MTN Group Chief Executive Ralph Mupita has warned that Africa must accelerate its adoption of artificial intelligence to avoid deepening digital inequality and creating a “digital underclass.”
Speaking at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation Inclusive Growth Forum, Mupita said the continent faces a race against time to ensure the benefits of AI reach all segments of society. He outlined six critical areas that require urgent action, including expanding electricity access, improving digital infrastructure, developing African language models, and equipping the continent’s youth with AI skills.
Africa currently accounts for less than 2% of global data centre capacity, and closing the infrastructure gap will require an estimated $96 billion by 2030, according to the International Telecommunication Union. Mupita also highlighted the need for local AI models, pointing to initiatives such as the Nigerian Atlas for Languages & AI at Scale, which aims to reflect Africa’s linguistic diversity.
He called on governments, private sector players, and civil society to form partnerships around data governance, skills development, and policy frameworks to ensure Africa becomes a creator rather than a passive consumer of AI technologies. “We must be obsessed and paranoid about not being left behind,” Mupita said.
