West Africa is stepping up efforts to build a home-grown artificial intelligence (AI) economy, with governments, investors and technology leaders converging in Abuja next week to tackle the infrastructure, investment, talent and governance gaps that could determine the region’s place in the global AI race.
At the centre of the push is Nigeria, which is anchoring its emerging sovereign AI agenda on the National AI Strategy, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Framework and Project BRIDGE, while seeking deeper regional cooperation to ensure African countries move beyond consuming imported technologies to developing and scaling their own AI solutions.
The urgency of that ambition will come into sharp focus at the GITEX NIGERIA Government Leadership & AI Summit, scheduled for August 31 in Abuja, where policymakers, development finance institutions, investors, hyperscalers and digital economy leaders from across Africa and beyond will examine how the region can build the infrastructure and institutional capacity required for digital and AI sovereignty.
The high-level summit, which forms part of GITEX NIGERIA, West Africa’s largest technology, AI and startup event, is expected to attract government leaders and global speakers from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and the United States.
Held under the patronage of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GITEX NIGERIA will take place across Abuja and Lagos from August 31 to September 3, 2026.
The event is supported by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), endorsed by the Lagos State Government and organised by KAOUN International, the global organiser of GITEX events.
The summit is expected to translate Nigeria’s digital transformation ambitions into broader regional action, with discussions centred on the policies, partnerships and investments needed to give West Africa greater control over the infrastructure, data and technologies driving the next phase of economic growth.
Key issues on the agenda include national digitalisation strategies, sovereign AI compute capacity, private capital mobilisation, last-mile connectivity, digital skills development and the deployment of digital public infrastructure.
Uyoyo Edosio, Chief ICT and Innovation Expert at the African Development Bank (AfDB), Côte d’Ivoire, who will headline a panel on mobilising private capital for African digital infrastructure, said the continent’s AI ambitions must be backed by the infrastructure and investment needed to turn them into reality.
“Mobilising private capital at scale means creating the conditions for investors to participate with confidence – strengthening governance, addressing risk, and building effective projects and partnerships between governments, development institutions, and industry.
“The GITEX NIGERIA Government Leadership & AI Summit is an important opportunity to advance this mandate and accelerate investment into the digital foundations that will underpin Africa’s long-term competitiveness.”
Mactar Seck, Chief and Head of the Innovation and Technology Section at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Ethiopia, said Africa’s digital transformation must ultimately be driven by ownership rather than dependence on external technologies.
“Africa’s digital future must be built around ownership of our infrastructure, our data, our capabilities, and the economic value they create. Moving from technology consumption to production therefore requires coordinated policy, trusted digital public infrastructure, stronger connectivity, and an environment where African innovation can mature, flourish, and ultimately scale across borders,” he said.
Seck added that the summit would provide a platform for advancing the continent’s digital sovereignty agenda in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
“Aligned with the ambitions of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, GITEX NIGERIA provides a timely platform to advance these imperatives by deepening regional cooperation and accelerating Africa’s emergence as a competitive, innovative, and increasingly sovereign digital economy.”
Among the key sessions is ‘Africa’s AI Compute Capacity – Sovereign or Shared?’ which will examine one of the continent’s most critical AI challenges: access to the massive computing power required to develop and deploy advanced AI systems.
The session will assess the strategic choice between building sovereign GPU capacity and relying on shared infrastructure, while exploring practical pathways for closing Africa’s widening compute gap.
Another major session, ‘Trust by Design: The Future of Africa’s Digital Identity Infrastructure’, will focus on the development of trusted digital identity systems capable of protecting citizens’ data while expanding participation in the digital economy.
Drawing on advanced deployments in West Africa, the session will explore privacy-by-design, responsible data governance and citizen-centred digital identity models, with the potential to establish a global benchmark for secure and trusted digital identity infrastructure.
Industry leaders will also examine Africa’s rapidly evolving digital government landscape during ‘An African Opportunity: The Turning Point of eGov & Digital Interoperability’.
The session will analyse the acceleration of digital government transformation across the continent and identify emerging opportunities for technology providers, investors and financial institutions as countries expand digital identity, payments and data-exchange infrastructure.
Distinguished speakers at the summit include Dr Kashifu I. Abdullahi, Director-General/CEO of NITDA; Marc-André Loko, Managing Director and CEO of Agence des Systèmes d’Information et du Numérique (ASIN), Benin; and Kolawole Owodunni, Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.
Representatives of HCLSoftware, the World Bank, Gates Foundation, Meta, Mastercard, Zipline and NITDA will also participate.
They include Charles Cabouret, Associate Vice President, HCLSoftware, France; Kari Tukur, Vice President, Core Payments – West Africa, Mastercard, Nigeria; and Anthonio Pinheiro, Country Director at Zipline.
With AI increasingly becoming a determinant of economic competitiveness, the Abuja summit is positioning itself as more than a technology gathering.
It is emerging as a platform for shaping the infrastructure, financing, policy and regional partnerships that could determine whether West Africa becomes a producer of AI technologies and digital services—or remains primarily a consumer of technologies developed elsewhere.