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Africa risks losing the artificial intelligence (AI) race before it starts, according to a new Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report warning that the continent is failing to build the digital infrastructure needed to compete in the global AI economy.Without stronger domestic digital infrastructure, the continent risks exporting its data to train proprietary AI models overseas before paying to license the resulting technology back, the report said.Despite accounting for 18% of the world’s population, the continent holds less than 1% of global data centre capacity, says the report titled “Advancing Africa’s AI and Digital Economy”. Africa’s digital economy accounts for just 5% of the continent’s GDP, less than a third of the global average of 15%.“We have the world’s youngest population and the fastest-growing cloud market, but we lack the foundational infrastructure to own our digital future,” said Hamid Maher, head of BCG’s tech hub in Africa.AI is projected to add $15.7-trillion (about R264-trillion) to global GDP by 2030, yet Africa’s digital economy is expected to account for only 8.5% of continental GDP by 2050 if current trends continue.The disparity is reflected in generative AI technology, where large language models adequately support less than 2% of Africa’s roughly 2,000 languages.We have the world’s youngest population and the fastest-growing cloud market, but we lack the foundational infrastructure to own our digital future— Hamid Maher, head of BCG’s tech hub in Africa“Winning requires capturing value from the technology stack itself — building, governing and retaining our data and talent locally,” Maher said. “Africa’s core challenge is no longer about technology adoption; it is about tech production.”The report identified three structural constraints holding back the continent’s digital growth: fragmentation, brain drain and reliance on imported systems.Fragmentation remains a major obstacle. None of Africa’s 54 economies has a GDP exceeding $500bn, leaving individual countries too small to justify the scale of infrastructure investment needed for a modern digital economy.The continent also struggles to retain AI talent. Africa’s 62,000 AI specialists represent just 5% of the global AI workforce, while 38% work remotely for foreign companies rather than local firms.Reliance on imported systems also comes at a cost. The report said vendor lock-in and costly licensing mean African companies pay up to 35% more than global peers for the same technology.BCG proposed three ways to reverse the trend: building shared digital infrastructure through public-private partnerships; pooling investment across countries or sectors; and adopting open-source systems in place of proprietary ones.Rwanda’s IremboGov platform was cited as an example of the first approach. The platform, run under a long-term concession by a private Rwandan operator while the government retains ownership and oversight, has processed more than 51-million transactions since it launched in 2015 and has given citizens access to more than 100 public services.On investment pooling, the report pointed to the African Continental Free Trade Area’s protocol on digital trade as a mechanism that could lower the cost of shared infrastructure such as cloud services and fraud-detection systems.For open-source adoption, BCG highlighted Morocco’s national population register, which was built on MOSIP, an open-source digital identity platform originally developed in India. The approach let Morocco tailor the system to local needs while keeping technical capabilities and economic value in the country.Trust was identified as another challenge. The report cited a May 2026 IN Groupe white paper showing that citizens in 94% of emerging economies have no legal recourse over how their data is used, while 18 countries operate identity systems without an adequate legal framework.Beyond the issue of trust, the report said, the need to strengthen Africa’s digital foundations was becoming increasingly urgent as advances in AI reshaped the global economy.Patrick Dupoux, BCG’s head of social impact practice for Europe, the Middle East, South America and Africa, said the rise of agentic AI and robotics was already disrupting traditional development pathways that had worked for other emerging economies.“As agentic AI and advanced robotics begin to disrupt traditional developing pathways like call centres and manufacturing, establishing strong domestic tech ecosystems is becoming an economic imperative for Africa,” Dupoux said.He added that as digital systems became more open and interconnected, trust would become increasingly important, providing the confidence needed to attract investment and encourage broader participation.“Africa has both the ambition and the talent to shape its own digital future,” he said. “By strengthening its digital foundations and retaining more value locally, the continent can transition from a digital consumer to a digital value creator in the global AI economy.”Business Times
