Kenya releases draft AI strategy; Morocco drafts AI laws
Africa AI News weekly digest...
Good morning, and welcome to Africa AI News – Weekly News Digest.
2025 has started fairly slowly on the AI news stories front, but things are waking up as the new year gets into gear.
First, congratulations to our sister publication, MiddleEastAINews.com, which this week aired it’s five hundredth daily podcast!
A clear trend over the past three months is a growing sense of panic amongst African countries’ governments: first a powerful FOMO that they’re getting left behind by other countries in adopting AI technology, but a growing drum-beat that it is a terrifying monster that needs to be tamed. Much of their stated fears seems to be driven by worries about AI driving disinformation in the public sphere, which while a genuine issue is, along with “election interference”, also the bogeyman of autocratic regimes to clamp down on political freedoms.
Read an in depth on this story here.
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On with this week’s issue!
/Roger
AI Strategy
Kenya unveils draft AI Strategy, calls for input
#Kenya #AIstrategy — Kenya’s Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy has launched a call for public participation to shape its National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy 2025-2030. The policy is described as focussing on sustainable development, economic growth and social inclusion. However, if you want to get your comment in, you only have until Sunday to submit it! Draft strategy PDF here. (Africa AI News)
Moroccan parliament considering legislation to regulate AI
#Morocco #policy - New laws that are already in draft form before parliament are intended to align Morocco with UNESCO and the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, which categorises AI systems by risk levels and imposes strict regulations on high-risk applications. (Hesspress)
Morocco proposes Arab Cultural Coalition to counter AI challenges
#Arab #policy — Ministers met for the 24th Ministerial Conference on Cultural Affairs in Rabat, where Morocco’s Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication called for a unified Arab approach to address the challenges of artificial intelligence and digital transformation. (Morocco World News)
Malawi Media Institute looks to counter misinformation & AI spam
#Malawi #media — The Malawi chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has launched iVerify, an initiative aimed at protecting the integrity of information on social media and in the press ahead of the country's next election. (ITWeb)
Centres of Excellence
Egypt looks to Boston Consulting for AI in healthcare
#Egypt #healthcare — The Egypt Healthcare Authority (EHA) is signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the notorious Boston Consulting Group (BCG), aimed at building the capacity to implement artificial intelligence (AI) in Egypt’s healthcare sector. (State Information Service)
Egypt presses Latvia to collaborate in digital transformation and AI
#Egypt #diplomacy — Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology met with Latvia’s State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “explore avenues for collaboration in digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), outsourcing, and cybersecurity”. Egypt pressed Latvia to implement a bilateral Centre of Excellence in Egypt. (State Information Service)
Education
Morocco sees return of the AI “Winter School”
#Morocco #education — Pegged for 24-25 February, the School of Industrial Management (EMINES) of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is co-organising the Winter School: Next Generation AI and Economic Applications in Ben Guérir, Morocco, to train students from masters to doctorate level, and encourage exchanges between specialists in academic, industry and innovation sectors. (Institute Polytechnique de Paris)
Economy
Tunisia zooms in on changes in job market over next 5 years
#Tunisia #economy — Off the back of a large scale study by the World Economic Forum (the 15th “Future of Jobs Report (2025)”), the Arab Institute of Business Leaders did a meta-study showing emerging employment opportunities are predominantly centred around technological innovation, and expects the Tunisian labour market to shift by 22% away from traditional roles, particularly in manual labour and financial administration. (B2B Tunisia)
Applications
AI-driven agriculture app provides answers to Malawian farmers
#Malawi #applications — Ulangizi, which means “Advice” in the local Chichewa language, lets farmers in the more remote areas of the country ask questions via the popular WhatsApp messaging app to improve access to agricultural knowledge. (Borgen Project)
Botswana Diamonds uses AI to reveal seven new mining targets
#Botswana #applications #mining — Botswana Diamonds’ (BOD) application of Artificial Intelligence has pinpointed seven new “significant kimberlite targets” across Botswana, where it was able to do rapid analysis of 400,000 square kilometres of exploration data. (Diamond World)
Nigeria broadcast media slow to adopt new tech
#Nigeria #applications #media — Academic researchers looked at the uptake of new AI tech in broadcast media, and found it sorely wanting in Imo state. While adoption is rapid in Nigeria’s main cities, the paper found scant use in outlying areas. Download PDF. (International Journal of Sub Saharan African Research)
WEF awards Africa's first 'Lighthouse Factory'
#Morocco #applications #4IR — The Moroccan manufacturing plant of CITIC Dicastal, the world's largest producer of automotive aluminium wheels, has been recognised by the World Economic Forum as a 'Lighthouse Factory'. The Global Lighthouse Network identifies and awards the most advanced operational sites in the world. (China Daily)
Conferences
GITEX Africa 2025 registrations open
#Morocco #GITEX — GITEX Africa 2025 will run from April 14-16 in Marrakech, featuring an AI Everything track. Africa’s largest tech event invites participants, with early bird ticket offers now available. (GITEX Africa)
[ This newsletter was human edited and AI-fangled ]