As the world shifts focus towards the fourth industrial revolution, cyber-physical systems or intelligent computers will be key to this process. This would therefore entail a convergence of digital, biological and physical innovations which will have a series of social, political, cultural and economic upheavals unfold in the 21st century which would ultimately lead to societal transformation at a global scale as it affects incentives, rules, and norms of economic life, it transforms how we communicate, learn, entertain ourselves and relate to one another and how we understand ourselves as human beings.
Africa is rapidly emerging as a critical arena for power contestation in cyberspace. The continent's immense demographic potential presents significant opportunities for various actors to engage and influence both the continental and global online spaces. Its large and growing pool of potential users of digital technologies also presents significant opportunities for investment in digital infrastructure and tech startups. Besides this, Africa also hosts majority of the world’s reserves of critical minerals that will be necessary to drive global technological development. These minerals include cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements that are necessary to produce batteries, electric vehicles, and other high-tech devices are in immense demand from both governments and companies in the Global North as well as rising powers in the East.
AI in Africa presents a significant opportunity to improve the livelihoods of the African people through socioeconomic aspirations of achieving the ‘Africa We Want’ as encapsulated in Agenda 2063. According to the African Union High Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) Report 2024, AI-based technologies have the potential to double the GDP growth rate of African countries by 2035 based on the long-term socioeconomic impact of AI around the world. It therefore means that harnessing even a fraction of the technologies would significantly contribute to the socioeconomic development of the continent and eradicate poverty through its key sectors which include health, agriculture, public services, financial services, mining and industry and through AI-based technologies, coupled with appropriate policies, ethical and legal frameworks, can significantly upsurge growth and development.
But is this the silver bullet for Africa’s socioeconomic development challenges? Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024 posits that as Africa aspires to mobilise and promote the growth of Ai-technology based economic system for Africa, forward-thinking policymaking, innovative AI-based business startups, global AI partners, CSO groups and other key stakeholders are needed to attain these aspirations. Technological advancement is important but there also exists an array of obstacles stemming from infrastructure, education, regulation and structural inequalities that must be addressed to fully benefit from it. Africa for the longest time has lagged behind the rest of the world and always plays catchup. AI startups in Africa emerged nearly a decade after the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution. The continent is still struggling with digital connectivity, an important component in AI adoption. Despite the digital revolution being well underway in Africa, only 38% of the continent’s population is using the internet, a statistic way below the global average of 68%. Besides this, around 600 million people in Africa still lack reliable access to electricity which nearly half the continents population and more than 80% of the global electricity access gap. Electricity powered the second industrial revolution, but its access is still an issue at a time when there is focus on the fourth industrial revolution. This is a clear indication of how much catchup the continent must do be at par with the developed world.
Figure 1: Digital Connectivity in Africa - Source 1: World Bank 2023
While addressing this, we must also acknowledge the role that Global Economic Governance plays and has played in the current state of socioeconomic development in Africa. The International Financial Architecture has from inception imposed an extractive economy on African countries and the global that lies in the heart of the structural constraints faced by African countries to transform their economies, reduce reliance on borrowing, deal with emergencies such as the outbreak of pandemic and finance their energy transition without aggravating their current rates of indebtedness. The financial architecture has for decades, proven not to be fit-for-purpose for Africa and the Global South in the general as it is tailored to mainly serve and preserve the interest of the global north and the wealthy. The system was established in the heart of the colonial subjugation and has shifted gears into neocolonial laws and structures that impose hardship and austerity on Africa and the global south much to the disregard for is exclusionary policies and the attendant structural weaknesses it has imposed on these parts of the world. With the widespread call for adoption of AI and digital technologies, it is only inescapable that this new moment addresses the prevailing and embedded systemic issues in Global Economic Governance as encapsulated in the Harare Declaration rather than exacerbate them when the issues are connected with the real economy.
From the era of colonialism to the present day, countries in Africa and the Global South in general continue to be forced into borrowing to make ends meet while rich countries in the North, wealthy banks, corporations and institutions continue to profit from the unfair situation. Besides this, the extractive nature of the international financial architecture, the regressive intellectual property rules and enforced neoliberal policies continue to deny many poor countries the much-needed resources required for sustainable development. This therefore means that little resources are available to finance Africa’s socioeconomic transformation as encapsulated in Agenda 2063 and rather pushing African countries towards debt financing. These bring to light the fragility of the International Financial Architecture thus the need for the dismantling and reform of the financial architecture. There is an urgent need for reforms of the rules of governance of international financial institutions which are no longer fit for purpose and do not only align with our current lived realities but also the changing geopolitical configuration and development financing needs for Africa and the Global South in general. We must also ensure that there is a greater African voice and representation in global economic governance. We must make Africa a Rule Maker, not a Rule Taker! It is only through this that we can find sustainable solutions to our socioeconomic development challenges.
By John Oduk, Policy Officer, Executive Director’s Office.