Algeria has established five thematic committees to implement its national AI strategy, following the first inter-ministerial coordination meeting chaired by Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister Kamel Baddari.
The committees cover data and infrastructure, financing, large language models, doctoral programmes in artificial intelligence, and continuing AI training.
The ministry also announced plans for a National Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data.
Why a committee for models
The most telling structural choice is giving large language models a dedicated committee rather than treating them as a subset of infrastructure or research.
That is consistent with the commitment iAfrica reported in August, when Baddari’s inter-ministerial roadmap prioritised sovereign open-source AI models, domestic high-performance computing and national data storage. Algeria’s position is more absolute than its neighbours’: models it can host, inspect and modify domestically rather than license.
Morocco pairs its Nexus AI Factory with international partnerships including Mistral AI. Egypt has built through NVIDIA infrastructure deals and its Karnak Arabic model. Algeria is attempting something narrower and harder — and a standing committee is how a government signals that a workstream is permanent rather than aspirational.
What is scheduled first
Two short-term initiatives were named: an AI-powered revenue collection management system, and an Algerian multisectoral system intended to widen AI use across government.
Revenue collection is a recurring first application across the continent. Mozambique’s tax authority is deploying machine learning for real-time transaction monitoring and VAT fraud detection through 2028. Tunisia integrated AI into customs risk management. The logic is consistent: tax data is structured, the outputs are measurable, and the return justifies the investment without requiring public trust in the system.
Research projects will also launch under the National Research Programme in line with identified priorities.
The training figure needs settling
The ministry put the target at 50,000 AI specialists by 2030.
That does not match earlier reporting. In August, the same ministry’s roadmap was reported as targeting 30,000 AI engineers by 2030. A separate June assessment put the goal at 500,000 ICT specialists over the same period.
The 30,000 and 500,000 figures could be nested — AI engineers as a subset of ICT specialists. The 30,000 and 50,000 figures cannot both describe the same target, and no revision has been announced. It is worth establishing which applies before the number circulates further.
The base underneath is genuinely substantial regardless. Algeria has 74 master’s programmes in AI across 52 universities with 57,702 students enrolled, produces more than 10,000 STEM graduates annually, and graduated its first cohort of 105 students from the National Higher School of Artificial Intelligence in June. Algerian researchers feature among the top 2% of scientists worldwide, and the country ranks in Africa’s top five for recognised scientific publications.
The pattern of the past year
The committees join a sequence of institutional building. Algeria launched its first AI and cybersecurity startup cluster at Sidi Abdellah in April under joint ministerial supervision. National research centre CERIST followed with a Deeptech Innovation Hub in May. The Council of Ministers reviewed strategy progress and approved the Dzair Digital Services portal, bringing 52 public services onto one platform.
Algeria’s National AI Strategy was first developed in 2019 and substantially revised in 2024, defining six pillars and establishing an AI Council.
What has been consistently identified as the gap — in the government’s own reviews — is compute, data readiness and investment. A data and infrastructure committee and a financing committee are the two of the five aimed directly at that. Whether they resolve it is a different question from whether they exist.
Based on reporting by Dzair Tube.
