AI Revolution: ‘Africa’s 1.4bn People Can’t Be Sidelined’

The managing director of Alpha-Geek Technologies and a recognised figure in African technology, Oluwaseun Dania, at the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting launching the Global Dialogue on AI Governance in New York, last week, delivered a powerful message to Africa and indeed the world.

He demanded that Africa’s voice, representing 1.4 billion people and the world’s youngest workforce, be amplified and included in global AI governance.

Speaking as a bridge-builder between innovation and equity, Dania asserted that the success of the AI revolution should be measured not merely by GDP spikes but by lives uplifted, stressing that Africa is not just an early adopter of mobile-first AI but is poised to be a co-creator of its future.

“In a world where AI is reshaping destinies, this dialogue must ensure no continent or community is left behind,” Dania told the high-level multi-stakeholder meeting, acknowledging AI’s transformative promise in Africa and citing its potential for leapfrogging infrastructure gaps and powering secure digital economies, including burgeoning fintech revolutions and stablecoin initiatives.

However, drawing on his expertise in information security, he warned of AI’s ‘shadows, including deepfakes eroding trust, biased algorithms perpetuating inequality, and unchecked data monopolies widening the North-South divide.’

To counter these risks and harness the potential, the current government under the leadership of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu through the minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, launched the National AI Strategy in April 2025, a blueprint with the Nigerian Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) and National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) to harness AI for economic growth, ethical innovation, and skills development, projecting a 27 per cent annual market expansion through 2030 and $15 billion in GDP contributions, while equipping 70 per cent of our young workforce with AI capabilities by 2030.

Dania emphasised that, global governance cannot be drafted in echo chambers of Silicon Valley or Geneva boardrooms and put forward three key priorities to ensure AI innovation meets equity: Equitable Access, which mandates open-source AI frameworks and capacity-building funds to equip Global South innovators, preventing the mere extraction of data for profit.

Furthermore, ethical safeguards seek to embed African-led ethical standards for bias audits and privacy-by-design, drawing from the communal value of ubuntu (humanity towards others). Resilient Infrastructure calls for investing in AI for development, such as predictive analytics for pandemics and energy optimisation, while simultaneously fortifying systems against weaponised misuse.

He urged stakeholders to treat the dialogue as a covenant for a just AI future. Africa is ready to co-create, not merely comply, he declared.