In April 2024, on the sidelines of the AI Summit in Paris, I shared a powerful message with Expertise France, the technical cooperation agency of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). I addressed the inequities in AI and digital access, particularly for women and marginalized communities in Africa:
“I don’t have a higher income, and that’s the reality of an inequitable world—one built on stereotypes and prejudices. As a woman, a Muslim, an African, and an Arab, I face challenges in my career, but these challenges do not define the complexity of my humanity. They are merely obstacles to overcome. In Africa, many women lack access to education, the internet, and the digital economy. The digitalization process is not fully equitable, and according to UNESCO, women make up only 20% of AI experts. We must not allow AI to become another tool of digital colonization. Instead, Africa must reclaim its technological sovereignty by creating opportunities for innovation, equitable digital transformation, and ethical AI development.”
I firmly believe that Francophone Africa must play a crucial role in shaping AI governance across the continent. The region’s cultural diversity and linguistic richness provide a unique opportunity to define inclusive AI policies that truly reflect African values.
The future of AI governance in Africa lies in strengthening collaboration between Francophone and Anglophone nations. I envision a unified AI governance framework that ensures Africa is not merely a consumer of technology but a leader in its ethical development and implementation.
“: We do indeed need to democratise AI and to do so, Arabs and Africans cannot use Western narratives as a basis: they need to create their own language, and their own definitions of AI and its governance. The digital transformation of AI needs to be carried out from the ground up. It needs to be cross-cutting and multi-dimensional. AI is not just a matter for specialists, it also needs philosophers, sociologists, legal officials, and even clerics. We’re in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, AI is everyone’s business. I really encourage Africans and Arabs to take up AI: it represents the era of intelligence, the era of “minds”, science has no colour, gender or religion. We’re all intelligent, we can all use AI for our development and we mustn’t underestimate ourselves “
Through my advocacy, I remain committed to pushing for an inclusive and decolonized digital future—one where African nations shape their own AI policies, invest in local talent, and ensure technology serves the continent’s development rather than reinforcing global inequalities. Link : https://www.expertisefrance.fr/en/actualite?id=902866
