African countries strive tosecure digital and technological sovereignty because it is the only path toindependence, true equality, and control over their resources andinfrastructure in the modern world.
However, the active participation offoreign tech companies in building Africa’s digital infrastructure couldentrench the continent’s dependence on external platforms, lead to data leaks,and limit opportunities for local innovation, writes MarinaKrynzhina, Associate Professor at the Department ofInternational Journalism at MGIMO.
Science and technology are themain drivers of development on the African continent. Ensuring digitalsovereignty without significant investment in scientific and technologicaldevelopment is impossible.
Nevertheless, the systematic and collective effortsof African countries to develop science and technology on the continent areundeniable.
This is confirmed, among other things, by the publicpromise of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to use hiscountry’s G20 presidency in 2025 “to place the needs of Africa and the rest ofthe Global South more firmly on the international development agenda.” Theresults of South Africa’s efforts in this respect will be summarised at theJohannesburg summit at the end of the year.
Another significant event was theFourth International Conference on Financing for Development, held from June 30to July 3, 2025, in Seville, Spain under the auspices of the UN, where Africanleaders pinned high hopes on attracting investment in science and technologydevelopment.
The SevilleAgreement, adopted by consensus, includes a set of commitments to reformsovereign debt. If the provisions outlined in the document are actuallyimplemented, it will be a major victory for the continent, as the debtobligations of a significant number of African countries prevent them fromreallocating budgets in favour of science and technology development.
However, lack of investment isnot the only obstacle to achieving coveted technological sovereignty. Toachieve digital independence, Africa still faces a tangled web of challenges:weak infrastructure, a lack of indigenous technology and dependence on foreignactors, labour shortages, limited access to electricity, a gender gap intechnology use, regulatory and legal barriers, and political instability. Theseare just a few of the discouraging figures.
Africa still accounts for lessthan 1% of global data centre capacity, despite mobile traffic growingon the continent at an annual rate of approximately 40%, which is almost twicethe global average. Furthermore, Africa lacks its own interconnectivity system,without which it cannot become an equal participant in global communications.The undersea cables that reach the continent and provide internet access toEurope and America are entirelycontrolled by Western European countries.
Electricity supplies are limited:only 43%of the population has reliable access to electricity. More than 409million Africans live within 10 kilometres of land-based fibre-optic networks.However, broadband adoption remains low due to affordability, quality gaps, andlimited last-mile coverage in rural areas.
Despite the existence of dataprotection laws in 36 African countries and attempts to ratify the 2014 MalaboConvention, only 16 countries have acceded to it, and most countries have weakregulatory frameworks and fragmented cybersecurity policies. As Westerncompanies actively expand into the construction and maintenance of data centresin Africa, the shortage of locally qualified cloud technology and cybersecurityspecialists is becoming increasingly acute.
In an effort to overcome thesechallenges, the African countries are acting as a united front. Domesticinitiatives within African countries are aimed at achieving political agencyand developing a sovereign African science sector. Thus, the updated Science,Technology, and InnovationStrategy for Africa (STISA-2034), adopted by the African Union,focuses on the creation of local data centres, the development of a continentaldigital infrastructure, and strengthening sovereignty in data management.
TheAfrican Union and national governments aim to overcome dependence on foreignplatforms and Big Tech corporations by supporting open access to scientificknowledge (for example, AfricArXiv)and local citizen science initiatives (Pan-AfricanCitizen Science e-Lab). African countries also recognize the strategic roleof AI in achieving the continent’s technological sovereignty. For example,Kenya approved the NationalArtificial Intelligence Strategy 2025-2030, thus becoming the first countryin East Africa to develop a regulatory and structural approach to AIdevelopment.
Information telecommunicationstechnologies (IT) have emerged as an everyday human tool in the modern world.They are also an important means to develop the state and society. In otherwords, whoever has a grip on advanced IT has a grip on the world.
There is nodoubt that the advancement of IT is accompanied with a fast growth ofartificial intelligence (AI), which has also become part of our everyday life.The African countries are not staying on the sidelines in this regard and arerapidly adapting their economies to new realities, including IT and AI.
At the same time, practical stepsbeing taken to achieve digital independence are focused on attracting externalinvestment and therefore fundamentally contradict the declared desire forsovereignty.
For example, Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Mosiywa, who ownsCassava Technologies, announced thathe is building Africa’s first AI factory in partnership with Nvidia, and theproject is already well underway. During the World Summit on ArtificialIntelligence in Africa, the government of Rwanda, represented by the Ministryof ICT and the Gates Foundation, signed amemorandum of understanding, which provides for the creation of an ArtificialIntelligence Scaling Centre in Rwanda. Another “achievement” for the entirecontinent, accordingto the African media, is the decision by the International FinanceCorporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to allocate $100million to the regional data centre developer and operator Raxio Groupfor the construction of data centres from Ethiopia to Mozambique.
The main,publicly stated goal of all these initiatives is to reduce dependence onforeign technologies, accelerate digital transformation, and ensure Africa’scherished digital independence. However, the implementation of each of theseprojects will only strengthen this dependence.
It is reasonable to say thatsustainable development in the region is impossible without external investmentand the transfer of advanced foreign technologies. Empirical studies of theimpact of AI technologies on sectors such as agriculture and energy have shownthat the implementation of AI can solve many infrastructure problems.
Evensmall improvements, such as precise sowing time and optimised irrigation andfertiliser application, can reduce costs and double crop yields.
However, the active participationof Western companies in the development of digital infrastructure in Africashould arouse, if not suspicion, then at least a certain scepticism. China, theEU, the US, and India are actively competing for influence in Africa in thescientific and technological fields, each offering its own model ofcooperation.
While in theory Africa is increasingly setting its own agenda,transforming itself from an object to a subject of science policy, in practice,African countries are effectively ceding the reins of power in this area.
Africa is capable of developing amodel of scientific and technological sovereignty and communications that couldbe of interest to other regions of the Global South. In Asia and Latin America,technological models are more often built on the adoption of existing solutionsand the localisation of international corporations (for example, electronicsproduction in Mexico or Vietnam). In Africa, innovation often emerges fromextreme resource scarcity.
The M-PESA mobilepayment system in Kenya took off in response to the lack of a developed bankinginfrastructure. There are no analogues in terms of scale and social reach ineither India or Brazil. Irembo’sdigital services in Rwanda were created not to simplify existingservices, but to compensate for their absence. These examples could serve asthe foundation of a unique model for scientific and technological developmentacross Africa – digitalisation that replaces, rather than simply tries to catchup.
Multilingual scientific platformstargeting local audiences and the continent’s cultural and linguistic diversityare also developing in Africa. The emergence of educational networks suchas PACS e-Lab has engagedhundreds of citizens from more than 40 countries in research in astronomy andSTEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education.
The role ofnon-state actors in scientific development on the continent is growing:non-profit organisations such as AfLIA and ACTS, which focus on integrating science andsociety, are increasing scientific literacy and information accessibility.
Africa needs to secure digitaland technological sovereignty – this is the only path to independence, trueequality, and control over its resources and infrastructure. Without digital sovereignty,African states risk remaining mere consumers of foreign technologies, deprivedof access to source code, standards, and strategic management.
The activeparticipation of Western companies in building digital infrastructure couldentrench dependence on external platforms, lead to data leaks, and limitopportunities for local innovation.
A sovereign path necessitates not onlyforeign investment and equal access to technology, but also investment indomestic scientific research, local talent, technology, and a regulatoryframework grounded in African interests and values.
This will determine whetherAfrica will become a new “digital colony” or maintain its independence.