For a brief stretch in mid-September, the world’s most powerful AI executives appeared to agree on something.Within days of one another, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind; Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft; and Elon Musk, CEO of xAI, said similar things: the technology they are building has become powerful enough that it needs stricter rules and oversight.Amodei put the urgency in stark terms, warning that in the several years Congress could take to act, AI could go from an amusing toy to a “full country of geniuses.”Altman has made a similar case since at least February, when he told the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi that the world urgently needs to regulate the rapidly evolving technology. He also proposed an international coordinating body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency.For a moment, it looked like a turning point. It is closer to a familiar pattern. The gap between what AI leaders say in public and what their companies do in state legislatures and courtrooms is where the real story lies.The apparent unity among AI CEOs does not last long when the details are examined. Even companies that agree regulation is necessary disagree sharply over what that regulation should look like.OpenAI wants a single federal law that would override the growing patchwork of state rules. Anthropic takes a different position on federal preemption, favouring state AI laws unless Congress passes rules that are at least as strong. It sees federal preemption as a floor to build on, rather than a ceiling that limits states.Google has taken a third position. Kent Walker, the company’s president of global affairs, argues that the choice is not simply between too much regulation and no regulation.Instead, Google has proposed a two-track approach built around an independent, federally overseen and industry-backed body. The body would set safety standards and verify voluntary audits of frontier AI models.So the headline agreement that AI needs rules quickly becomes a dispute over federal versus state authority, mandatory versus voluntary compliance, and who should write the standards in the first place.The bigger contradiction is between what AI companies say on stage and what they are funding behind the scenes.AI has become one of the fastest-growing lobbying categories in Washington. More than 850 companies now disclose AI-related lobbying, up from fewer than 250 in 2023. Combined industry spending is on track to exceed $900 million in 2026.Much of that spending is focused on opposing state-level rules that could fill the gap left by federal inaction.In New York, an AI industry political action committee called Leading the Future, backed by a $100 million fund from Greg Brockman, OpenAI president and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, released an attack ad against the state assemblyman who sponsored a bill requiring large AI companies to publish their safety and risk protocols.Days later, Kathy Hochul, New York Governor, moved to weaken the bill, just hours before President Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling state AI laws of this kind.Analysts tracking the pattern have raised questions about what this means. One assessment put it plainly: when people who profit from a technology say it is dangerous and ask for regulation, the likely outcome is regulation that they can live with.The same analysis notes that California’s SB 53, the one state AI bill that became binding law, passed when the industry was divided over it rather than united for or against it.That suggests an important pattern: a narrow bill facing a divided industry has a better chance of becoming law than a broad bill that receives unanimous industry support.While AI CEOs were calling for stronger guardrails, the US federal government was working to challenge rules already introduced at the state level.President Trump’s executive order established an AI Litigation Task Force within the Department of Justice. The task force was directed to challenge state AI laws in federal court on grounds that they could unconstitutionally burden interstate commerce or otherwise violate federal law.The order also directed the Federal Trade Commission to classify state-mandated bias mitigation as a per se deceptive trade practice.Washington has taken this position beyond US borders. At a G20 innovation ministerial in North Carolina, the United States pushed other governments to loosen AI restrictions.A technology adviser to President Trump called on countries to embrace the so-called Carolina Principles, which argue against regulations that target specific technologies.That position puts Washington on a different path from Brussels, where the EU AI Act is now in force and takes a more rules-based approach.Even close allies have struggled to agree on a common position. At a recent global summit, the United States and the United Kingdom both declined to sign a declaration on inclusive and sustainable AI that was endorsed by 60 other countries.
Read briefing Globally, citizens are increasingly ready for governments to embrace AI. Nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of global citizens now use AI at least weekly. At the same time, satisfaction with government digital services has fallen by 13 percentage points over the past decade, creating an opportunity for governments to use AI to improve how citizens interact with public services.These are among the findings of the latest publication from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Citizens Are Open to Public AI Services. Governments Must Seize the Opportunity. This eighth biennial Digital Government Citizen Survey Report is based on BCG’s largest survey to date, capturing the views of citizens across 44 countries that represent 88 per cent of OECD countries and approximately 70 per cent of the world’s population. In Africa, the survey included respondents from Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.BCG’s survey found that the Middle East and Africa remain the regions most comfortable with AI, despite a 9 per cent shift towards a more neutral view. Positive sentiment has dampened over the past two years, with the proportion of respondents viewing AI as a net positive declining from 59 per cent in 2024 to 50 per cent in 2026, though this remains well above the global average of 36 per cent. “Governments have a rare window to reshape how citizens experience public services,” said Miguel Carrasco, a BCG Managing Director and Senior Partner and co-author of the report. “People are increasingly open to AI. But they will judge success by whether services become simpler, faster, and easier to access.”The report highlights that citizens are increasingly comfortable with AI doing more than providing information – they want it to help deliver better public services. The survey finds growing support for AI to handle routine tasks, personalise services, and improve the citizen experience. As familiarity with AI grows, so does confidence: people with expert AI knowledge are almost seven times more likely to believe that its benefits outweigh its risks than those with no experience using the technology.In Kenya, net satisfaction with government digital services declined by five percentage points since 2024 to 64 per cent, although it remains just above the global average of 63 per cent, underscoring the progress that has been made in expanding access to and adoption of digital public services. At the same time, satisfaction is softening even as usage continues to climb. Digital government service adoption remains particularly strong at 49 per cent, well above the global average of 38 per cent and among the highest surveyed.Kenyan citizens rate government digital services almost on par with private-sector alternatives, with only a one-percentage-point gap between the two. This gap has changed little since 2024, suggesting that government has made limited progress in improving its relative performance. Only 12 per cent of users report experiencing no issues when interacting with digital government services, the lowest figure of any market surveyed and well below the global average of 30 per cent. This marks a modest four-percentage-point improvement since 2024.Kenyans are among the highest AI users with 87 per cent of respondents using AI weekly, well above the 64 per cent global average. AI proficiency is growing rapidly; 74 per cent of citizens identify themselves as AI proficient, eight-percentage-points higher than 2024 and well above the 63 per cent global average.Kenya is one of the most AI-optimistic markets with 57 per cent of respondents seeing AI’s benefits as greater than the risks.“Kenya stands out for the speed at which citizens have embraced both digital public services and AI,” said Takeshi Oikawa, Managing Director and Partner at BCG Nairobi. “However, increased adoption also raises expectations. Citizens are looking for services that are more reliable, easier to navigate and capable of delivering a consistently positive experience. The opportunity now is to translate strong digital engagement into stronger service outcomes.”While citizens increasingly support AI in government, they are not calling for fully autonomous public services. Nearly two-thirds of global respondents want human oversight for AI-enabled services, particularly when decisions become more complex or consequential.Citizens’ appetite for AI-driven public services also varies sharply by region. In the Middle East and Africa, nearly 8 in 10 respondents (78 per cent) say that they are comfortable with direct AI involvement in service delivery, the highest of any region surveyed. The region also exhibited the strongest support for AI agents, with one in three respondents describing themselves as comfortable with the use of autonomous AI agents for all sorts of tasks. Europe is the most cautious, as more than a third of citizens there prefer human-led services, with AI playing a supporting role only.Countries whose citizens believe that government AI adoption is progressing at about the right pace report significantly higher satisfaction with digital government services than countries whose citizens perceive them as lagging behind. At the same time, trust depends on visible accountability.
Read briefing If the initial rollout of Nigeria’s National Digital Cloud Policy was about vision, the conversation now unfolding is about arithmetic and accountability. As the excitement from last week’s launch by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy settles, attention among Abuja’s tech and policy circles is turning to a harder question: can the government actually enforce what it has just promised?The numbers alone justify the scrutiny. The policy is targeting $250 million in private sector investment within its first year, rising to $750 million by year two, capital earmarked for expanding domestic data centres and building out the country’s AI compute capacity.That is an aggressive curve for a market still working through grid reliability issues and inconsistent regulatory follow-through on past digital initiatives.What distinguishes this policy from earlier digital sovereignty efforts is its restraint. Rather than imposing blanket data localisation, a stance that has previously strained relationships with international cloud providers, the framework introduces a four-tier, risk-based data classification system.Only the most sensitive categories of state and regulated data will be subject to strict residency requirements, while lower-risk data can move more freely through global infrastructure.The approach amounts to a pragmatic recalibration, an attempt to keep global hyperscalers engaged while still asserting control where it matters most, a balance many African markets have struggled to strike.The most commercially consequential piece of the framework is the planned National Digital Marketplace, due to go live in the policy’s second phase, between months six and twelve.For years, Nigerian cloud and infrastructure startups have watched large government IT contracts flow almost exclusively to international vendors and entrenched legacy contractors. This structural disadvantage made it difficult to build the track record needed to compete for bigger deals.The marketplace is designed to reverse that dynamic by consolidating the fragmented procurement budgets of individual federal ministries into a single, centralised demand pool. In effect, government becomes an anchor customer for local providers, giving them the kind of predictable, guaranteed revenue that investors typically want to see before committing capital.If it works as designed, this could be the policy’s most durable contribution, less about the headline investment figures and more about giving domestic infrastructure players a viable path to scale.For government agencies themselves, the mood is less celebratory. The policy’s Cloud First mandate requires Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies to prioritise cloud-based solutions for any new digital system, with existing on premises infrastructure moved onto a structured migration timeline.Two enforcement mechanisms give the mandate teeth. The first is centralised procurement: MDAs lose the ability to independently purchase IT hardware or software, and all public sector cloud procurement must now route through Galaxy Backbone, the state-owned infrastructure provider, with oversight from the Bureau of Public Procurement.The second is compliance auditing: NITDA has been assigned to run ongoing audits against the 24-month roadmap, and agencies or providers that miss deadlines or attempt to bypass the marketplace face sanctions, contract invalidation, and penalties enforced through a dedicated ministerial committee.This is a notable departure from the largely aspirational language of past digital transformation frameworks in Nigeria, which have often lacked binding consequences for non-compliance.On the investment side, the policy pairs its compliance demands with tangible incentives, including duty exemptions on data centre equipment and targeted support for clean energy adoption, aimed squarely at the power reliability problems that have long inflated the cost of running infrastructure in Nigeria.A unified digital certification platform, expected by October 2026, is meant to simplify what has historically been a fragmented approval process spanning NITDA, the Nigerian Communications Commission, and the Central Bank of Nigeria.Nothing in the policy’s architecture is being seriously disputed by the tech and investment community that gathered in Abuja last week. The tiered data model, the marketplace mechanism, and the fiscal incentives are all being described as well considered.The open question is delivery. Three execution risks stand out heading into Phase 1.The first is speed: whether the 12-month and 24-month funding targets are realistic given historical delays in Nigerian infrastructure rollouts.The second is transparency: whether the promised tax and duty incentives are administered predictably enough for investors to underwrite projects against them.The third is enforcement follow-through: whether NITDA’s audit function and the ministerial sanctions regime are actually applied when agencies or providers fall short, rather than becoming another underused compliance clause.
Read briefing Vertiv has entered into a distribution partnership with Pinnacle ICT that will expand access to its power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.The partnership will see Pinnacle ICT distribute selected Vertiv solutions to traditional channel partners, systems integrators, managed service providers and enterprise customers. Selected products will also be made available through online retail channels for organisations looking to procure standard infrastructure products.The agreement comes as organisations across the region continue investing in data centres, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing and broader digital transformation initiatives, increasing demand for supporting power and cooling infrastructure.“Our distribution partnership with Pinnacle ICT extends the reach of Vertiv’s portfolio through a well-established channel organisation with the technical expertise, market presence and partner ecosystem needed to help customers across the region to enable current and future digitalisation needs,” explains Henry Myburgh, senior regional account manager: Southern Africa at Vertiv.Pinnacle ICT said the partnership forms part of its strategy to expand its enterprise technology portfolio and respond to changing infrastructure requirements among organisations in the region.“As organisations continue investing in AI, cloud, edge computing and digital transformation across the SADC region, they are increasingly looking for integrated infrastructure solutions rather than individual technologies. Vertiv is recognised globally as a leader in critical digital infrastructure, offering solutions spanning power protection and distribution, thermal management, racks and enclosures, as well as infrastructure monitoring and management, making it an excellent fit for our enterprise portfolio,” says Richard Lace, business unit manager at Pinnacle ICT.Under the partnership, Pinnacle ICT will provide services including pre-sales consulting, infrastructure design, solution architecture, product sizing, technical enablement and logistics, alongside ongoing support for channel partners.The companies said the distribution arrangement will serve organisations across sectors including government, financial services, healthcare, education, mining, cloud services, managed services and data centre operations.The partnership also reflects the growing infrastructure requirements associated with AI workloads. AI deployments can place greater demands on data centre power, thermal management and physical infrastructure, making these components an increasingly important part of organisations’ digital infrastructure strategies.“We see significant long-term potential for this partnership,” Lace concludes. “Our focus is on building a Vertiv partner ecosystem across the SADC region through investment in skills, technical enablement and channel development, while helping our channel partners to gain from growing opportunities in AI-ready infrastructure and digital transformation.”
Read briefing Egypt is partnering with Intel on a national artificial intelligence (AI) skills initiative that aims to train one million citizens annually over the next three years. The programme, formalised through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and Intel, will focus on expanding AI literacy, developing technical skills and promoting the responsible use of AI.The initiative forms part of Egypt’s wider efforts to build a workforce capable of developing and deploying AI technologies as the country expands its digital economy. The MOU was signed by Hoda Baraka, advisor to the ICT minister for technology talent development and acting director of the Egyptian Centre for Responsible AI, and Taha Khalifa, Intel’s general manager for the Middle East and Africa.According to MCIT, the programme will target different groups through a range of capacity-building and upskilling initiatives. These will include foundational AI training and creative-thinking programmes for young people, as well as training designed to improve the labour-market readiness of technical and university students. Employees and job-seekers will also have access to reskilling and upskilling opportunities, while government leaders will receive training focused on technology-enabled decision-making.The programme will also include a Training of Trainers component, with plans to train 1,500 trainers over three years. The initiative will target 500 trainers annually, with the aim of supporting the continued delivery of AI education through local training and educational institutions. The collaboration comes as Egypt implements the second edition of its National AI Strategy, covering the 2025–2030 period. The strategy seeks to expand the use of AI and increase its economic and social impact.ICT Minister Raafat Hendy said AI is becoming an important factor in economic competitiveness, with applications spanning development and public services. Egypt has also set a target of developing 30,000 specialists in deep-tech and AI by 2030. The country expects the ICT sector’s contribution to GDP to reach 7.7% by the same year.The government has increasingly placed skills development at the centre of its digital transformation plans, reflecting the growing demand for professionals who can work with emerging technologies and apply them across different sectors. The AI training programme will also place emphasis on responsible technology use. MCIT said awareness of the opportunities and risks associated with AI will be incorporated into the training rather than treating responsible AI as a separate area of study.Baraka said the partnership would support efforts to improve understanding of AI applications among different sections of society and help people identify practical ways of using the technology. The initiative will be delivered through Intel’s “AI for Citizens” programme, which is intended to provide accessible AI education to a wider population.Gisselle Ruiz Lanza, Intel’s general manager for EMEA, said the collaboration reflects a shared objective of making AI more accessible and practical. Beyond general AI literacy, the agreement also includes technical workshops covering Intel’s AI infrastructure and computing technologies. The sessions are expected to contribute to the development of local expertise in the infrastructure required to support AI applications.The scale of the programme places Egypt’s AI skills development efforts within a broader push across Africa to expand digital capabilities and prepare workers and public institutions for increased adoption of AI.
Read briefing Dashen Bank and Visa have signed a five-year agreement to expand digital payments in Ethiopia, the two companies announced in Addis Ababa on 16 September 2026.The partnership covers growing digital payment acceptance, expanding card issuance, strengthening cross-border payment capabilities and introducing new payment products, according to the announcement, though the companies did not disclose financial terms.Dashen Bank is one of Ethiopia’s private financial institutions, operating a nationwide network of branches, merchants and digital banking channels, the reach Visa will be plugging its payments infrastructure into as the two companies build out the partnership.Asfaw Alemu, CEO of Dashen Bank, said: “At Dashen Bank, innovation and customer value are at the heart of everything we do. This strategic partnership with Visa strengthens our ability to provide world-class payment solutions that are secure, convenient and accessible to more Ethiopians. Together, we will expand access to digital payments, enhance the customer experience and contribute to Ethiopia’s ongoing digital transformation by enabling individuals and businesses to participate more fully in the modern economy.”Yared Woldesenbet, Cluster Head for Eastern Africa and Country Manager for Ethiopia at Visa, described the deal as part of the company’s wider strategy for the country: “This agreement with Dashen Bank marks an important milestone in Visa’s commitment to advancing the future of payments in Ethiopia. By combining Visa’s global network, innovation capabilities and deep payments expertise with Dashen Bank’s strong market presence and customer reach, we will accelerate the adoption of secure digital payments, support financial inclusion and create new opportunities for consumers, businesses and the broader economy.”
Read briefing Artificial Intelligence (AI) is giving data professionals faster ways to write code, generate queries, prepare documentation, and work through technical problems. For junior talent in particular, that creates opportunities to learn and contribute more quickly. However, it also introduces a skills risk when the ability to use AI develops faster than the experience needed to judge its output.“AI fluency and data competence are not the same thing,” says Andreas Bartsch, Head of Innovation and Services at PBT Group. “Someone can be very comfortable using an AI tool and still lack the experience needed to recognise when an answer looks technically sound but is actually wrong, incomplete, or unsuitable for the business context.”For organisations building data capability, this changes the skills conversation. Teaching people how to use AI tools is increasingly important, but that training needs to sit alongside the foundations that enable a Data Specialist to test assumptions, challenge outputs, and understand the systems and data behind them.Bartsch has spent three decades working in the data industry and has seen successive generations of technology change how data teams work. The move from on-premises environments to cloud platforms, along with IoT, event-driven capabilities, and modern data architectures, required people to learn new technologies. The underlying disciplines remained relevant.Experienced data engineers and analysts could often move between platforms because their knowledge was not tied to one product or tool.“AI is another major change in the technology available to us, but it does not remove the need to understand data. The fundamentals give people something to reason from when the technology changes,” says Bartsch.Those foundations include practical skills such as SQL and data modelling, together with an understanding of how data moves through pipelines and how reliability is tested. Numerical aptitude, logical reasoning, troubleshooting, and problem-solving are equally important because they help specialists recognise when an output needs to be questioned.AI can generate a query. The specialist still needs to understand whether it is efficient, whether the joins make sense, whether the underlying assumptions are valid, and whether the result addresses the business problem.The challenge is particularly relevant for younger data professionals. Many are comfortable experimenting with AI and can become productive with new tools very quickly. What takes longer to develop is the experience that helps somebody recognise when a plausible answer should not be trusted.A junior engineer still needs to understand why a data model was designed in a certain way, what happens when assumptions inside a pipeline change, and how data quality affects the result.Without that grounding, AI can create confidence before professional judgement has had time to develop. Bartsch says organisations should not respond by discouraging junior employees from using AI.“The opportunity is to develop AI fluency alongside strong data foundations. Junior professionals should be encouraged to use these tools, but they also need enough understanding to interrogate the output and take responsibility for the work they put forward,” he says.There is another side to the skills gap. Senior data professionals often bring the experience needed to challenge AI-generated work, while some may be more hesitant to adopt AI capabilities themselves. Bringing those strengths together gives teams an opportunity to develop younger specialists without losing the judgement built through experience.At PBT Group, AI-enablement extends beyond teaching consultants how to use available tools. Internal guidance emphasises protecting confidential information, understanding the business context, verifying AI-generated output, and taking ownership of work presented to a client or colleague.“As soon as you put your name to an output, you own it. AI can help you get there faster, but the responsibility for checking the logic, understanding the context, and deciding whether the result is reliable remains with the person doing the work,” says Bartsch.This places greater emphasis on how organisations develop data talent. AI literacy belongs in the toolkit, alongside the disciplines that allow specialists to assess quality, understand architecture and governance, and work through a problem when the obvious answer does not hold.As AI makes some routine technical work easier and faster to produce, the value of a Data Specialist shifts further towards architecture, data integrity, governance, and business understanding.Data professionals will increasingly be expected to know how to use AI and when to challenge it. For Bartsch, that is the standard organisations should build towards.“The strongest Data Specialists will be people who are comfortable using AI and understand its output well enough to question it. Speed is useful, but only when it is supported by the competence needed to know whether the result can be trusted,” concludes Bartsch.
Read briefing More than 400 developers, entrepreneurs, technology professionals, students and innovators gathered at Strathmore University for ClawCon Nairobi, an event focused on the emerging use of personal AI assistants and autonomous AI agents.The inaugural conference centred on OpenClaw, an open-source personal AI assistant that can run on a user’s computer, server or cloud environment and, with the necessary permissions, connect to selected communication channels, applications and digital services. The discussions reflected a broader shift in artificial intelligence from systems designed primarily to answer questions towards AI agents capable of carrying out tasks, automating repetitive processes and coordinating activities across digital platforms.Unlike conventional chatbots, personal AI systems can be configured around the needs of individual users or organisations. This allows them to support specific workflows, including research, information management, software development, content preparation and recurring administrative activities. Developer and OpenClaw community member Frank Odongkara said the technology could offer an accessible way for African entrepreneurs, professionals and students to increase their productivity.“OpenClaw is an exciting technology leap for African entrepreneurs, professionals, and students. It’s now possible to have an intelligent, personal assistant in your WhatsApp DM that is just yours alone. And it costs next to nothing,” he said.Hosted by First Circle Capital Partner Agnes Aistleitner, ClawCon Nairobi brought together participants from different parts of Kenya’s technology ecosystem, including developers, founders, researchers, creators and business operators. Demonstrations and discussions at the event examined how personal AI agents could be applied to everyday work and business operations, as well as how developers can use the technology to build new products.The interest in personal AI also points to a broader change in how artificial intelligence is being approached in Kenya. Rather than simply adopting AI products developed elsewhere, developers and businesses are increasingly exploring how AI systems can be adapted to specific markets and local requirements.“Interest is no longer limited to using AI products developed elsewhere. Increasingly, developers and businesses are looking at how these technologies can be built, adapted and applied to local needs,” Ms. Aistleitner said.OpenClaw was created by Austrian software developer and entrepreneur Peter Steinberger, who previously founded document technology company PSPDFKit. What started as a personal project has grown into an open-source community involving developers, entrepreneurs, researchers and users exploring personal AI applications.For African entrepreneurs and small businesses, the appeal of personal AI lies partly in the ability to automate routine work without requiring large teams or complex technology infrastructure. An AI assistant configured around a user’s workflow could support administrative tasks, research and information management, among other activities. This could be particularly relevant for smaller businesses where founders and employees often handle multiple functions and have limited resources to dedicate to repetitive tasks.“ClawCon Nairobi highlighted a fundamental change in the way people are thinking about AI. The question is increasingly shifting from what artificial intelligence can generate to what it can actually do,” Ms. Aistleitner added.The development of personal AI also raises questions around permissions, data access and security as these systems become more capable of interacting with applications and communication platforms. The ability to perform tasks on a user’s behalf makes controls over what an AI agent can access and execute an important consideration for organisations adopting the technology.As personal AI develops, it could increasingly become an interface between users and the digital tools they rely on, changing how individuals approach routine work and how businesses automate processes and develop new digital products.
Read briefing As organisations move from experimenting with artificial intelligence to embedding it in business operations, the question is increasingly shifting from whether they should use AI to whether they can trust the systems they are putting into production.New research from SAS, with insights from IDC, suggests that the answer could have a significant bearing on the financial returns organisations achieve from their AI investments. The second annual Data and AI Impact Report: The New Economics of Trust found that organisations applying trustworthy AI practices were 15 times more likely to report strong or high returns on investment from their AI projects.The finding points to a broader issue facing technology leaders. AI adoption is no longer simply about acquiring models or deploying new applications. Organisations also need the governance, data quality, oversight and accountability structures required to ensure that those systems can be relied upon.The report, based on a survey of 2,699 decision-makers across 28 countries and four industries, found a substantial gap between organisations that have established trustworthy AI practices and those that have not. Organisations investing in trustworthy AI measures were 15 times more likely to report strong or high ROI, at 62% compared with 4% among those with weaker practices. That difference suggests that trust is not necessarily a constraint on AI adoption. Instead, the research indicates that the processes organisations put around AI can influence how effectively they turn deployments into business value.“When AI works, it’s incredibly impactful,” said Bryan Harris, CTO at SAS. “However, it is well documented that state-of-the-art agents can have error rates that exceed 25% on complex tasks – which is unacceptable in high-stakes decision-making. In order to achieve accuracy and repeatability, organisations must embed domain expertise into agentic workflows, while keeping people at the centre of governance and oversight. Organisations that do this successfully will close the trust gap and gain a competitive advantage in the market with AI.”The challenge becomes more pronounced as organisations move towards agentic AI, where systems can perform increasingly complex tasks with less direct human intervention. According to the report, trust in AI falls from 76% for generative AI to 66% for agentic AI. At the same time, 97.2% of users globally override AI-generated recommendations in at least some cases. The leading reason for those overrides is a lack of explanation for how the AI arrived at its decision.This creates a practical problem for enterprises. An AI system may produce an apparently useful recommendation, but if employees cannot understand why the recommendation was made, they may be reluctant to act on it. Repeatedly overriding AI also undermines one of the principal reasons organisations deploy the technology in the first place: improving productivity and decision-making at scale. The report notes that manual corrections resulting from a lack of trust can consume time, reduce productivity and affect profitability.For technology leaders, explainability therefore becomes more than a technical feature. It becomes part of the operational relationship between employees and AI systems.“As AI becomes more autonomous, organisations face a new challenge: maintaining confidence in systems people don’t fully understand,” said Chris Marshall, Vice President at IDC. “Our findings show that stronger oversight, explainability, accountability and data foundations are becoming prerequisites for scaling AI successfully.”The report also highlights a less visible part of the AI trust problem: the quality and maturity of the data infrastructure supporting these systems. Only 17.5% of enterprises surveyed have fully optimised data infrastructure considered mature enough for the demands of agentic AI. Organisations with an optimised data foundation were four times more likely to expect strong ROI from AI projects and six times more likely to mandate the data quality and explainability controls required to build trust.This reinforces a familiar challenge for CIOs. AI systems can only operate within the constraints of the data, processes and governance surrounding them. Deploying increasingly sophisticated models on fragmented, outdated or poorly governed data can therefore create a mismatch between the sophistication of the technology and the reliability of the decisions it produces.Trustworthy AI consequently begins well before a model reaches production. It involves establishing confidence in the underlying data, defining who is accountable for AI-driven decisions and putting controls in place to monitor how systems behave.The report defines trustworthy AI across five dimensions: data quality and governance; model governance and oversight; explainability and fairness; responsible AI policy; and audit and accountability. Organisations classified as trustworthy AI leaders achieved an average score of at least 80 out of 100 across these dimensions.
Read briefing Kenya’s High Court has nullified Vodacom’s purchase of a 15 per cent government stake in Safaricom, ordering the shares returned to the state, a ruling that unwinds a transaction Vodacom had already closed and folded into its ownership structure months earlier.A three-judge bench of the High Court’s Constitutional and Human Rights Division ruled that the process used to divest the government’s shareholding in Safaricom breached the Constitution and several statutes governing the disposal of public assets, ordering that the stake be restored to the government.Parliament had one condition for approving the sale: the money had to go into the National Infrastructure Fund, money meant to be ring-fenced strictly for infrastructure projects. But the court found two problems. First, the National Assembly report referred to the National Infrastructure Fund Bill No. 1 of 2026, rather than specifically referring to the National Infrastructure Fund Act, which came into force on March 25, 2026. Second, the actual law gives the fund’s board a lot of freedom in how it spends the money. That freedom means the money isn’t as protected as Parliament thought.Separately, the judges found that the government had failed to hold robust public consultations, that the pricing framework used to value Safaricom was arbitrary, and that the competition implications of what amounted to a takeover had not been properly considered.The petitioners, led by Tony Gachoka and Professor Fredrick Ogola, filed in early 2026, arguing the sale was an unlawful disposal of a strategic national asset. They also attacked the KES 34-per-share price itself. The High Court froze the sale in May, on grounds touching national security, data sovereignty, public participation and prudent use of public resources, despite the deal already having parliamentary approval and clearance from the COMESA Competition Commission.That freeze didn’t hold. The Court of Appeal in Nairobi granted the Attorney General’s application to lift the conservatory order on June 26, 2026, and the acquisition was completed four days later, taking Vodacom’s effective shareholding in Safaricom to 55 per cent. On June 30, the government sold just over six billion shares, 15per cent of Safaricom , to Vodafone Kenya at KES 34 each in a single block trade, raising KES 204.3 billion (about USD 1.58 billion). It also drew KES 40.2 billion (about USD 310 million) as an advance on dividends from the 20per cent it kept, bringing Treasury’s total take to KES 244.5 billion (about USD 1.89 billion). Vodacom separately bought out Vodafone International Holdings’ remaining 12per cent stake in Vodafone Kenya the same day ,the move that took its effective interest in Safaricom from 35per cent to 55per cent.Now that’s reversed, at least on paper. The government has said it will appeal to the Court of Appeal, but the High Court declined to suspend the judgment immediately, and Vodacom has said only that it will review the judgment and its implications. Safaricom’s shares dipped when the ruling came out, but recovered by the end of Tuesday’s trading, closing at around KES 36.50, above the KES 34 the state had accepted for the stake in June. That suggests investors aren’t betting on a clean reversal. They seem to think either the ruling gets paused on appeal, or that unwinding a deal this large, already completed, just isn’t realistic.However, despite all this, the 25 per cent of Safaricom held by ordinary investors on the Nairobi Securities Exchange was never part of the sale and isn’t touched by this ruling, this is specifically about the government-to-Vodacom leg of the deal.
Read briefing AI interactive content company Flam has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by QED Investors as it looks to expand its platform and grow its enterprise business globally.The round also included Claypond Capital, Martin Chavez, Olivier Pomel, Venky Harinarayan and Shah Rukh Khan, while existing investors RTP Global and Dovetail also participated. Flam said the new capital will be used to further develop its AI models, expand its product offering and increase its enterprise sales operations.The company said it has signed more than 100 enterprise customers over the past six quarters, including Google, Emirates and KFC. Its platform is used for applications including marketing, product visualisation, learning and development, entertainment, customer engagement, customer support and sales.Flam’s technology focuses on interactive digital content, including interactive video, 3D experiences and AI-powered digital characters. Its products are designed to allow users to interact with digital content rather than simply consume it. The company is also developing AI-powered “Visual Agents”, which are designed to interact with users through voice and video and perform tasks based on conversations.“Flam is built on a simple observation. Content has moved in waves, from text to images to video, and every wave flowed one way, creator to viewer. We think interactive is the next default for the internet. The demand was always there. The technology wasn’t. We have made interactivity effortless to build and deploy at enterprise scale,” Shourya Agarwal, Founder of Flam, said.The company said it currently holds more than 15 patents and operates across several interactive content formats, including video, 3D content and AI-generated visual experiences. The funding comes as generative AI continues to change how companies create and deliver digital content, with businesses increasingly experimenting with interactive media, personalised experiences and AI-generated assets.“Almost every frontier AI content company we see is optimizing what already exists. Flam pointed at something else: how much of the content ecosystem is still untouched. That gap is bigger than most people think, and Flam is the first team we’ve seen with the infrastructure to go after it,” Nigel Morris, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at QED Investors, said.Flam is also expanding its presence in African markets. In Nigeria, the company is working with SmartSense Technologies as its exclusive partner, targeting brands, agencies and publishers interested in interactive content.“Nigeria has one of the sharpest, most mobile-first audiences in the world. Interactive content holds attention because people aren’t just watching, they’re part of it. Our network brings that experience directly to African brands, agencies, and publishers, at the same standard Flam delivers to global names,” Dr. Seyi, CEO of SmartSense Technologies, said.The Nigerian partnership comes as businesses and media companies across Africa continue to increase their use of mobile and digital platforms to reach consumers. Flam plans to direct the new funding towards further development of its AI models and products while expanding its enterprise operations into additional global markets.
Read briefing The world risks creating a new global divide between AI “haves” and “have-nots,” warns GSMA. Not unless urgent action is taken to address the digital divide and make smartphones affordable for billions of people in low- and middle-income countries.AI may be transforming economies and societies, but its incredible benefits will remain out of reach for more than 3.4 billion people who still do not use mobile internet. This, despite more than 90 per cent of them already living within mobile broadband coverage. Without affordable smartphones, these people will remain unable to benefit from the AI revolution, stated GSMA during its launch of the State of Mobile Internet Connectivity (SOMIC) Report 2026.The report highlights a growing threat to digital inclusion: a sharp increase in the cost of smartphone memory and chipsets, driven by global demand for AI infrastructure and data centres. These rising component costs are already feeding through into entry-level smartphone prices, placing internet access further beyond the reach of low-income consumers and threatening years of progress in closing the mobile usage gap.The GSMA is calling on chipset and memory manufacturers to take meaningful steps to increase availability of affordable components for entry-level handsets, in order to avoid a large portion of the population in emerging economies behind completely left out of the digital economy. They further encourage these companies to enter in a dialogue with the wider mobile ecosystem, policymakers and multilateral financial institutions to identify solutions and bring affordable connectivity within reach of millions.Vivek Badrinath, Director General of the GSMA said it best. “AI has the potential to improve lives on an unprecedented scale, but AI is meaningless if people cannot get online in the first place. The greatest risk is not simply an AI divide between countries, but between people who can afford to participate in the digital economy and those who cannot,” adding that “Unless we protect the affordability of entry-level smartphones, billions of people risk being excluded from the next generation of digital services before they have even had the opportunity to experience the internet.”Current memory price increases make this a clear and present danger. “Preventing that outcome requires coordinated action from policymakers, mobile operators, device manufacturers and component suppliers alike. We call upon all parties to mobilise all possible tools, both on the production side and on the distribution and taxation areas, and to take measures to ease reuse of devices,” underscored Badrinath.The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2026 shows that 4.8 billion people now use mobile internet on their own device. Even so, growth is slowing. Around 160 million people came online in 2025, down from 190 million the previous year, while 3.1 billion people continue to live within the footprint of mobile broadband networks but do not use mobile internet, hence the “usage gap”. The majority of this group still does not own an internet-enabled device.The report identifies handset affordability as the single biggest barrier to mobile internet adoption across surveyed low- and middle-income countries, followed by a lack of digital skills. By the end of 2025, an entry-level internet-enabled handset cost the poorest 20 per cent of people in LMICs the equivalent of 44 per cent of their average monthly income, rising to 76 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa with these costs expected to dramatically rise due to increases in memory costs.Until a year ago, reducing the price of entry-level smartphones to $30 could make devices affordable for almost 1.6 billion people, while reaching a $20 price point could make them affordable for around 2.2 billion people currently living within mobile broadband coverage. However, the report warns that, despite the efforts of operators and manufacturers, including the GSMA’s own Handset Affordability Coalition, achieving those price points is today out of reach as memory costs continue to rise. Previous GSMA analysis estimates that closing the mobile usage gap would generate $3.5 trillion in additional GDP between 2023 and 2030, with more than 90 per cent of those benefits flowing to low- and middle-income countries.
Read briefing The Gates Foundation today announced plans to spend at least $1 billion over the next two years to expand access to AI and the AI-enabled solutions, opportunities, and knowledge that have too often been out of reach for many around the world. The announcement comes as the foundation launches its 10th annual Goalkeepers Report, which this year focuses on the urgent actions needed to ensure that AI helps narrow gaps between the richest and poorest rather than widening them.The 2026 report, Make This Matter: AI, Equity, and the Choice We Can’t Delay, makes the case that AI’s trajectory is not fixed. The window to influence who benefits, and how soon, is short. The report includes examples of foundation-supported partners that are already changing lives using AI in clinics and classrooms and on small farms.“The Gates Foundation was created in part to address a basic market failure: the people with the greatest needs often have the least power to shape where innovation and investment go,” writes Bill Gates, Chair, Gates Foundation in the report. “Much of our work has been about closing that gap. AI presents the same challenge, only at much greater speed. Left to the market alone, the most capable tools will be built first for the people and institutions most able to pay for them—not necessarily for those who could benefit most.”This commitment comes at a time when there are calls to slow down of AI developments. We are living at a time of unprecedented AI growth, and there is growing concern that AI is increasingly benefitting the elite, leaving those most in need of it, falling behind. The Goalkeepers Report identifies three areas where action now could help AI improve lives and livelihoods for more people in the years ahead:Equitable access to the benefits of AI will not happen unaided. But, if AI tools are built with the expertise of the end users, they can put knowledge and advice in the hands of hundreds of millions of people who haven’t benefited from previous technology revolutions.The funding will support partners already working to close the gaps in access to AI and to ensure that AI tools reflect the knowledge and priorities of the people who need them most. The $1 billion is set to help scale the work of those partners over the next two years, with the funding distributed roughly as follows across the foundation’s priority areas:Behind each of these data points, the report acknowledges, “is a make-or-break moment for a family: a diagnosis made or missed, a harvest saved or lost, a child who learns to read or doesn’t. AI is arriving at a moment when conflict is growing, diseases are surging, and resources are constrained.”The foundation is looking to work on this with others, calling on those who share the goal of making AI more useful, accessible, and affordable to invest their resources and expertise and use their voices. “We can harness AI for good. But it won’t happen by accident,” says Gates. “It requires a deliberate, specific commitment from government leaders and the companies developing the technology: to measure success not only by what AI can do for the most profitable users but by what it can do for the people who stand the most to gain.”
Read briefing Nigeria has commissioned a new headquarters for the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) in Abuja, providing the data protection regulator with a permanent facility as its responsibilities expand alongside the country’s growing digital economy.The facility, which had previously been recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was allocated to the NDPC, with renovation work beginning in March 2026. The commission received approval for the property in July 2025. The new headquarters was commissioned on Monday in Abuja by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani.Tijani said the facility addresses the NDPC’s growing operational requirements and the need for an office that reflects its expanding role in Nigeria’s digital economy.“The President directed that a property of this size that was recovered from the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission be allocated to NDPC,” the minister said adding that the conversion of the property into a government facility demonstrated how recovered public assets could be put to productive use.“An asset that is recovered on behalf of the Nigerian people has been returned to productive use for the protection of Nigerian people. A property once associated with the consequence of corruption is today becoming the headquarters of an institution dedicated to protecting Nigerians and strengthening trust in our digital economy”, Tijani said.The commissioning comes as data protection becomes increasingly important to Nigeria’s digital transformation, with government services, businesses and other organisations collecting and processing growing volumes of personal information. Tijani also highlighted the increasing role of artificial intelligence in the economy and the need for stronger safeguards around the use of data.“As our digital economy expands, as more government services become digital, as more Nigerian businesses use data to create value, and particularly as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in our economy and society, questions around privacy, data governance, trust, and the responsible use of technology will continue to become more important,” he said.The NDPC was established in 2022 and received a stronger statutory mandate following the enactment of the Nigeria Data Protection Act in 2023. Since then, the commission has expanded its regulatory and awareness activities across the country.Speaking at the commissioning, NDPC National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer Vincent Olatunji said the agency began operations with about 12 employees and limited resources. According to Olatunji, the commission has since licensed 356 Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs), which support organisations in meeting data protection requirements.“Through the activities of these DPCOs and our own work, we were able to create 27,000-plus jobs within three years,” he said.Olatunji further said that the commission had generated more than $9 million (N12 billion) in revenue over three years, while the wider data privacy and protection ecosystem was worth more than $14 million (N18 billion). The regulator has also expanded its focus on data protection awareness and skills development. More than 66,000 Nigerians have enrolled in the NDPC’s virtual privacy academy, while 220 training programmes have reached 99,370 people.The commission has established 17 data privacy clubs in universities and created 6,176 student ambassadors, with its wider awareness programmes reaching more than 250,000 Nigerians. The NDPC has also increased its international engagement, with representatives from 17 countries visiting Nigeria over the past two years to learn from its regulatory experience. The commission has signed 28 memoranda of understanding with organisations and data protection authorities in countries including Canada, Morocco, Liberia, Kenya and Ghana.The new headquarters provides the commission with additional space as it takes on a wider regulatory role across Nigeria’s public and private sectors.With businesses increasingly adopting cloud services, artificial intelligence and digital platforms, the NDPC is expected to play a greater role in setting data governance standards and overseeing how personal information is collected, processed and protected across the country.
Read briefing Across Africa, the most consequential uses of AI do not look like a chatbot. They look like a forecast that warns a nutrition team months before a crisis, a satellite map that shows a planner how land use is changing, a drought assessment that reaches a ministry in time to act. Most of this work runs on data that has nothing to do with language: imagery, health records, weather.Yet whether any of it changes a person’s decision often comes down to language. One in six people worldwide has now used a generative AI product, according to Microsoft’s 2025 AI Diffusion Report, and Africa has about 1.5 billion people and more than 1,500 languages, yet most AI models were trained mainly on English and a handful of other global tongues. A farmer looking for planting advice in Dholuo, or a mother seeking health guidance in Amharic, may find that today’s systems cannot speak to them. Language is not everything in Africa’s AI story, but without it, everything else struggles to arrive.Encouraging progress is being made, and much is led from within the continent. LINGUA Africa, an initiative of the Masakhane African Languages Hub with the Gates Foundation, the Microsoft AI for Good Lab and Google.org, funds open datasets, speech resources and practical language tools. Its recent call, designed to strengthen the language foundations needed for inclusive AI in Africa, drew more than 800 applications from 64 countries, 85 per cent of them African. The 26 selected projects span more than 50 African languages across 47 countries. Examples include Arusha Technical College’s work to build an open, community-led Tanzanian Sign Language resource, and Efficience Globale’s project in Guinea to make vaccination information accessible in Soussou, Pular and Maninka.Voice matters as much as text on a continent with strong oral traditions. Microsoft Research Africa’s Paza project is improving speech recognition for low-resource languages, with a benchmark covering 39 African languages and new models for Swahili and five Kenyan languages, tested with farmers on ordinary mobile phones, amid patchy connectivity and background noise.Yet fluency is not the same as usefulness. A system can answer a farmer in fluent Kikuyu and still provide a recommendation that makes no sense for the soil, the season or the family budget. Language opens the door, but trust depends on whether the advice reflects agriculture’s complex, local realities.Data scarcity in Africa is not only a shortage of examples. It also means missing communities, outdated maps, and records that capture only the people who managed to reach a clinic. Train a model on data like that and it quietly inherits the same blind spots. Locally led data collection, documentation and long-term stewardship deserve as much investment as the models themselves. At the same time, scarcity is no reason to stand still: African innovation should be designed to work in today’s conditions, rather than waiting for perfect datasets (and compute capabilities) that may never arrive.At Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, where my team works on food security, public health, environmental monitoring and humanitarian response, we try to start from the decision that needs to improve rather than from a model we are eager to apply. In Kenya, together with Amref Health Africa and the Ministry of Health, we combined routine health records with satellite measurements of vegetation to forecast acute childhood malnutrition up to six months in advance. It is a promising proof of concept, not yet proof of healthier children; that takes deployment, evaluation and time.Our geospatial work follows the same logic. With the Kenya Space Agency we built land-use maps tuned to local landscapes, and found that locally trained models can beat global, one-size-fits-all ones. Our work on building density and height from satellite imagery, including settlement growth around a refugee camp in Chad, provides critical information humanitarian planners need. Combined with population and cellular coverage data, this helps build connectivity maps that identify communities unlikely to receive early warnings disseminated through current digital infrastructure.For AI solutions to deliver lasting impact, local institutions must own their development, deployment and long-term stewardship. To this end, we coordinated the launch of ADAPT-Kenya, a national initiative led by Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and supported by the Gates Foundation and Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab. By convening nearly 50 partners, ADAPT-Kenya fosters the co-creation of AI-powered agricultural data products that integrate local knowledge with satellite observations to enhance crop monitoring, improve harvest forecasting, strengthen market access and trade, expand insurance services, and support disaster risk reduction.The design has already been tested in an emergency. When drought hit the maize-harvesting counties of Kenya this season, ADAPT partners, including NASA Harvest, came together to assess conditions and give decision-makers a timely picture of the harvest. The team plans to do the same through the coming El Niño season, when decision-makers will again need timely insight for timely decisions.
Read briefing ASK Tech Ventures has launched ODIGO CMS in Africa, bringing a digital platform for managing field operations, distributed teams and activities across multiple locations.The platform is designed to give businesses a central system for planning field activities, managing workforces, recording activity and generating reports. It targets sectors and operations involving sales representatives, promoters, merchandisers, field agents and other teams working across different locations.The launch comes as African businesses increasingly use digital tools to manage operations as they expand across markets. However, the adoption of technology for business processes remains uneven across the continent. According to the GSMA, mobile technologies contributed $240 billion to Africa’s economy in 2025, equivalent to 7.8% of the continent’s GDP. In Kenya, the information and communication sector grew by 4.8% in 2025, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.At the same time, World Bank research has found that African firms continue to lag businesses in other regions in their intensity of digital technology use, despite evidence linking digital adoption with improvements in productivity, sales and employment. ODIGO CMS is aimed at one aspect of this challenge, providing businesses with greater visibility over activities taking place outside their central offices.“As businesses scale, the distance between the person making the decision and the person executing it becomes a real management challenge,” said Vikas Mehta, Founder and CEO, ASK Tech Ventures.The platform brings together planning, workforce management, field activity, evidence collection and reporting in one system. It can be used for sales and distribution, retail execution, brand activations, merchandising, field research and audits. For businesses operating across multiple cities or countries, such systems can provide managers with information on where activities are taking place, when they occur and whether they have met predefined requirements.“We are bringing ODIGO to Africa because we see a very practical opportunity to give businesses greater visibility and control over that last mile of execution. The objective is simple: help management move from assumptions and fragmented reports to better information and better decisions,” Mehta added.ODIGO CMS was developed by TalentBridge Technologies and has previously been deployed in markets in South and Southeast Asia. ASK Tech Ventures is working with TalentBridge to introduce the platform to African businesses and partners.Gaurav Shukla, Founder of TalentBridge Technologies, said, “TalentBridge is committed to taking ODIGO beyond the markets where it was first developed and building a truly global platform. We have worked with the team at ASK to make sure the platform is ready for Africa and are excited about its potential. Africa represents an important next chapter for ODIGO, and ASK is the right partner to help us realise that opportunity.”The initial focus will be on businesses with substantial field operations, with ASK Tech Ventures and TalentBridge Technologies working with local companies and partners as the platform is introduced to different African markets.
Read briefing Kenya has appointed Lorna A. Omondi Ogolla and Dr Joy Kibor to the Board of Directors of the newly established National Cybersecurity Agency for a three-year term.Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen made the appointments under the State Corporations (National Cybersecurity Agency) Order, 2026.According to Gazette Notice No. 14420, the appointments took effect on September 11, 2026, and will run for three years.The appointments bring expertise in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data-centre infrastructure, research and academia to the agency’s governing board.Ogolla brings extensive experience in technology infrastructure and artificial intelligence. Her career includes studies at MIT, the University of Cambridge and Stanford, followed by eight years at Google.At Google, she rose to lead a team advising the company on the location, timing and scale of global data-centre investments. Since 2024, she has been based in Nairobi, where she leads Google Research’s machine-learning and AI partnerships across Africa.Kibor, meanwhile, brings experience spanning the energy sector, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and higher education. Her career includes work at Kenya Power, a tutorial fellowship at Kenyatta University and four years lecturing in cybersecurity and AI at Kiriri Women’s University.She holds a PhD and currently serves as Head of Postgraduate Studies in ICT at Zetech University.The appointments come as Kenya continues to strengthen its institutional framework for protecting critical digital infrastructure and responding to growing cybersecurity threats.The new board will provide oversight and strategic direction as the National Cybersecurity Agency establishes its role within the country’s national cybersecurity ecosystem.The composition gives the agency access to both industry and academic perspectives, with Ogolla bringing experience in global technology infrastructure and AI investment, while Kibor contributes cybersecurity, AI research and teaching expertise.
Read briefing Vodafone Business and Cassava Technologies have partnered to develop Egypt’s first AI factory, creating sovereign AI infrastructure designed to enable local organisations to host, process and operate artificial intelligence applications within the country.The partnership will combine Vodafone Egypt’s enterprise capabilities with Cassava Technologies’ NVIDIA-powered cloud infrastructure to support government entities, businesses and other organisations seeking access to accelerated computing while keeping data within Egypt.Cassava Technologies is Africa’s first NVIDIA cloud partner. The collaboration will provide access to NVIDIA AI infrastructure through Vodafone Business, including GPU-as-a-Service, enabling organisations to deploy AI workloads for model training and inference at scale.The companies said the initiative is intended to strengthen Egypt’s digital sovereignty, improve data protection and cybersecurity, and position the country as a regional hub for AI and advanced technology.Mahmoud El-Khatib, Vice President of Enterprise Business at Vodafone Egypt, said the partnership would strengthen the country’s AI infrastructure while supporting local data residency.“Our partnership with Cassava Technologies marks a pivotal step in Vodafone Egypt’s technology journey and reflects our continued commitment to investing in digital infrastructure that enhances Egypt’s readiness for advanced technologies.”El-Khatib said the AI factory would provide organisations with access to advanced computing through GPU-as-a-Service, helping accelerate the adoption of AI while supporting Egypt’s digital economy and attracting investment in advanced technologies.Ahmed El Beheiry, Group Chief Technology & AI Officer and CEO of Cassava AI, said the partnership was aimed at enabling African businesses to move beyond being consumers of global technology.“For Cassava, contributing to building Egypt’s AI ecosystem is an act of empowerment, not just a technological milestone.”He said the infrastructure would give Egyptian organisations the capacity to participate in global AI innovation while maintaining control over their data and technology environment.The AI factory will provide a full-stack infrastructure environment for organisations and government agencies to develop and operate AI applications locally. It will support local data hosting and processing while helping organisations meet regulatory and data residency requirements.The companies said the infrastructure could also help organisations strengthen cybersecurity, improve control over sensitive data and develop more efficient AI-powered products and services.The initiative comes as governments and businesses increasingly seek alternatives that complement conventional public cloud infrastructure with sovereign computing and AI-optimised cloud services.Demand for accelerated computing has grown alongside the expansion of generative AI and other advanced AI applications, with GPUs providing the processing capacity required for large-scale model training and inference.Beyond infrastructure, the partnership will provide access to training and enablement programmes within the NVIDIA ecosystem. The programmes are expected to help organisations develop AI skills and deploy, operate and manage AI solutions.Vodafone Egypt and Cassava Technologies said the initiative could also support the development of Egypt’s broader AI ecosystem by attracting investment in advanced data centres and AI infrastructure and creating opportunities in technology and innovation.The AI factory forms part of Vodafone Egypt’s wider investment programme in the country. The company plans to invest more than $385 million during the current fiscal year, building on investments exceeding $2.4 billion over 28 years, according to the company.The partnership is expected to contribute to Egypt’s ambition of developing a stronger digital economy while establishing infrastructure capable of supporting the country’s growing demand for AI and advanced computing.
Read briefing Africa skipped fixed line telephony for mobile and skipped branch banking for mobile money. Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency exchange says agentic AI could be the next technology the continent leapfrogs into rather than simply catches up on, and that the businesses moving fastest right now are the ones starting with a clear sense of what they want an agent to do.The momentum is real. Industry research projects that more than 40 percent of enterprise applications will include task-specific AI agents by the end of 2026, up from under 5 per cent in 2025, while separate surveys of enterprise leaders indicate that 72 per cent are already using or testing agents in some form. In South Africa, one of the continent’s largest digital asset markets, the AI agents sector alone is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of over 52 per cent through 2033, one early signal of how quickly African businesses are expected to move once the opportunity becomes clear.“This is genuinely one of Africa’s best shots at leading rather than following,” said Larry Cooke, Director of Government Relations and Strategy, Binance Africa. “We have done it before. Mobile money is the clearest example anywhere in the world of a continent skipping a legacy stage entirely and building something better in its place. Agentic AI can follow the same pattern, and the businesses already pulling ahead are the ones who know exactly what they want an agent to do, not just that they want one.”Binance’s own global infrastructure shows what that clarity looks like in practice. In August 2026 the exchange introduced Agent OS, a developer platform that lets AI applications connect to trading, market data, wallet, payment and on-chain functions under permissions the user sets. Each agent is able to run through its own segregated subaccount rather than open access to a user’s full holdings.“Agent OS addresses the fragmentation developers face when building agentic finance applications across crypto and traditional markets,” said Jeff Li, Binance’s VP of Product. “It gives developers and traders the standardised interfaces they need to deploy AI driven strategies safely.”Cooke is careful to frame this as an illustration of good design rather than a claim about what is available locally. “The point isn’t the specific product,” he said. “It is the principle. Markets that trade twenty-four hours a day don’t get the luxury of a slow pilot phase. It is key to ensure that permissioning and clear boundaries get built in from day one, not added in later. That is a genuine head start that any African business can borrow regardless of which tools they end up using.”He points to the continent’s track record of adopting practical financial technology quickly once the use case is clear, from mobile money to peer-to-peer trading as reason for real confidence here. The one condition he keeps coming back to is education moving at the same pace as deployment, for the people building these systems and for the customers and employees who rely on them.“The biggest barrier to agentic AI in Africa was never going to be the technology,” said Cooke. “It is making sure people actually understand what the agent in front of them is doing, whether that is someone using an app to manage their money, a student getting help with their homework, or a small business owner automating their bookkeeping. Get that right and this continent has everything it needs to lead on this in the same way it already has on mobile money.”Binance says it’s committed to supporting this shift, not simply keeping pace with how African business already works but building the infrastructure that changes what is possible in the future.
Read briefing Côte d’Ivoire is set to open its first state-owned data centre, marking a shift from a market that, until now, has been built entirely by private operators.The government is building a National Data Centre inside the VITIB (Village of Information Technologies and Biotechnology) free zone in Grand-Bassam, a coastal town near Abidjan. The facility is reported to be on track to open next year, with financial backing from the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM), as Côte d’Ivoire works to modernise public services, tighten cybersecurity, and gain more control over its own digital assets. The project sits inside a $209 billion national development plan for 2025-2030 that names digital infrastructure as one of the country’s main growth levers.The data center itself will offer 1.73MW of IT capacity (3MW total power capacity), with 228 racks and 10 petabytes of storage.The facility is being delivered by Cybastion, a Washington-based infrastructure firm, working with the Ivorian construction partner Porteo Group and a wider technology bench that has included Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Schneider Electric. EXIM approved a $66.1 million guarantee for the data centre in August 2025, its first data centre transaction anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, filed under the agency’s China and Transformational Exports Program. That guarantee sits inside a larger $170 million EXIM-backed package that also covers a government digitisation platform and a border surveillance system. The timing isn’t accidental. Côte d’Ivoire’s own digital ministry first framed a national data centre as a sovereignty project back in a May 2024 report, and the two governments signed the first memoranda of understanding for a backup data centre and a “digital administrative city” in June 2023, with the foundation stone laid that December. What’s changed since then is the money and the urgency: EXIM’s guarantee arrived in August 2025, construction had passed the 20 percent mark by December 2025, and the government has spent 2026 tying the data centre into a broader digitalisation agenda, including a planned “digital compact” with the World Bank and a financing roundtable set for December.There’s also a regional current pulling in the same direction. Governments across the continent have spent the past two years treating data infrastructure as a sovereignty question rather than a purely commercial one. Gabon inaugurated its own first sovereign, Tier III-certified data centre in Nkok on July 3, 2026, built to host government, banking, and telecom data inside its borders, notable because Gabon had no data centres at all before that opening. Senegal has reportedly been accelerating a sovereign cloud project built with Alibaba Cloud, partly to secure systems for the Dakar Youth Olympic Games this October and November. Rwanda built its national data centre years earlier under the Smart Rwanda programme and now backs it with some of the continent’s strictest data residency rules.Until now, Côte d’Ivoire’s data centre story has been a private-sector one. Equinix, Paix Data Centres, and Stellarix have operated in Abidjan for years. Raxio Group opened the country’s first Tier III-certified, carrier-neutral facility, Raxio CIV1, in Abidjan in September 2024.A year later, ST Digital-a pan-African cloud services and tech provider-inaugurated its own Tier III facility in the same VITIB zone where the state centre is now rising, with CEO Anthony Same arguing that having local infrastructure is essential to protect our data amid rising cyberattacks. While regional infrastructure is expanding, Côte d’Ivoire’s private digital footprint remains modest. The country currently hosts just four to six operational data centers, primarily localized within Abidjan. This is a sharp contrast to the continent’s major digital hubs; mid-2025 data records South Africa leading with 56 facilities, followed by Kenya at 19 and Nigeria at 17, while more recent figures place Egypt at 14, and Senegal and Ghana at seven each.
Read briefing An artificial intelligence-driven political influence operation in Kenya used Anthropic’s Claude to generate batches of social media posts supporting the government and attacking opposition figures, according to a new report by Anthropic.The company said it identified and removed an account operated by a single actor that was used to mass-produce Kenyan political content. The campaign was designed to make coordinated messaging appear to be spontaneous public sentiment.The actor used Claude across multiple sessions to generate batches of exactly 50 tweets, with instructions to make them resemble organic grassroots commentary rather than coordinated political communications.A significant portion of the content praised Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi over a planned Kenya Power electricity tariff increase. The posts used hashtags including #PowerReliefKE and #PoweringTheNewKenya to increase visibility.The operation also promoted claims that Kenya’s United Opposition coalition was falling apart ahead of the 2027 General Election, while targeting politicians Rigathi Gachagua and former President Uhuru Kenyatta.Anthropic said the same AI workflow was separately used by the actor for marketing Kenyan retail brands under the personas “SHANKI” and “Elkins Marketer.” The company found no evidence of government involvement and said the activity appeared to be a domestic Kenyan operation.The company classified the campaign as Category One on the Breakout Scale, meaning the activity remained confined to the network of fake accounts and local influencers on a single platform and did not reach or influence real people beyond that network.Anthropic said it could not establish the identities of those behind the campaign. However, the operation appeared to be aligned with the ruling coalition based on its pro-administration tone and use of specific hashtags, although the company said it had not identified the organisation responsible.The investigation found that the campaign used one playbook to amplify both pro-government narratives and messages undermining the opposition. Anthropic said this was consistent with a coordinated electoral communications effort.The AI model was not responsible for creating the campaign’s political objectives. According to Anthropic, the operators supplied the topics, talking points and hashtags, then used Claude to turn them into 50 themed and character-counted posts ready for publication.This distinction is significant because it shows how generative AI can amplify an existing political strategy rather than independently determining the message. Anthropic said the campaign’s ideological positions had already been decided by the actors before Claude was used.The workflow also had commercial applications. Anthropic found that a template used for political messaging was reused for retail marketing, including promotional content repackaged to appear as organic tweets, with links inserted into every fifth post.Anthropic said the operation was discovered following a tip from OpenAI concerning repeat activity on its platform. The company subsequently investigated the suspected coordinated inauthentic behaviour, removed the account and organisation behind it, and developed detection systems based on the campaign’s behavioural signature.The Kenyan case forms part of Anthropic’s broader September 2026 report on the misuse of Claude by political influence networks, cybercriminals and state-linked actors.The findings point to a growing challenge for Kenya ahead of the 2027 election cycle. AI can significantly lower the cost and time required to produce large volumes of politically targeted content, making it harder for audiences and platforms to distinguish genuine public opinion from coordinated campaigns.For Kenya’s political and technology ecosystem, the episode also highlights a wider question: as AI makes political messaging cheaper and more scalable, how will platforms, regulators, political parties and voters identify coordinated influence before it shapes public debate?
Read briefing Siemens Digital Industries Software has partnered with Redington to expand access to its industrial software portfolio across six African markets as manufacturers and other industrial businesses increase their use of digital technologies. The agreement covers Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Morocco and Tanzania, with the companies planning to extend the partnership to additional markets in the future.Through the arrangement, businesses in the six countries will have access to software within the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, including Teamcenter for product lifecycle management, Designcenter for product design and engineering, and Simcenter for simulation and testing.The portfolio also includes digital twin technologies, which allow organisations to create virtual representations of physical products, equipment or processes, as well as industrial AI capabilities that can be applied to areas such as predictive maintenance and production optimisation.The partnership comes as African manufacturers face pressure to improve productivity and modernise production processes while managing increasingly complex supply chains and operational requirements.Access to industrial software is becoming part of this shift, allowing companies to simulate designs before production, monitor assets and processes digitally, and use data to support engineering and manufacturing decisions.Sayantan Dev, Chief Executive Officer, Software Solutions Group, Redington Limited, said, “Industrial AI is opening a new chapter in how businesses design, manufacture and operate. Our partnership with Siemens brings advanced software and Digital Twin capabilities closer to African enterprises and translates them into real-world outcomes. Through technology ecosystem orchestration, we are helping organizations apply these technologies at scale to improve productivity, optimize operations and enable new ways of working. This is how we see industries across the continent unlock next.”Cobus Oosthuizen, Vice President and Managing Director, Africa & Middle East, Siemens Digital Industries Software, said, “Our work with Redington allows us to better support our customers and respond to the surging demand for digitalization across Africa. Redington’s proven track record, including its experience distributing Altair simulation tools – which Siemens successfully integrated into our portfolio last year – makes them the ideal partner to help us deliver the future of manufacturing and industrial design to the region.”The reference to Altair relates to Siemens’ acquisition of Altair Engineering, which expanded Siemens’ capabilities in simulation, high-performance computing and related engineering software. The agreement gives Redington responsibility for supporting the distribution of Siemens’ industrial software in the six initial markets, connecting the portfolio with local customers and technology partners.The expansion comes as governments and businesses across Africa pursue industrialisation and digital transformation, with technologies such as automation, simulation, digital twins and AI increasingly being considered as tools for improving manufacturing efficiency and product development.For manufacturers, wider access to these technologies could also help reduce the cost and time associated with testing new designs and identifying potential problems before they reach physical production.
Read briefing Young people from refugee and host communities in Garissa are gaining practical digital skills for the digital economy, as Power Learn Project (PLP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), Microsoft and the Garissa County Government mark the rollout of a digital skills and employment programme at Garissa County Headquarters.Supported by the Government of the Netherlands under the PROSPECTS Partnership, the programme targets 1,700 young people across Garissa and Turkana counties through a 25-week blended learning model combining digital and workplace skills with certification and career pathways into economic opportunity.PROSPECTS, short for the Partnership for Improving Prospects for Forcibly Displaced Persons and Host Communities, is a multi-year initiative funded by the Government of the Netherlands. It brings together the ILO, UNICEF, UNHCR, the IFC, and the World Bank to expand education, skills training, economic inclusion, and protection for refugees, other forcibly displaced people, and the communities hosting them. Within the partnership, the ILO’s role centres on economic inclusion and decent work, linking these communities to market-driven skills training and pathways into employment, which is the piece funding and anchoring the Garissa rollout.“I encourage all the young people who have successfully enrolled to the Power Learn Project to work hard and do their best so that they can become part of the digital economy. As a county, we recognise that the future of work is increasingly digital. Our young people must have access to the skills and opportunities needed to participate in that future. This program brings practical digital learning to our communities while creating pathways that can translate skills into employment, entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihoods. We are honored to partner with the ILO, Power Learn Project and Microsoft in ensuring that both refugee and host community youth in Garissa are not left behind in Kenya’s digital transformation,” said H.E. Nathif Jama Adam, Governor, Garissa County. Power Learn Project is leading that shift from learning to livelihoods, backing learners with career readiness, employer engagement and ecosystem linkages that open pathways into employment, entrepreneurship and remote work.“Talent is universal; access to opportunity is not. Our work with the ILO and Microsoft in Garissa is about correcting that imbalance by building the skills, infrastructure and pathways that allow young people, regardless of geography or circumstance, to compete, create and earn in the global digital economy. That is what meaningful digital inclusion must ultimately deliver: not simply access to technology, but access to economic agency,” said Mumbi Ndung’u, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Power Learn Project AfricaLearners are progressing through foundational and advanced pathways, specialising in cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics. Microsoft is providing up to 1,000 globally recognised certification vouchers for graduates across the programme, covering credentials including Azure Fundamentals, Azure AI Fundamentals, Power BI Data Analyst and Microsoft 365 Fundamentals.This programme has already enrolled over 700 learners, drawn from over to 1000 applications received from Garissa – with women making up 35 per cent of the applicants. Sixteen of the programme’s 37 partnered digital hubs across Garissa and Turkana are already onboarded and delivering training.The Garissa rollout builds on the programme’s launch in Kakuma, Turkana County, in June 2026, extending market-relevant digital skills, recognised certification and pathways to economic participation across Kenya’s refugee-hosting communities, reflecting the ILO’s broader focus on inclusive, decent work in a digitalising labour market.“Digital transformation is reshaping labour markets faster than policy can keep pace. For refugee-hosting communities, the risk isn’t being left behind, it’s being excluded altogether from the opportunities now defining economic participation. Investing in market-relevant, internationally recognised digital skills for these communities is sound labour market policy, and a commitment that no one is shut out of the opportunities that digital transformation creates, “ concluded Caroline Njuki, Chief Technical Advisor, ILO KenyaAs implementation continues across Garissa and Turkana, government, development and private-sector partners remain focused on one shared objective: turning digital skills into tangible economic opportunities for the young people they serve.
Read briefing Saviynt has appointed cybersecurity executive Kamel Heus as Vice President of Sales for the Middle East and Africa (MEA), including Turkey, as the identity security company expands its regional operations.Based in Dubai, Heus will oversee Saviynt’s sales activities across the region, covering new business, customer renewals and expansion. He will also be responsible for the company’s channel strategy, partner ecosystem and development of its local go-to-market team.His appointment comes as organisations across the Middle East and Africa increase their adoption of cloud services and artificial intelligence, creating new challenges around identity and access management. One of Heus’ immediate priorities will be expanding Saviynt’s presence in Saudi Arabia and developing local hosting capabilities to address data residency and in-region delivery requirements.Heus brings 20 years of enterprise cybersecurity sales experience, with a career spanning the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Before joining Saviynt, he served as Vice President, EMEA at Thales, where he led the company’s Identity and Access Management business across the region.He has also held senior positions at Centrify, now part of Delinea, and Sophos. He has been based in Dubai for more than a decade and has spent much of his career building cybersecurity businesses and partnerships across the region.“MEA represents a significant opportunity for Saviynt as organizations across the region accelerate their digital transformation and increasingly look to AI to transform how they operate and grow,” said Pete Angstadt, Chief Commercial Officer at Saviynt.“Our role is to help customers move faster on that journey while ensuring security and governance keep pace. Kamel’s deep experience in the region and understanding of its customers, markets and partner ecosystem will be invaluable as we continue to expand our presence.”Heus said his focus would be on strengthening Saviynt’s local presence and developing its network of regional partners.“The Middle East and Africa have become one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity markets in the world, and Identity sits right at the center of it, especially as AI agents enter the enterprise,” said Heus.“I’ve spent over a decade building businesses from the ground up in this region, and I’m excited to do it again at Saviynt. My focus is to build out our local presence, grow a strong partner ecosystem, and enable organizations across MEA to grow their business through secure, confident access both for their people and their AI.”Heus holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and Computing from Université Grenoble Alpes in France.The appointment also places Heus at the centre of Saviynt’s strategy around the growing use of AI agents in enterprise environments. As organisations deploy AI systems that can access applications and business data, identity security is increasingly extending beyond employees and other human users to include machine and AI-driven identities.Saviynt’s platform includes capabilities for managing these identities and controlling their access to enterprise resources, an area expected to become increasingly important as organisations across MEA expand their use of AI.
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