Africa Has What It Takes to Compete in AI, But Lacks Leadership and Policies- Frank Eleanya

The Head of Enterprise and Policy Desk at TechCabal, Frank Eleanya, said Africa has the raw materials needed to play a major role in the artificial intelligence industry but lacks the leadership and policies to attract the investment required.

Speaking on Arise TV, Eleanya said countries such as Nigeria have valuable resources including lithium, particularly in states like Nasarawa and Zamfara.

“Take for instance Africa has the raw materials like lithium. Some of those raw materials are gotten in Nigeria,” he said.

He said the resources are often mined in Africa and exported to countries where they are refined and used to produce semiconductors, chips, data centres and other technologies.

“These materials are literally mined from here and they are taken to China, New Zealand, UK, where they are then refined to use maybe to build silicon, chips, used in semiconductor industries, data centres and different other technologies which we then buy back from them,” Eleanya said.

He said Africa must develop policies that will attract major technology companies and encourage them to establish manufacturing operations on the continent.

“It isn’t because we do not have what it takes to play the AI industry,” he said.

According to Eleanya, stronger leadership and the right policies could help Africa turn its natural resources into opportunities in the growing AI industry.