AI governance: 80% indicators in Africa lack a legal framework

Written by: Ayman Ragab

Africa is ramping up its AI governance initiatives, but a significant gap remains between it and more advanced economies. The Global AI for Responsible 2026 Index highlights the regulatory progress made in many African countries, while emphasizing that the main obstacles now lie in institutional capacity, digital skills, and infrastructure. This transformation transcends being purely a technological issue and becomes a matter of economic development.

Artificial intelligence is gradually establishing itself as a key driver of competitiveness in African economies. However, countries' ability to regulate its development remains highly uneven. The 2026 Global AI Responsible Index, published by the Global Center for AI Governance, shows that Africa remains the region with the lowest average score on the global index, at 21.79 out of 100, compared to a global average of 35. The report also indicates that this snapshot masks the reforms underway in many countries across the continent.

According to the report, the fundamental issue is no longer adopting the principles of governance, which enjoy broad international acceptance, but rather translating them into practical public policies. The report's authors believe that the observed disparities reflect differences in administrative, technical, and financial capabilities more than differences in political ambition.

This distinction is essential for understanding development paths in Africa. Many governments now have digital strategies or regulatory projects, but they still struggle to establish the institutions, oversight mechanisms, and human resources necessary to implement these texts.

Regulatory progress remains limited.

However, the report highlights several important developments. Five African countries – Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco, and Nigeria – have recently adopted new measures related to artificial intelligence security, reflecting a growing awareness of issues related to algorithmic systems.

This development comes at a time when artificial intelligence applications are rapidly expanding across the financial, agricultural, healthcare, and administrative sectors. According to the report's authors, governance is becoming an increasingly important factor in an economy's attractiveness, as investors seek regulatory environments that offer greater legal certainty and predictability.

However, the document also highlights that only 4.68% of the assessed African indicators are currently covered by fully binding legal frameworks, while approximately 79.5% still lack any specific regulations.

In other words, the continent is still engaged in a phase of institutional building where texts are progressing faster than their implementation.

This diagnosis is consistent with the World Bank's analysis. In its report, "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" (2025), the Bank estimates that digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, will only be able to produce their economic impact if they are coupled with massive investments in digital infrastructure, skills, and institutional quality.

According to the World Bank, digital transformation is now a key driver for job creation, productivity improvement and regional integration, but it requires a reliable regulatory environment to foster innovation while mitigating risks related to personal data, algorithmic bias or cybersecurity.

The Global AI for Responsible Use Index reaches a similar conclusion. According to this study, the countries making the fastest progress are those that are able to coordinate their digital policies, training strategies, and public governance mechanisms simultaneously.

Frustration of ambitions

The report underscores a point that is often less obvious: weak institutional capacity is currently the main obstacle to the development of responsible artificial intelligence in Africa.

Public administrations need specialists who can evaluate algorithmic systems, monitor their compliance, protect personal data, and ensure the transparency of automated decisions.

However, specialized human resources are limited in many African countries, which slows down the implementation of regulations, even when they exist.

The African Development Bank also highlights this issue in its 2024-2033 Ten-Year Strategy, which makes the development of digital skills, innovation and governance a key pillar of the continent’s economic transformation.

According to the African Development Bank, strengthening human capital is essential to enabling African economies to fully benefit from emerging technologies.

The report implicitly reminds us that managing artificial intelligence has become an element of international competition.

International companies are increasingly favoring markets where clear rules are in place regarding data use, automated systems liability, and cybersecurity.

For African economies, this development is changing the traditional determinants of investment attractiveness.

The quality of digital infrastructure remains important, but it is no longer sufficient. Investors also assess the stability of regulations, legal protections, and the ability of institutions to enforce rules.

From this perspective, the progress made by many African countries is not an end in itself, but rather a signal to international markets.

Towards African Digital Sovereignty

Beyond the regulatory aspects, the report opens up a broader discussion about the continent’s digital sovereignty.

Artificial intelligence relies on data, computing power, and technological infrastructure that is largely dominated by international players.

For many African countries, the challenge is therefore to prevent digital transformation from reproducing the forms of economic dependency already observed in other sectors.

The World Bank affirms that establishing local digital ecosystems, supporting technology startups, and investing in scientific research are essential conditions for increasing the value added produced in the continent.

Similarly, the African Development Bank believes that the development of the digital economy must be accompanied by raising the level of African skills so that innovations are designed, adapted and managed locally.