In Africa, AI has the potential to grow the continent’s economy by an estimated $2.9 to 4.8 billion by 2030. In recognition of the AI promise, African stakeholders are increasingly positioning themselves to expedite AI adoption and realize its benefits. This is most evident through their pursuit of AI innovations, infrastructure development, governance, and convenings like the prominent inaugural Global AI Summit on Africa in Rwanda on April 3–4, 2025.
This summit in Kigali was hailed as a momentous occasion for the continent, as it brought together policy leaders, private sector representatives, and other stakeholders from across the continent to forge a collective pathway on shaping Africa’s role in the global AI economy. The gathering resulted in the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence, which received endorsements from forty-nine African countries, the African Union, and Smart Africa.
The declaration affirms the continent’s vision on AI, as outlined in the African Union (AU) Continental AI Strategy released in 2024. It makes commitments to grow seven key areas: talent, data, infrastructure, market, investment, governance, and institutional cooperation. The declaration also announced the creation of a $60 billion Africa AI Fund and an Africa AI Council. The council will be pivotal in promoting AI initiatives throughout the continent, particularly in governance.
Globally, countries are engaging in AI governance due to both the rapid growth and transformative potential of the technology as well as concerns about societal implications. As AI systems become more pervasive, leaders have called for greater international cooperation to govern the systems’ development and deployment.
A World Bank report details four current approaches: industry self-governance, soft law (such as strategies, policies and standards), hard law (such as the European Union AI Act), and regulatory sandboxes.
In examining Africa’s evolving landscape of AI governance, there is significant evidence of AI soft law, particularly through the development of national AI strategies and policies. This policy outlook highlights the continent’s progress through exploring two perspectives: policy practice and policy discourse. The analysis of AI-specific policy documents and a high-level dialogue on the sidelines of the Kigali summit indicate that tangible progress is being made through strategies and policies that promote the development of localized AI applications to provide socioeconomic benefits.
Research conducted by the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, through the Africa Technology Policy Tracker (AfTech) tool, reveals that African countries are at different phases of AI governance, and this process is evolving through the formulation of national AI strategies or policies. There are fifteen national and two continental AI strategies and policies published to date (see Figure 1).
Among the national documents published, there is a distinction between AI strategies and AI policies. Currently, there are twelve national AI strategies and three national AI policies. While all these documents show country direction for AI development, there is a notable preference for AI strategies. An AI strategy typically aims to establish direction and answer the “how” by providing a road map to harness AI for socioeconomic gain, whereas a policy usually establishes more specific guidelines and principles for technological developments. However, this distinction is not always clear, as the analysis of Africa’s national AI strategies and policies shows comparable approaches, with both types of documents providing vision and guidance on how to effectively harness AI for socioeconomic benefit.
The continental policy frameworks include the AU Continental AI Strategy and Smart Africa’s AI Blueprint. The AU strategy is regarded as the anchor AI document, as it provides a singular vision for the union’s fifty-five member countries. It identifies fifteen recommendations including the development of national AI strategies and policies, calling them “important starting point[s] for governing AI.” Notably, there are other digital policies and legal frameworks used to govern AI. For instance, cyber security laws, cloud policies, and data protection regulatory frameworks are complementary AI governance documents. But AI-specific policy documents are generally considered the most effective for coordinating the development, deployment, and governance of AI.
The year 2024 was a pivotal year for AI governance on the continent. Six AI-specific documents were published: five at the national level by Ethiopia, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, and Zambia and one at the continental level (the Continental AI Strategy), together with white papers. The year 2025 is looking like a year for enhanced AI policymaking as well. In the first quarter alone, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Namibia published national strategies, while countries such as Lesotho and Tanzania have released draft strategies. Collectively, these documents provide key insights into how Africa is positioning itself in the AI age. They reveal two overarching priorities: leveraging AI to advance digital transformation and investing in the rapid development of domestic AI capabilities.
A Guest editorial