By Emmanuel Nduka
Former President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has proposed the establishment of a $10 billion Africa AI Frontier Technology Fund to mobilize $50 billion over the next decade, warning that Africa risks becoming a permanent consumer of foreign technologies unless it moves decisively to take ownership of the artificial intelligence revolution.
Adesina made the proposal while delivering a keynote address titled ‘Why Africa Should Lead the AI Race for the Future’ at the Oxford Global Think Tank Conference in Abuja on November 3, 2026. He argued that artificial intelligence represents a defining economic opportunity capable of reshaping global power relations, creating new industries and determining which countries control the wealth of the future.
“Who will own the future of artificial intelligence? Who will develop its transformative technologies, own the intellectual property, build the global companies, capture the economic value, and shape the standards governing their use?” Adesina asked. “Where will Africa stand when this future is decided? Will we simply become a market for technologies developed elsewhere, or will we become creators, innovators, investors, owners, and exporters of the technologies that transform the global economy?”, he added.
The former AfDB president warned that the AI revolution could create another historic economic divide between countries that develop and control emerging technologies and those that depend on imported innovations.
He noted that Africa, whose population is projected by the United Nations to approach 2.5 billion by 2050, representing roughly one in every four people globally, cannot afford to leave its technological future in the hands of other regions.
According to him, artificial intelligence is no longer simply a technological development but a question of economic sovereignty, scientific advancement and the continent’s position in the future global economy.
“My message today is simple: Africa must not approach the AI revolution as a continent seeking permission to participate. We must approach it as a continent determined to lead,” he declared.
Adesina identified five interconnected priorities that African countries must pursue to secure leadership in the emerging technology landscape. These include positioning the continent to capture the economic value of AI, investing in human capital and critical infrastructure, developing and exporting homegrown innovations, mobilising large-scale financing and strengthening political leadership and institutional capacity.
He cited estimates by McKinsey indicating that generative AI, when deployed at scale, could unlock between $61 billion and $103 billion in additional economic value across Africa annually.
However, he cautioned that the benefits would not automatically accrue to the continent, particularly as global competitors continue to commit enormous resources to research, computing infrastructure and commercial innovation.
Referencing Stanford University’s 2025 AI Index, Adesina said corporate investment in artificial intelligence reached $252.3 billion in 2024, including $150.8 billion in private investment, while nearly 90 per cent of notable AI models released that year came from industry.
He argued that African countries must pursue a dual strategy of deploying AI to transform existing industries while simultaneously developing indigenous technologies, building competitive companies and retaining ownership of intellectual property.
In agriculture, he said AI could improve crop yields through better soil, weather and water management, while its application in healthcare could strengthen diagnostics and expand access to medical services. Manufacturing, financial services, education and energy were also identified as sectors that could benefit significantly.
On human capital, Adesina described Africa’s youthful population as one of its greatest strategic advantages but warned that demographics alone would not translate into economic prosperity without deliberate investment in education and advanced skills.
He called for greater emphasis on mathematics, science, computational thinking, robotics, machine learning, data science and engineering in schools and universities.
He also advocated increased funding for scholarships, research fellowships, modern laboratories and specialised AI research institutes to enable African scientists and entrepreneurs to develop globally competitive innovations.
“ We must move beyond preparing young Africans to use artificial intelligence. We must prepare a generation capable of inventing it, advancing it, commercializing it, and leading the industries it will create,” he said.
Adesina further stressed that Africa’s AI ambitions would remain unattainable without reliable electricity, affordable internet connectivity, advanced computing capacity, secure digital systems and quality datasets.
Drawing from his experience at the AfDB, he referenced Mission 300, an initiative developed in partnership with the World Bank to provide electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030.
He said the Africa Energy Summit convened in Dar es Salaam in January 2025 mobilised pledges of more than $50 billion from development partners to accelerate electricity access, adding that Mission 300 had since connected more than 50 million people to electricity.
“Because there can be no AI revolution without an energy revolution,” he stressed, noting that data centres require dependable electricity while researchers and technology companies need reliable computing infrastructure to compete globally.
On innovation, the former AfDB president highlighted existing African initiatives, including Masakhane, South Africa’s Lelapa AI and Nigeria’s Intron Health, as examples of homegrown efforts to develop language technologies and artificial intelligence solutions addressing local challenges.
He also referenced iSDA’s Virtual Agronomist AI advisory service, which had provided tailored nutrient recommendations for more than 200,000 farm plots across seven African countries as of March 2025.
However, he argued that the continent must move beyond developing useful applications to making fundamental advances in machine learning, computing, robotics and scientific discovery.
The proposed $10 billion Africa AI Frontier Technology Fund, he explained, would serve as catalytic capital for a broader $50 billion investment mobilisation programme over ten years, targeting Africa’s scientific, technological and industrial transformation.
Under the proposed financing structure, $10 billion would be raised for the anchor fund, while African governments would contribute $15 billion through phased commitments. Another $15 billion would come from multilateral and African development finance institutions, with private investors, philanthropic partners and the global technology industry expected to provide the remaining $10 billion.
Adesina proposed establishing a Coalition for Financing AI for Africa, bringing together the World Bank, African Development Bank, other multilateral development banks, African governments, development finance institutions, philanthropic foundations, institutional investors and leading global technology companies.
He said the proposed fund would operate through three complementary financing windows covering research, talent and public infrastructure; frontier technology and African enterprises; as well as blended finance and strategic infrastructure.
The financing would support universities, advanced research centres, computing facilities, scholarships, African language technologies, data centres, energy infrastructure and technology companies seeking to commercialise research and compete internationally.
Adesina also called for strong governance arrangements, including independent investment committees, professional fund management, transparent investment decisions and measurable targets for job creation, research breakthroughs, technology development and private capital mobilisation.
He urged prospective partners to move beyond declarations of intent by establishing a founding group to agree on the fund’s institutional design, capital structure, governance and investment priorities.
On political leadership, Adesina called on African governments to translate the African Union’s Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy, endorsed by the AU Executive Council in July 2024, into national strategies backed by dedicated budgets, measurable targets and accountable implementation mechanisms.
He further proposed that African governments seriously consider appointing dedicated Ministers for Artificial Intelligence to coordinate national efforts across education, research, infrastructure, industry, investment and public services.
According to him, such appointments would provide the political visibility and coordination required to make AI a central national development priority rather than create additional bureaucratic structures.
He also urged African countries to become active participants in shaping international AI standards, arguing that the continent should not merely accept rules developed elsewhere but contribute its own perspectives and priorities to global technology governance.
Adesina maintained that Africa’s success in the AI revolution should ultimately be measured by the scientific discoveries it produces, the competitive technology companies it builds, the intellectual property it owns, the skilled employment it generates and the economic opportunities it creates for millions of people.
He concluded that the continent must urgently move from being a marketplace for imported technologies to becoming a major architect of the global AI economy.
“Africa must not simply be a market for the AI revolution. We must be one of its architects,” he declared.
