Africa Public Interest AI Council Formed to Ensure African Voices Shape AI Norms and Governance
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 14 – Africa is home to roughly 18 percent of the world’s population, yet data from the Africa Data Centres Association and the World Economic Forum indicate it holds an estimated 0.6 percent of global data centre capacity compared to nearly 45 percent in the United States, A 2026 industry study reveals that outside South Africa, only about a third of built capacity is fully utilised.
While this infrastructure deficit commands headlines, a deeper structural gap persists: determining who holds a meaningful voice in defining the purpose and guardrails of these technologies.
When the African Union adopted its Continental AI Strategy in July 2024, only six nations, Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Mauritius, Rwanda and Senegal, had established standalone AI strategies, lagging behind the 67 countries globally that drafted national frameworks between 2017 and 2023.
AU’s first implementation phase spanning 2025 to 2026, governments are drafting rapid frameworks focused heavily on economic growth, investment, and competitiveness, ahead of a scheduled midterm review in 2027.
The governance rush intersects with stark representation gaps. A 2025 study on major language models found that only 42 of Africa’s roughly 2,000 languages are supported, with only four (Amharic, Swahili, Afrikaans, and Malagasy) receiving consistent coverage, leaving over 98 percent unsupported a phenomenon researchers describe as “language data flaring.”
With approximately 40 percent of registered voters aged 18 to 34 and Trust Lab researchers identifying 17 major coordinated disinformation campaigns in 2025 alone, electoral integrity faces unprecedented algorithmic stress.
Further, Anthropic’s recent misuse report noted the removal of an account used by a single actor to mass-produce Kenyan political content, demonstrating how cheaply AI can manufacture artificial public consensus ahead of the pivotal 2027 general election.
Comprising multidisciplinary experts across journalism, governance, open technology, language AI, data infrastructure, and fintech, APiAC is intentionally compact, operating with six members (Mr. Kofi Yeboah, Mr. John-Allan Namu, Ms. Maha Jouini, Chido Dzinotyiwei, Ms. Charlette N’Guessan, Mr. Obinna Okerekeocha) quarterly convenings, and an initial two-year term.
It operates neither as a regulator nor an implementer, but as an independent conscience keeping one core question central: Does Africa’s AI transition expand Africa’s general population agency, democratic participation, cultural expression and shared prosperity?
The council will work to commission research, convene public discussions, issue policy advisories to governments and other councils and lastly issue public inputs to philanthropic investments directions.
“We kept seeing the same pattern in rooms where AI strategy was being decided,” said Maurice Otieno, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Samawati Collective”. “Plenty of expertise on infrastructure, investment, and regulation, and very little on what any of it means for ordinary people.
We didn’t want to build another institution to fill that gap. We wanted a small group of independent minds who could say, in public, what others in those rooms can’t or won’t.”“The infrastructure gap gets all the headlines, but a gap in who decides is harder to close,” said Kofi Yeboah, Program Officer at the Mozilla Foundation.
“Openness and accountability can’t be bolted on after the systems are built. Africa has to help write those norms.” “My job is to ask who holds power and who answers for it,” said John-Allan Namu, Founder and Journalist at Africa Uncensored Limited. “Those questions now apply to algorithms that shape what voters see. Newsrooms need to be asking them before 2027, not after.”
“Every government is drafting a framework right now,” said Maha Jouini, AI Governance Expert and Founder of Chifaa. “The test of each one is simple: does it protect the person with the least power? Governance isn’t a brake. It’s how a society decides what innovation is for.”
“Language is where the gap is easiest to see,” said Chido Dzinotyiwei, Co-founder and CEO of Vambo AI. “If a model can’t follow how people actually speak, it isn’t serving them, however advanced it is. That has to be a design decision from the start.”
“Data is infrastructure, and the continent is mostly a source of it,”said Charlette N’Guessan, Lead Data Solutions, AI Ecosystem and Government Partnerships at Amini and Founder, Afrokwary. “Who collects it, who owns it, and who benefits will decide whether Africa takes part in this economy or just supplies it.”
“Millions of Africans already depend on digital systems that decide whether they can save, borrow, or trade,” said Obinna Okerekeocha, Founder Naija AI Film Festival. “Trust comes from explaining things honestly. AI will earn it or lose it the same way.”
Operating independently from funders, state control, or political affiliations, the coalition’s policy decisions are strictly guided by its frontline members, ensuring unvarnished accountability and open debate above unified messaging.
