By Kamal Tayo Oropo

Some experts on Monday said that Africa needs supportive policies and robust infrastructure to tap the limitless opportunities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to leapfrog its development.

They said this in a statement issued on Monday by the Communications Section of Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) after a panel discussion on ‘Fostering prosperity through policies on artificial intelligence in Africa’.

The panel was on the sidelines of the on-going 56th Session of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM).

The experts agreed that Artificial Intelligence presented massive development opportunities for Africa if the right policies and infrastructure were in place.

Ousman Bah, Gambia’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, said it was important to have the right policies to regulate the use of AI and also avert its risks.

He added that Africa should not wait to have the regulations in place to embrace the technology.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that AI, a fast-evolving technology that taps the intelligence of machines or software, is transforming all social spheres globally.

Research shows that the technology has the potential to contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, of which 1.2 trillion dollars could be generated in Africa.

This represents a 5.6 per cent increase in the continent’s gross domestic product by 2030.

Fayaz King, Deputy Executive Director of the Field Results and Innovation for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said necessary strategies were important to ensure that all approaches to AI from development, deployment to use are in the public interest.

“In the effervescent realm of AI the known, the unknown and the unknowable is best addressed through governance with humanity at its center, for what AI giveth, AI also taketh,” he said.

King underscored the need to bridge the digital divide by including marginalised communities in the AI initiatives.

On her part, Baratang Miya, Chief Executive of Girlhype Coders Academy, said governments should regulate and incentivise stakeholders across AI value chains with focus on Small Medium Scale Enterprises.

According to her, this will foster innovation and equitable access to AI technologies.

Miya said there should be a balance in policy development and humanity to ensure that the AI technology takes over.

She said government needed to establish ethical frameworks on the development and deployment of AI through data privacy, security, transparency and accountability in AI systems.

“Africa needs to collect more data to have access to its own data and governments need to facilitate data democratization policies.

“We really need data that speaks to Africa itself and that case for open data means we are empowering citizens and at the same time encouraging innovation and efficiency and not using data that is inaccurate,” she said.

Miya emphasised that to host proper data for countries, good cloud infrastructure, including reliable electricity access were important.

Similarly, Sandra Makumbirofa, Senior economist, Research ICT Africa, said AI had transformative potential to boost African economies through effective financial inclusion, employment creation and enhanced public service delivery.

She said, however, most of the market value of AI was realised in United States and China; citing research by UNCTAD.

“It was, therefore, important for African countries to actively participate in global fora to ensure their interests were represented.

“Our database is inadequate for global policy making. The data that we have as African countries is not represented in the training of AI models.

“This means that the AI that we are using in Africa from foreign countries does not necessarily have the African context and therefore we are not able to use them efficiently as we can,” she said.

Also contributing to the discussion, Executive Secretary, Claver Gatete, highlighted that most people were not aware of AI and a drawback of AI was its dependence on data which has to be accurate.

Gatete said the development of infrastructure such as internet connectivity was key to tapping the benefits of AI and that the technology must be shared among countries to avoid inventing the wheel.

“Out of the 1.6 billion people who are not connected, Africa really is one of the biggest places where we are not connected.

“If you are not connected you cannot even talk about AI. We need infrastructure, we need energy investment going hand in hand with the IT infrastructure,” he said.

Edited by Sadiya Hamza

By Lucy Ogalue

Stakeholders on the African continent have urged governments to transit into inclusive, low carbon and resource-efficient economies by tapping into home-grown innovative solutions for financing.

A statement issued on the Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) website quoted the stakeholders as saying this at the ongoing 42nd meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (COM2024) in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

The News agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 2024 annual ECA Conference of Ministers is being hosted by the Government of Zimbabwe.

The theme of the conference is “Financing the transition to inclusive green economies in Africa: Imperatives, opportunities and policy options”.

The meeting is scheduled to hold between February 28 and March 5.

Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion said it was unfortunate that Africa was not leveraging its resources, including land.

According to Ncube, Africa has about 127 million hectares of potentially irritable land of which only about 13 per cent of this land is currently being used for irrigation.

“We have vast water bodies to irrigate our rich soils; all we need is investment in advanced irrigation technology and enough funding to climate-proof agriculture so that we become food-secure.

“Financing the transition to inclusive green economies comes with a cost and we need to finance this transition with the support of the international community.

“And promoting investment in renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy,” he said.

Also, Rebecca Otengo, outgoing chair of the Conference of Ministers and, Ugandan ambassador to Ethiopia, said countries should strive to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA).

Otengo said this would ensure free movement of people, goods and services on the continent.

According to her, countries need additional financing mechanisms to meet this growing demand and boost economic growth.

The Deputy Executive-Secretary at the ECA, Antonio Pedro said that since the last Conference of Ministers, the world had fallen deeper into economic fragility, climate change, conflict, and distrust.

According to Pedro, Africa has sadly not been spared from these global trends.

“We must accelerate the adoption of just and sustainable transitions, which require long-term structural changes and adequate investment.

“African countries have the ability to create their own solutions to solve their problems. This should be a collective focus as in the continued fight to reform global systems.

“We have, therefore, a unique opportunity to actively transform our countries by transitioning into inclusive, low carbon, and resource-efficient economies,” Pedro said.

The ECA deputy executive-secretary highlighted the key transformative areas that could have catalytic and multiplier effects across all the SDGs.

Pedro said there was urgent need to transform our food systems by prioritising the development of regional value chains, de-risking investment and fast-tracking the implementation of the AfCFTA.

He said these measures would help to insulate the continent from global food security shocks.

According to him, Africa needs to enhance energy access and affordability as less than two per cent of global clean energy investments flow to Africa.

Pedro said there was also the need to embrace the transition to affordable renewable energy by making the most of our solar, wind and geothermal resources as well as our green hydrogen potential.

“We must increase digital connectivity and inclusion to bridge the digital divide that prevents our member States from taking full advantage of the digital age and accessing technological solutions that are available elsewhere.

“Education systems must be transformed and to do this, we must undertake comprehensive foresight analysis that will inform the transformation of education systems and curriculums.

“We must create jobs and enhance social protection.

“Governments must pursue integrated, comprehensive industrial policies and private sector development strategies that create jobs for young people and improve the transition from school to work,” he said.

The official said we must also embolden our response and collective action on climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution by implementing the Nairobi Declaration.

He said the declaration acknowledged that climate change was the single greatest challenge facing humanity and the single biggest threat to all life on Earth. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

===========
Edited by Ese E. Eniola Williams