SAMENA Telecommunications Council, a key regional advocacy organization with the aim to support digital transformation across South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, as well as neighboring regions, contributed key insights during the inaugural Global AI Summit on Africa, held in Kigali, Rwanda on April 3-5. Through its presence at the Summit, SAMENA Council reinforced its ongoing efforts to advocate key requirements for building a sustainable digital ecosystem in the developing world, with a particular focus on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in driving sustainable development.
Bocar BA, SAMENA Council’s CEO and representative at the Kigali AI Summit, highlighted Africa’s unique position in the global AI landscape. "Africa now stands at the center of the digital transformation efforts in the developing world," he said. "With the continent’s largest youth demographic and a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem, Africa has unparalleled potential to lead the AI revolution. But to do so, it must first build a foundation of trust, investment, and talent that reflects local realities and serves the needs of its diverse markets."
SAMENA Council has long been at the forefront of advocating collaborative development across the digital space, and this participation is a natural extension of its mission to support digital economies, including in Africa. BA discussed the importance of prioritizing AI capabilities that are both scalable and locally relevant, such as building secure communication and computing infrastructure, developing multilingual AI models, and expanding AI-driven public service platforms. He emphasized that these efforts must be collaborative, drawing on both regional and global partnerships to ensure inclusivity and resilience.
One of the key areas that SAMENA Council drew attention to, was the critical need to scale AI talent across Africa. With a significant number of tech graduates leaving the continent annually and a projected shortage of AI specialists, SAMENA Council reiterated the importance of developing localized strategies to both retain talent and build sustainable talent pipelines. SAMENA Council also reiterate the need to develop Africa’s own AI models, with Africa’s unique experiences, needs, and aspirations in mind. Furthermore, SAMENA Council also opined that all countries should aim to develop their own AI models, best suited to match their own ground realities and development profiles.
SAMENA Council’s continued engagement in the African digital transformation journey is in alignment with its Operator members need for market assessment, exploring new opportunities, building cross-border cooperation and synergies, and to its broader mission of helping in building digital economies that empower regions to thrive in the global digital economy. The Council remains committed to fostering the creation of impactful partnerships among the Private Sector and Government bodies to ensure equitable access to digital technology and innovation across the SA-ME-NA region and regions of similar profiles.
As Africa takes significant steps toward embracing AI, SAMENA Council believes, tremendous potential exists to facilitate new partnerships among the private sector as well as among governments. Several of SAMENA Council’s members have direct interest in Africa, and this includes Telecom Operators as well as technology companies and providers of super apps. The Council’s ongoing advocacy work will continue to play a key role in enabling knowledge and experience-exchange, and to address issues in digital development, which range from infrastructure funding to now development of artificial-intelligence. African nations need to timely harness AI to address their unique socio-economic and developmental challenges as well as create opportunities in education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure development, and overall planning.
Source: SAMENA Council Press Release