MARTIN MAWAYA
MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA – Africa risks sliding into a new form of “digital colonialism” unless it asserts control over its own data and builds robust governance systems to participate fully in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, experts have warned.
The training session at the Pan African Parliament (PAP) building in Midrand, South Africa was attended by President Chief Fortune Charumbira and his deputies.
Chief Charumbira in his opening remarks said AI is no longer a luxury but a need and parliamentarians must be at the forefront of this revolution in order to effectively play their oversight role in their respective countries.
Speaking at a high-level PAP training session on AI governance in Midrand, the head of Data Science Programs from the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Dr. Agness Najjuko Kasirye Kiragga, cautioned that foreign organisations are already mapping and monetizing African resources without local oversight, shaping the continent’s economic future from abroad.
She cited the case of European non-governmental organisations that had comprehensively mapped cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast and Ghana, giving them the power to forecast harvest volumes years in advance and influence global cocoa prices.
“This is the paradox,” one legislator told the session. “We are the biggest producers, yet we do not control the data. Ownership of that data determines who sets the prices, and it is not us.”
Currently, Africa contributes less than 2% of global AI training data, while relying heavily on servers and algorithms developed outside the continent.
With nearly half of Africa’s population still offline, vast amounts of potential data remain untapped, according to Congolese MP Sakat.
Experts fear this vacuum could make Africa the next battleground in the escalating tech rivalry between the United States and China.
Washington has backed initiatives to expand open, secure digital networks, while Beijing is financing data centres and cloud services, raising questions about long-term dependency.
“Whoever holds Africa’s data holds Africa’s future,” Dr Kiragga warned. “If we fail to claim digital sovereignty, we will be locked into a subordinate role in the global economy.”
Her concerns were echoed by Dr. Anthony Francis Mveyange, Director of Programmes at the APHRC, who stressed that Africa’s digital vulnerability stems from inadequate infrastructure.
The continent currently accounts for only 1% of global data centre capacity, with nearly two-thirds of that concentrated in South Africa.
“To reach South Africa’s density, Africa would need more than 700 new data centres, each with at least 1 000 megawatts capacity,” Dr Mveyange said. “This leaves the rest of the continent heavily reliant on external servers, exposing it to serious risks.”
He also highlighted the dangers of weak regulation, citing the spread of unregulated digital loan apps in Nigeria and Kenya, which have been linked to widespread privacy violations and consumer exploitation.
Without strong legal safeguards, he warned, Africa could be reduced to a “low-cost labour enclave” for global tech giants, providing cheap labour for systems built elsewhere.
The African Union has already launched a Digital Transformation Strategy (2020–2030), focusing on infrastructure, policy, human capital development and entrepreneurship.
But progress has been slow. Only Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa score above 50 on the GSMA Digital Africa Index for mobile broadband adoption.
“Bridging the digital divide could unlock US$700 billion for Africa’s economy by 2030,” Dr. Mveyange said. “But to seize that opportunity, the continent must build resilient data ecosystems and speak with one voice on global digital governance platforms.”
Lawmakers at the Midrand session agreed on the urgency of harmonizing continental policies, including model laws on AI governance, to protect sensitive data and boost Africa’s bargaining power in global negotiations.
The debate marked a turning point; from viewing AI primarily as a tool for growth, to recognizing it as a matter of sovereignty and security.
The training workshop was held under the theme, ‘Building Parliamentary Capacity for AI Governance and Inclusive Digital Transformation’.
