Artificial intelligence could raise Sub‑Saharan Africa’s economic output by roughly four percent over the next decade, but only if governments invest heavily in electricity, internet connectivity and digital skills, the International Monetary Fund said in a report released Tuesday.
Without those reforms, the region would derive only marginal gains from the AI revolution, with productivity لږ as little as 0.2 percent, the Fund’s experts warned.
While governments and companies worldwide are pouring resources into data centres, energy systems and digital infrastructure to harness AI, Sub‑Saharan Africa remains one of the least Clare tempered regions for widespread adoption, lagging behind every part of the world except South Asia, the IMF said.
The IMF’s AI Preparedness Index attributes the disparity to weak digital infrastructure, a shortage of technical expertise and limited regulatory capacity – all factors that constrain AI adoption and a country’s ability to manage labour‑market disruptions.
“For Sub‑Saharan Africa, the central concern is not the risk of technological disruption, but whether countries will be able to adopt, adapt and scale AI quickly enough to capture its benefits and avoid falling further behind,” the report reads.
Reliable electricity remains one of the biggest obstacles. About half of the region’s population lacks dependable access to power; the IMF recommends targeted investments in national grids and mini‑grids serving schools, health facilities and other public institutions to create local digital hubs.
Internet access is another major constraint. In 2024, only 38 percent of Africans were using the internet, compared with a global average of 68 percent. Expanding fiber‑optic backbone networks and open‑access broadband infrastructure would help lower costs and improve connectivity, the report says.
The region also faces a shortage of computing infrastructure. Africa hosts only about 160 data centres – roughly 5.5 percent of the global total – with nearly half concentrated in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. That concentration risks widening inequalities between countries as AI investment accelerates, the IMF cautions.
Sub‑Saharan Africa, including East Africa, ranks at the bottom of the IMF’s AI Preparedness Index, scoring particularly poorly in digital infrastructure, human capital and regulatory capacity. The report says those weaknesses could be overcome through sustained investment and policy reforms, allowing the region to realise significant economic gains from AI.
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Ethiopia ranks among the lower‑performing countries on the IMF’s index, placing within the low‑income country group, which has an average score of 0.32. The country lags in AI adoption, specialised skills and computing capacity, although it has expanded its telecommunications network, with 3G coverage reaching 98.7 per cent of the population and 4G available to about 74 per cent, providing a foundation for broader deployment of AI‑enabled services.
The IMF said that strengthening digital infrastructure, expanding access to reliable electricity and investing in technical education will be critical if countries across the region are to share in the economic benefits of artificial intelligence rather than fall further behind more advanced economies.
