The East African Community has adopted a declaration committing member states to establish a Regional AI Technologies Fund, as Uganda advances plans to host what backers describe as Africa’s first AI factory and continental financiers line up billions of dollars for the sector.
The declaration, adopted in Kigali, comes alongside a $10 billion initiative jointly launched by the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme to accelerate AI adoption and unlock up to 40 million jobs across Africa by 2035. Together, the developments signal a shift from fragmented digital policies toward coordinated, large-scale investments aimed at positioning East Africa as an emerging hub in the global AI economy.
The proposed Regional AI Fund is designed to mobilize blended finance and attract private capital to scale locally developed AI innovations into commercially viable solutions, addressing what ministers describe as one of the biggest gaps in Africa’s technology ecosystem — the lack of sustained financing to take AI ideas from pilot to market.
The bloc is simultaneously pursuing an AI sovereignty agenda, prioritizing systems built on local data, hosted on regional infrastructure and capable of operating in African languages such as Kiswahili, in a bid to reduce dependence on foreign technologies. An estimated 98% of African data is currently processed abroad.
That policy direction is finding practical expression in Uganda, where a consortium of global and African partners is developing a 100-megawatt hyperscale AI facility at the Karuma Hydropower Plant. Known as the Aeonian Project, the facility will house a sovereign supercomputing system powered entirely by renewable energy, with support from partners including Nvidia and European development agencies. Operations are expected to begin in phases from late 2026.
“This is about controlling Africa’s data backbone responsibly and sustainably,” project leaders said, framing the initiative as a cornerstone of digital independence.
The African Development Bank and UNDP unveiled the AI 10 Billion Initiative at the Nairobi AI Forum 2026, structuring the program around five pillars: data, computing capacity, skills, trust and capital. The bank said the initiative could catalyze a potential $1 trillion boost to Africa’s GDP by 2035, with agriculture, healthcare and digital services among the biggest projected beneficiaries.
The African Development Bank has warned that 2025-2027 represents a critical window for AI adoption in Africa, cautioning that delays could see economic gains shift to faster-moving regions.
