Charlette N’Guessan, Lead Data Solutions, AI Ecosystem and Government Partnerships at Amini and Founder of Afrokwary
By Editorial Team
NAIROBI, Kenya, October 14, 2026 — As African governments race to develop artificial intelligence policies, a new independent council is calling for greater public participation and accountability in decisions that will shape how the technology affects millions of people across the continent.
The council’s formation comes as Africa faces a significant gap in digital infrastructure and representation in the development of AI systems. Although the continent is home to roughly 18 per cent of the world’s population, estimates from the Africa Data Centres Association and the World Economic Forum put its share of global data centre capacity at just 0.6 per cent, compared with nearly 45 per cent in the United States.
A 2026 industry study also found that, outside South Africa, only about a third of built data centre capacity is fully utilised.
However, the council argues that the challenge extends beyond infrastructure to who has a voice in deciding how AI systems are developed, governed and used.
“We kept seeing the same pattern in rooms where AI strategy was being decided,” said Maurice Otieno, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Samawati Collective. “Plenty of expertise on infrastructure, investment, and regulation, and very little on what any of it means for ordinary people.”
Otieno said the collective wanted to bring together a small group of independent experts who could publicly question decisions affecting the public interest without creating another regulatory or implementation body.
The governance debate is gaining urgency as African governments work to translate continental ambitions into national policies.
When the African Union adopted its Continental AI Strategy in July 2024, only six countries — Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Mauritius, Rwanda and Senegal — had standalone national AI strategies, according to the statement. This compared with 67 countries globally that had developed national frameworks between 2017 and 2023.
With the African Union’s first implementation phase running from 2025 to 2026 and a midterm review scheduled for 2027, governments are developing frameworks intended to guide investment and innovation. APiAC wants these efforts to give greater attention to accountability, democratic participation and the needs of people who may have little influence over technological decisions.
The council also points to the limited representation of African languages in AI systems as a barrier to inclusion.
A 2025 study cited in the statement found that only 42 of Africa’s roughly 2,000 languages were supported by major language models. Of these, only four — Amharic, Kiswahili, Afrikaans and Malagasy — received consistent coverage, leaving more than 98 per cent of African languages unsupported.
The resulting imbalance, described by researchers as “language data flaring”, raises concerns about whether AI tools can adequately serve people who communicate in languages that are poorly represented in the data used to develop the systems.
“Language is where the gap is easiest to see,” said Chido Dzinotyiwei, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vambo AI. “If a model can’t follow how people actually speak, it isn’t serving them, however advanced it is. That has to be a design decision from the start.”
The council says questions of data ownership and control are equally important in determining whether Africa benefits from the expanding AI economy.
“Data is infrastructure, and the continent is mostly a source of it,” said Charlette N’Guessan, Lead Data Solutions, AI Ecosystem and Government Partnerships at Amini and Founder of Afrokwary. “Who collects it, who owns it, and who benefits will decide whether Africa takes part in this economy or just supplies it.”
Kenya’s approaching 2027 General Election provides another example of why AI governance and accountability are becoming urgent issues.
The statement notes that approximately 40 per cent of registered voters in Kenya are aged between 18 and 34. It also cites Trust Lab researchers who identified 17 major coordinated disinformation campaigns in 2025.
In addition, an Anthropic misuse report reportedly documented the removal of an account used by a single actor to produce Kenyan political content at scale, illustrating how AI tools can be used to generate content that may influence public debate ahead of elections.
For John-Allan Namu, founder and journalist at Africa Uncensored Limited, scrutiny of political influence must now extend to the algorithms that determine what people see online.
“My job is to ask who holds power and who answers for it,” Namu said. “Those questions now apply to algorithms that shape what voters see. Newsrooms need to be asking them before 2027, not after.”
He called for journalists to examine the systems shaping public information before the next election, rather than waiting until their effects become apparent.
Beyond elections and language representation, APiAC says AI governance should be assessed by how effectively it protects people with limited power and influence.
“Every government is drafting a framework right now,” said Maha Jouini, an AI governance expert and founder of Chifaa. “The test of each one is simple: does it protect the person with the least power? Governance isn’t a brake. It’s how a society decides what innovation is for.”
Obinna Okerekeocha, founder of the Naija AI Film Festival, said public trust would depend partly on how transparently AI systems operate, particularly as digital services increasingly affect people’s ability to save, borrow and trade.
“Trust comes from explaining things honestly. AI will earn it or lose it the same way,” he said.
APiAC will operate independently of funders, governments and commercial entities, with its positions guided by its members. The six-member council brings together expertise in journalism, governance, open technology, language AI, data infrastructure and financial technology.
Its planned work includes commissioning research, convening public discussions, issuing policy advisories to governments and other councils, and providing public input on philanthropic investment priorities.
The council is designed to operate for an initial two-year term, with members meeting quarterly. It will not act as a regulator or implement AI projects directly, but will seek to influence public debate and policy decisions through independent analysis and recommendations.
Its central question is whether Africa’s AI transition will expand the agency of the general population, strengthen democratic participation, support cultural expression and contribute to shared prosperity.
As governments and investors continue to shape the continent’s AI future, the council wants public interest to become a central consideration in decisions that could affect how Africans access information, participate in democracy and benefit from emerging technologies.
