By Desmond Davies
London, April 1, GNA – Although African governments have “produced an impressive architecture of strategies, declarations and policy frameworks” on artificial intelligence (AI), the continent faces governance challenges in this area, a Nigerian IT expert has said.
Professor Ojo Emmanuel Ademola, recognised as the first African Professor of Cybersecurity and Information Technology Management,
told the Africa Summit at the London school of Economics (LSE) over the weekend: “The continent does not suffer from a shortage of vision.
“It suffers from a shortage of implementation muscle.
“The African Union’s Continental AI Strategy (2024) and the Kigali Africa Declaration on AI (2025) have laid a compelling normative foundation.
“But strategies alone do not shape technological futures. Institutions do. Capacity does. Execution does.”
He added: “To govern AI effectively, Africa must build the technical oversight systems, enforcement mechanisms and skilled governance workforce capable of monitoring risks, auditing systems and holding powerful actors accountable.
“Without this, the continent risks becoming a spectator in a global arena where standards are being set elsewhere.”
At the two-day event in Central London, the conversation on artificial intelligence shifted from African aspiration to agency.
Participants acknowledged that the failure of African countries to harness the power of AI was down to lack of institutional readiness and coordination.
Africa, Prof Ademola, told the gathering, needed to convert its various documents on AI into “regulatory power, negotiating power and developmental power”.
“This is the heart of Africa’s AI governance challenge,” he added.
Prof Ademola continued: “Data sovereignty is a prime example.
“Too often, it is reduced to questions of localisation or legal ownership.
“But sovereignty is ultimately a question of power: who extracts value, who sets the rules, and who bears the risk.
“Africa must therefore redefine data sovereignty as value sovereignty, standards sovereignty and infrastructure sovereignty.
“It is not enough to store data at home; the continent must capture economic value, shape technical norms and reduce dependency on external cloud and compute infrastructures that embed foreign control,” he added.
Prof Ademola pointed out that the fragmented nature of the development of AI frameworks in Africa was another challenge for the continent.
While commending countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa for taking the lead in AI development, he argued: “Fifty-five national strategies cannot negotiate with the G20. A continental bloc can.
“Without regulatory harmonisation and shared digital public infrastructure, Africa risks being overridden by global supply‑chain dependencies and external standards that do not reflect its priorities.
“This is especially urgent as global AI norms crystallise within G20, BRICS, and OECD processes,” Prof Ademola added.
He then warned: “The danger is clear: Africa could become a compliance zone rather than a co‑author of the rules.
“To avoid this, the continent must leverage its demographic scale, data richness, renewable‑energy potential for green compute and emerging innovation ecosystems.
“These assets are not vulnerabilities; they are bargaining chips. But they must be organised into a coherent negotiation framework – one that positions Africa as a strategic actor, not a passive recipient.”
Prof Ademola called for “ethics…[to] move from rhetoric to infrastructure”.
“African values – human dignity, communal responsibility and moral accountability – must be encoded into procurement rules, public‑sector AI deployment and technical standards.
“Values that are not institutionalised are easily ignored,” Prof Ademola said.
“Ultimately, I hold a simple conviction: our task is not to build what replaces us, but what outlives us.
“In both human capacity and AI systems, Africa must build institutions, norms and technologies that carry forward its values, its agency and its developmental purpose.
“Africa’s AI future will not be determined by how many strategies it publishes, but by how effectively it governs data, negotiates standards and builds the institutional power to shape its technological destiny,” Prof Ademola emphasised.
GNA
Edited by Beatrice Asamani Savage