By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
Rwanda has called for
African countries to move beyond individual artificial intelligence pilots
towards scalable solutions, with stronger collaboration on data, compute,
energy, skills and interoperable frameworks while retaining agency over AI
deployment.
Minister of ICT and
Innovation Paula Ingabire made the remarks on the sidelines of the 81st United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), where she joined the World Economic Forum’s
Centre for AI Excellence for discussions on AI sovereignty, infrastructure and
Africa’s digital transformation.
Minister Ingabire highlighted
Rwanda’s experience in advancing artificial intelligence and stressed the need
for African countries to collaborate on the critical infrastructure and
capabilities required to scale AI solutions across the continent.
She identified data,
compute, energy, skills and interoperable frameworks as key areas where greater
collaboration is needed to support Africa’s AI development while allowing
countries to retain agency over how AI is deployed.
According to Minister Ingabire,
skills are a core pillar of AI sovereignty, enabling African countries to
develop and deploy AI solutions that respond to local priorities.
She also emphasized the
importance of ensuring that the benefits of artificial intelligence reach
citizens as African countries strengthen their digital transformation efforts.
