The report warns that slow digital and energy investment could leave the vast continent sidelined in global AI‑driven initiatives.

In a recent report, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has warned that African countries risk missing out on the transformative benefits of the global AI development unless they urgently upgrade digital and energy infrastructure.

The continent’s 54 nations, the report notes, could be sidelined in AI‑driven industrialization and services expansion if governments fail to treat data and frontier technologies as strategic assets.

UNECA’s latest Economic Report on Africa, presented at the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Tangier, highlights that Africa hosts less than 1% of the world’s data centers, creating both an economic and sovereignty challenge. Also:

  • Concentrating African data overseas inflates costs, delays transmission and raises security concerns over sensitive medical, financial and national‑security information.
  • At the same time, chronically weak power grids and patchy broadband coverage constrain the deployment of AI‑intensive systems such as smart services, precision agriculture and automated manufacturing.

To close these gaps, the commission urges the incumbent governments to look beyond tight public budgets and tap a broader mix of funds, including increased borrowing, improved domestic revenue collection and the strategic use of pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and blended finance.

Also, UN-linked analyses suggest that AI‑driven productivity gains could add between 2.9tn and 4.8tn dollars to Africa’s economy by 2030 if infrastructure and regulatory frameworks keep pace. UNECA warns that without this kind of investment, the continent will remain a consumer of AI‑enabled products rather than a co‑creator of value, deepening its dependence on imported technologies and foreign cloud platforms.

The report also stresses that effective regulation and robust data‑governance systems are as critical as finance and hardware. African policymakers need to design rules that balance innovation with privacy, competition and cybersecurity, while ensuring that local firms and young digital entrepreneurs can access data and cloud services on fair terms. By strengthening data‑collection capacity, modernizing telecom and power networks, and aligning tax and investment policies with digital‑infrastructure needs, African governments can position the continent to benefit from AI‑led growth rather than simply watching it unfold elsewhere, according to the commission.