hub for industry stakeholders to drive new digital and AI tech, focused on oil & gas and new energy sectors. (Tech Africa News)
Education
Nigeria gets ready for an AI-dedicated university
#Nigeria #education — Wini University is opening its doors in Lagos in the next few months, with specialised education in AI, quantum computing, machine learning, blockchain technology and Cloud computing. It draws inspiration from Qatar’s AI-centered educational model. (Daily News Egypt)
New AI and robotics school launches in Uganda
#Uganda #education #agriculture — Uganda’s Quantum School of Computing, AI, and Robotics has launched initiatives to transform agriculture and boost Ugandan women’s participation in tech. Sky-Harvest Uganda will use satellite and blockchain technology to aid farmers, while Her Code Her Future aims to increase female representation in Uganda’s ICT sector. (UG Standard)
Botswana and MIT fellowship programme
#Botswana #fellowship — The five-year program will include establishing a fellowship for African innovation-driven entrepreneurs and students in the model of the MIT Sloane’s Legatum Center and participation in the MIT REAP (Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program). (Tech Africa News)
Morocco to trains a thousand SMEs In AI
#Morocco #SMEs — The General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) set up Génération AI: Boosting 1000 Moroccan SMEs”, aimed at empowering 1,000 Moroccan SMEs to harness the power of AI. (CIO Africa)
Senegal does AI labs
#Senegal #labs — Senegal has launched the ALIVE and DiCentre4AI laboratories, an AI4D (Artificial Intelligence for Development) programme, spearheaded by Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) and the Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University (UN-CHK). (Tech Review Africa)
Ghana delights kids with drones
#Ghana #drones — A big drawcard at the CHILD-IN-TECH Main AI Conference 2025, saw Ghana Flying Labs introduce children to drones, AI, and AI-powered drones, featuring coding introductions for AI-powered Object Detection. (Flying Labs)
Markets
Report says AI adoption in SA’s retail market to boom
#SouthAfrica #retail — A new publication from Credence Research estimates the adoption of AI by South African retailers is expected to grow from $31-million in 2023 to $282-million by 2032. This is primarily driven by retailers wanting to improve their ability to automate “personalised” shopping experiences online, as well as to better forecast demand. (Credence Research)
Applications
MTN Zambia rolls out customer service AI assistant
#Zambia #chatbots — The operator teamed with blackNgreen to introduce the Call Natasha chatbot. It is intended to provide support to customers, providing chats on various topics from financial tips to international news. (ITWeb)
Kenya AI Farm Chatbot
#Kenya #agriculture — Safaricom and international NGO Opportunity International have developed FarmerAI, a chatbot that will provide smallholder farmers in underserved communities with real-time, relevant farming best practices, combining genAI with localised agricultural insights on topics like weather patterns, fertiliser application, pest management and market prices via SMS and WhatsApp. (ITNewsAfrica)
Culture
Kenya calls on AI to conserve culture
#Kenya #culture — The National Research Fund Kenya Call on Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage (KAICH) is inviting submissions from researchers interested in advancing the use of AI in cultural heritage conservation for conservation, study, and broader public access to cultural heritage. Deadline is 14th March 2025; submissions on the official email, using the official template on the NRF site. (NRF)
[ This newsletter was human edited and AI ablated ]