By Paolo von Schirach
President, Global Policy Institute; Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bay Atlantic University, both in Washington, DC
The Economist recently noted that The Netherlands, with a population of only 18 million, has more data centers than the entire African Continent, population about 1.4 billion. Africa will not have an AI revolution mostly because it lacks the physical infrastructure for AI –fiber networks and data centers– and sufficient electric power generation and distribution to run it. Unless this state of affairs changes —rapidly— the Continent will miss out on the enormous education and economic development opportunities that exist for those who can easily access AI.
In the 1990s some daring entrepreneurs, Mo Ibrahim in the lead, bet that underdeveloped and very poor Africa was ready for a mobile phone revolution. They were right. Despite poverty, ordinary people were ready to pay for reliable connectivity. In just a few years, the mobile revolution transformed communications, and therefore business, in a continent where there were very few landline connections. Now there are more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa.
While we should credit risk-taking entrepreneurs, the mobile revolution could occur in large measure because most African governments stayed out of the way. They did not create bureaucratic or regulatory roadblocks.
However, as same The Economist piece noted, Africa is now the victim of its own mobile telephony success. As communications and basic data transmissions are handled by mobile systems, the Continent has only a small network of fiberoptic networks capable of carrying massive amounts of data.
The net result is a subpar internet infrastructure that is unable to support AI, this way delaying to an indefinite future the closing of the digital gap that today penalizes African economies.
The challenges are enormous. Very large capital investments will be needed to lay fiber optic cables across the Continent, and even more money will have to be allocated to create the additional electricity generation capacity necessary to power data centers.
Who can help? Multilateral development institutions like the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation should prioritize lending and investments in critical internet backbone infrastructure and additional data centers.
But the private sector should also join. It should look at this capacity gap in Africa as an incredible business opportunity. With targeted investments in fiber optics, data centers and additional power generation, it may be possible for Africa to leapfrog stages of development. With the support of AI, Africa may be able to move faster from chronic underdevelopment to modernity, adding $ 1.5 trillion to the Continent’s GDP by 2030, according to some estimates. With AI’s support, this potentially rich Continent that is projected to have 2.5 billion, mostly young, inhabitants by 2050 will become a full participant in the global economy.