African countries should mobilize more capital from domestic markets to adapt to the global shift in economic development sparked by AI, a new UN report said.
The AI boom is set to reshape production, consumption, and the way labor markets function. But many African economies that rely on commodity exports are largely unprepared for this data-driven shift, warned the report from the UN Economic Commission for Africa. While the continent’s vast store of natural resources means its nations have leverage to influence the changing landscape, their competitiveness will depend more on an ability to use technology to process knowledge.
Only about 1% of the world’s data centers are in Africa, presenting “an economic and sovereignty challenge,” the report said. Scaling up data infrastructure will require a concerted effort towards raising financing. That means carving out more allocation from public budgets, but also mobilizing capital from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and blended finance instruments, the report said.