The interview was conducted by Ula Rutkowska (Senior Researcher, Apolitical) and edited by Christina Obolenskaya (MSc in International History, LSE and Communications Intern, Apolitical). Dr. Seydina Moussa Ndiaye was named on Apolitical’s Government AI 100 2025.

What are the challenges to large-scale AI adoption in Africa? Many discussions on the AI revolution have overlooked the unique solutions required to enable Africa to keep up with AI adoption.

In this conversation, Dr Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, a member of the former UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, outlines the essential steps for Africa to develop a comprehensive AI strategy. He highlights how AI can improve lives across the continent by reducing hunger, enhancing lifelong education, and more. He also explains why the health and agricultural sectors offer the greatest opportunities for AI adoption in Africa.

What is your vision for an AI strategy for African nations?

The Pan-African AI strategy is mostly about helping African countries have a clearer vision of the main opportunities and risks. The strategy focuses on five key areas.

The first is maximising AI benefits for Africa. The second is capacity building—developing AI expertise within the continent. The third area is minimising risks. The fourth is increasing African public and private sector investment in AI. The last area is fostering cooperation at regional and international levels to help all African countries leverage AI capabilities.

Within these five areas, there are 15 recommendations. Each area has between two and four recommendations focused on maximising AI benefits, mitigating risks, and ensuring that all countries can build their capacities. To achieve this, there are two key levers: first, encouraging public and private investment, and second, using global partnerships to enhance AI capabilities across Africa.

What are the unique opportunities for AI in Africa?

The unique opportunities are vast—AI can be used to help tackle the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Africa, the focus has been on sectors such as health, agriculture, education, and culture. Culture is very important as well.

To make the most of these opportunities, we need to ensure that countries have the capabilities to use AI as a tool. AI can help address hunger and food security in agriculture. In education, it can personalise learning and enhance lifelong education. The same applies to the health sector.

The health and agriculture sector are the most promising sectors for AI in Africa because we have a long way to go in modernising these fields. By leveraging AI in agriculture, we can improve productivity, optimise farming practices, and address food insecurity. In the health sector, AI can help build more efficient healthcare systems tailored to Africa’s needs.

What principles do you believe are most critical to ensuring inclusive and responsible AI adoption globally?

The first principle is human rights. Whenever we talk about AI or any new technology, it is important to prioritise human rights. When we were working in the high-level advisory body, the UN Secretary-General emphasised that AI should be developed for everyone and by everyone. This is the most important principle guiding all the groups I work with.

How can African nations assert data sovereignty and build AI systems that reflect their values and priorities?

The first step is building our own AI.

Sovereignty can only be achieved when people are aware of it and actively work towards it. To achieve sovereignty, we must establish our own priorities and projects instead of relying on external solutions. One major challenge is the gap between African governments and AI communities. Many African communities are actively developing AI projects and solutions, but governments are not as engaged. While several African countries have national AI strategies, many of these remain documents without real implementation. Without implementation, we cannot truly talk about sovereignty—whether in data or AI.

Collaboration between African nations is essential. If we are serious about data sovereignty, we need to build our own infrastructure, networks, and legal frameworks to enable data sharing within Africa. No single country can stand against big tech alone.

A continental legal framework is necessary to ensure that data collected in Africa remains in Africa. However, data sovereignty is not just about keeping data within the continent; it is also about leveraging that data to build our own solutions.

Many countries have an AI strategy, but what advice do you have on transitioning from strategy to action?

Every African country should establish an institution or entity responsible for implementing the AI strategy. Without such a framework, the strategy remains just a document without impact. This institution should have a clear mandate to execute the strategy, secure funding from governments and other sources, and coordinate efforts across ministries and sectors. AI implementation requires collaboration across various sectors, including education, agriculture, and healthcare.

Additionally, national AI strategies should be aligned with regional, continental, and global AI discussions. A strong institution with a clear mandate would ensure that national AI strategies are effectively implemented and connected to the broader AI ecosystem.

Is part of the importance of African nations building their own AI tools related to addressing this bias? How important is it to develop AI models from an African perspective?

Yes, but it’s broader than just generative AI. Generative AI is gaining attention, but AI is much more than that. The first priority should be leveraging existing AI technologies to address African challenges.

Developing generative AI from scratch requires vast amounts of computing power and data, which is extremely expensive. A more practical approach is to customise open-source generative AI models by integrating African data to reduce bias.

In the long term, Africa should invest in research and development to explore alternative AI approaches that require less computing power and data. African innovation has always been about using resources wisely, and we should explore new ways to build AI that align with this mindset.

How can AI transform the agricultural and health sectors? How important is regional collaboration in achieving this?

In agriculture, AI adoption is relatively straightforward because the technology is already available. The challenge is having the political will and coordination to implement it. Governments, agricultural ministries, and farmers must collaborate to deploy AI-driven solutions. AI can optimise yields, detect plant diseases, and improve food security. The technology is mature, and we just need to put it into action.

I completed my PhD in AI and agriculture in France over twenty years ago, and the technology we used then is still relevant today. It is time for Africa to leverage these solutions.

In the health sector, AI could be transformative, but access to data remains a challenge. Healthcare data is difficult to obtain globally, and Africa is still in the early stages of establishing legal frameworks to manage health data. With support from communities, governments, and legal protections for personal data, Africa can gather and use health data responsibly.

Many African nations already prioritize digitalising the health sector. Now is the right time to integrate AI wisely to create personalised medicine and improve healthcare services.