Executive Summary
This policy brief presents 13 actionable recommendations for building Africa’s AI governance infrastructure, derived from a pre-summit convening of AI governance experts, cybersecurity professionals, digital rights advocates, and registry practitioners. The recommendations provide a practical, infrastructure-first roadmap for African governments to establish visibility, accountability, and risk management systems for AI deployment across public institutions.
1. Introduction
The Institute for AI Policy & Governance (AIPG) convened a pre-summit event titled “Governing AI: Making the Case for Africa’s AI Tools & Risk Registry” as part of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 Pre-Event Series. The session brought together experts in AI governance, cybersecurity, digital rights, and registry development, including practitioners with direct experience building AI/algorithm registries in Chile and other early-adopter countries.
Across the discussion, one theme emerged consistently:
“Africa cannot responsibly govern AI without visibility.“
Governments across the continent, and much of the Global South, are currently unable to answer three foundational governance questions:
- What AI systems are in use across public institutions?
- How do these systems work, and what data do they rely on?
- What risks, harms, or accountability gaps do they introduce?
This brief captures 13 actionable recommendations that aim to support the Summit’s deliberations, inform Africa’s AI strategy implementation, and provide a foundation for sustainable, accountable AI governance infrastructure.
2. Context and Rationale
The Challenge
AI is rapidly entering public institutions through:
- Vendor-led initiatives
- Donor-funded pilots
- Digital transformation programs
- Cross-border cloud deployments
- Localized experimentation
Yet few African governments maintain centralized documentation or risk assessments for these systems. With Africa hosting less than 1% of global data center capacity and heavily dependent on foreign cloud and compute providers, governance challenges are compounded by infrastructural constraints, opaque supply chains, and limited institutional capacity.
Global Momentum
Meanwhile, global momentum is accelerating:
- Canada launched its first public AI Systems Register on November 28, 2025, committing to public consultations
- The EU, UK, Chile, and Amsterdam/Helsinki have operational registries
- India is preparing national visibility frameworks under its Digital India and IndiaAI missions
To support responsible innovation and economic empowerment, the continent must build AI governance infrastructure, starting with visibility, documentation, and risk transparency.
3. Policy Recommendations
Below are the 13 recommendations organized into thematic clusters.
Visibility & Transparency (Foundational Infrastructure)
1. Mandate a Single Government-Wide Entry Point for All Public-Sector AI Systems
Governments should require all AI systems entering public institutions, whether via vendors, donors, pilots, or internal innovation, to undergo a centralized registration and approval process. This creates visibility before deployment and prevents untracked adoption.
2. Integrate AI Visibility Requirements Into Procurement, Regulation, and Oversight
AI documentation must be embedded in:
- Procurement processes
- Data-protection impact assessments
- Regulatory approvals
- Oversight mechanisms
Required disclosures should include: purpose, datasets, performance metrics, risk categories, and maintenance responsibilities.
3. Build a Public, Searchable AI Tools & Risk Registry
Develop a national web-based registry providing metadata on all AI used in government. The registry should enable public scrutiny, cross-agency coordination, and evidence-based digital transformation.
4. Develop Public ‘AI Transparency Portals’ Complementing the Registry
Publish plain-language summaries of AI systems, explaining:
- What they do
- Which decisions they influence
- What rights citizens have
- How oversight works
Transparency strengthens public trust and democratic legitimacy.
Safety, Governance & Accountability
5. Require Human-Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) for High-Risk AI Systems
Legislate mandatory HRIAs for AI used in policing, healthcare, welfare, education, border management, and justice. These assessments must accompany registry entries and be updated during system evolution.
6. Develop Continental Standards for Registry Metadata and Risk Categories
AUDA-NEPAD, Smart Africa, and RECs should co-develop a unified metadata schema covering:
- Data provenance
- Model type
- Human labor inputs
- Training dataset region
- Risk level
- Compute dependency
- Sector classification
Alignment ensures interoperability and supports cross-border digital integration.
7. Create National Oversight Units for Registry Auditing and Compliance
Governments should establish specialized AI oversight units to:
- Verify registry submissions
- Audit high-risk systems
- Ensure vendor compliance
- Maintain registry integrity
Capacity building must accompany this recommendation.
8. Require Full Vendor Disclosure and Lifecycle Documentation
Vendors must provide:
- Model architecture
- Intended use cases
- Training data sources
- Known risks
- Update cycles
- Compute/cloud dependencies
- Exit strategies
No documentation should mean no approval.
C. Implementation & Design
9. Implement Phased National Registry Pilots in Two High-Risk Sectors
Pilot registries in domains such as health or policing. Use lessons learned to refine national frameworks before broad scaling.
10. Establish a Continental Knowledge Hub for Registry Infrastructure
AUDA-NEPAD or Smart Africa should host a regional platform providing:
- Open-source registry templates
- Training curricula
- Governance models
- Best-practice toolkits
- Sample regulations
- Research findings
This prevents duplication and accelerates adoption across countries.
D. Sustainability & Digital Infrastructure
11. Conduct National AI Infrastructure Readiness Assessments
Create standardized frameworks to evaluate:
- Broadband reliability
- Compute availability
- Local storage capacity
- Cloud dependencies
- Energy requirements
- Sustainability constraints
Governments should complete assessments before deploying compute-intensive AI.
12. Invest in Local Data Hosting and Compute Infrastructure
Support development of:
- Sovereign data centers
- Regional compute clusters
- African cloud offerings
- Open-source model hosting
This enhances resilience, reduces long-term dependency, and strengthens Africa’s digital economy.
E. Economic Empowerment & Local Ecosystem Development
13. Integrate Local Economic Participation Requirements Into Registry Submissions
Add metadata fields requiring documentation of:
- Local labor involvement
- Participation of African SMEs
- Skills transfer obligations
- Maintenance responsibilities located within the continent
This turns the registry into an instrument for economic empowerment, not just compliance.
4. Conclusion
AI governance begins with visibility. Without documentation, risk assessment, or oversight infrastructure, governments cannot govern AI responsibly, protect citizens, or ensure equitable socio-economic benefit.
The recommendations in this memo provide a practical, infrastructure-first roadmap for African governments and international partners. They also support global alignment, contribute to the India AI Impact Summit’s objectives, and prepare the foundation for AIPG’s forthcoming Africa AI Tools & Risk Registry Challenge (2026).
We invite Summit partners, regional bodies, governments, and development institutions to collaborate with AIPG in piloting, scaling, and institutionalizing these recommendations.
Contact
Institute for AI Policy & Governance (AIPG)
Website: https://aipg.institute
Email: info@aipg.institute