Why 2026 should be the Year of Artificial Intelligence for Africa

There’s enough evidence which suggests that 2025 has been the  "Year of AI" due to widespread adoption, the rise of AI agents, significant advances in reasoning capabilities, and major business and government focus on the technology. Key trends include AI agents performing complex tasks, advancements in reasoning and planning abilities, and the increasing commercial revenue generated by AI companies, with businesses heavily investing in AI tools. 

One unique difference is that we have seen the rise of AI Agents that are capable of making decisions and taking actions without direct human intervention. We’ve seen advanced reasoning being piloted where AI models became much better at complex tasks with major AI companies releasing systems that could plan, verify and reflect. We’ve also seen mass adoption with businesses significantly increasing their use of AI, with a large percentage of US companies paying for AI tools, and AI-first startups growing faster than their peers. We’ve also started to see economic green shoots.

The AI industry is generating billions in annual revenue, with the cost of AI capabilities falling while performance rises. Lastly, countries are increasingly recognising AI as a strategic imperative for economic and security reasons, and educational institutions like the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have declared 2025 the "Year of Artificial Intelligence" to transform education.

In Africa, we’ve recently witnessed what can be described as the first major step towards AI implementation in the continent. The tech company led by one of Africa’s billionaires, Strive Masiyiwa,  announced that it plans to build Africa's first AI factory in collaboration with Nvidia. This is a positive development for the African continent, however, it’s not enough.

Over the past few years Africa has been trying to catchup in the technology sector. As the continent was getting closer to catching up AI was unleashed creating a major gap from the get go. There’s no single company in Africa that can claim to be on the same level as global companies in terms of development of AI technologies. At the same time, the African continent possess key ingredients in the form of minerals that makeup key elements of AI chips. To an extent, the AI industry would struggle to exist without the contribution from the African continent in the form of its minerals.  This important role that is played by the African continent does not feature enough where it truly matters.

When one considers the fact that one of the key G20 themes for 2025 focused on inequality it stands to reason that a consensus should have been reached on how Africa can leverage its minerals in the AI development process. This is important mainly because as much as AI serves as an advancement tool it could fuel inequality. According to the director of South Africa's Centre for High-Performance Computing (CHPC), Mervyn Christofels, Africa has already been left behind. These were his remarks during the Digital Futures Symposium which was held in Cape Town ahead of the main G20 leaders meeting.

If this is true, AI is likely to widen the gap between the haves and have nots even more. 

Understanding this fact should inspire leaders to act with speed in doing everything in their power to alleviate the AI impact in society. There’s no question that AI will have a significant economic impact. For countries that are developing AI technology the returns will be immense. The same cannot be said about those that just consume AI.

In this regard, I find suggestions by an African scholar, Zainab Taonga Chirwa, refreshing and worthy of attention. She advocates for what can be described as a "SaaS" (Software as a Service) model for Africa's minerals by focusing on an anticipatory governance framework for the critical minerals sector. This approach uses foresight and collaborative policymaking to create a "resource-balanced economy" for Africa, moving beyond traditional models to balance economic development with environmental sustainability and equity.

The goal is to overcome challenges like weak governance and limited industrialisation by developing future-ready policies that maximize developmental outcomes for Africa's mineral wealth.

One such approach consider may lead to AI companies subscribing instead of buying minerals to produce AI technology. This model is interesting in the sense that it could enable the continent to still own its minerals whilst earning revenue  from them. In essence, while Africa has lost in the AI race, in 2026 it can turn its fortunes around.

Wesley Diphoko is a technology analyst and  the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine.

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL. 

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