The inaugural Global AI Summit on Africa concluded with the announcement of the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence, a commitment that recognizes the continent’s unique opportunities, challenges that AI presents, and responsibilities in driving AI for inclusive, innovative, ethical, and sustainable growth. The declaration is regarded as a pivotal turning point for Africa's AI journey. ALSO READ: African leaders seek to set up a continental AI fund The two-day high-level summit, held from April 3 under the theme “AI and Africa’s Demographic Dividend: Reimagining Economic Opportunities for Africa’s Workforce,” brought together over 1,000 government leaders, industry experts, tech entrepreneurs, and academics to chart Africa’s path in the AI era. The declaration was unveiled by Crystal Rugege, the Managing Director of Rwanda’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), the summit organizer in collaboration with Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation and the World Economic Forum. The declaration builds upon foundational strategies and policy frameworks of key continental and global institutions, including the African Union (AU), Smart Africa, and the United Nations, she said. “This declaration is grounded in principles such as sovereignty, inclusivity, and diversity in African AI to reflect our diverse cultural context and strategic priorities,” Rugege said. She emphasized that AI must be developed and deployed in ways that serve all African communities, guided by the values of ethics, transparency, and human dignity. She outlined the declaration’s key commitments aligned with Africa’s aspirations to drive decisive action. “First, developing a comprehensive and competitive talent pipeline through continent-wide AI education and research initiatives. Establishing frameworks for open, secure, and inclusive data governance,” she noted. “Deploying affordable, sustainable computing infrastructure accessible to researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs across Africa. Creating supportive ecosystems with regional AI incubation hubs driving innovation and scaling African AI enterprises domestically and globally.” The declaration also calls for bold investment in AI ecosystems. It involves mobilizing investment, including ambitions to raise a $60 billion Africa AI fund to build resilient AI ecosystems and accelerate growth, Rugege said, and harmonizing governance frameworks to facilitate national and regional cooperation and to enable cross-border data flows. Another important element, she said, was supporting Smart Africa's efforts to establish an Africa AI council and the critical role they can play in shaping Africa's position within the global AI economy through multi-stakeholder engagement. Rugege said the declaration not only reflects Africa’s future, but also acknowledges that Africa's AI ecosystem is alive and ready to scale. “As we conclude this summit, let's ensure that next time we meet, we are reporting on progress. Infrastructure that has been built, partnerships that have emerged, and enterprises that have been scaled,” she said. The declaration arrives at a time when Rwanda is focusing on assessing and strengthening its AI readiness. Speaking during The New Times’ X-Space on March 28, Paula Ingabire, the Minister of ICT and Innovation, shared insights into the country’s approach to evaluating its AI maturity and setting a clear path forward. ALSO READ: ICT minister outlines priorities for the next five years The minister was responding to the question about Rwanda’s readiness to adopt AI, where she mentioned that Rwanda benefited from its effort to digitize all government services and processes. She said that through the digitization process, a lot of data was collected. Ingabire noted that after all the data are collected, the next step would be determining which data could be open to the public so that researchers, students, or businesses could harness this data to create more innovative products and services for the Rwandan population. “So, we are launching what we call an AI Maturity Index that looks at what is the maturity index for us as a country,” she added. “This is something we want to do together with different African countries through AU (African Union), Smart Africa, and other organs, but also at a national level, figuring out how do we rank that for different government institutions and creating a roadmap on what it means to be AI ready, AI mature, and data readiness being one of them.”
