For centuries, Africa has powered global economic growth through its resources, labour, and human potential, yet too little of that prosperity has been realised on the continent itself. Today, artificial intelligence presents a rare opportunity to change that trajectory. As the global economic order undergoes its most significant transformation since the end of the Second World War, Africa stands at a decisive inflection point.
With the world’s youngest population, rapidly expanding digital adoption, and vast untapped potential, Africa is uniquely positioned not just to participate in the AI era, but to help shape it. Realising this opportunity, however, will require deliberate investment, enabling regulation, and a commitment to ensuring that the benefits of AI reach all 1.5 billion people across the continent.
When I reflect on AI, what strikes me most is that it is enabled by humanity. Intelligence is fundamentally human, and AI is an extraordinary amplifier of human creativity and capability. It is not about replacing people. It is about empowering them to do more, faster, and better.
While this progress is remarkable, our responsibility as African businesses is to extend these capabilities beyond our corporate walls so that AI can unlock Africa’s underutilised potential and drive inclusive growth.
Unlocking Africa’s Potential Across Industries
As a purpose-led African connectivity and digital services company serving 223.2 million customers across South Africa, the DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Tanzania, Vodacom has invested strategically in AI across multiple sectors. Our mobile networks reach a population of 588 million people. That reach must translate into opportunity.
Consider agriculture. One of our subsidiary companies, Mezzanine, leverages AI to unlock previously invisible insights into soil composition, empowering farmers to make data-driven decisions that improve crop yields and profitability. When farmers thrive, food security strengthens and rural communities prosper. That is inclusive growth in action.
In financial services, AI is strengthening trust and security. In Kenya, Graph Network Analytics enhances M-Pesa fraud detection by mapping money movements in real time, helping protect more than 37 million customers who rely on the service in their daily lives. As criminals target digital payment platforms, AI helps predict and prevent fraud scenarios, including SIM swap fraud and identity theft.
AI is also supporting national infrastructure. In South Africa, connectivity and IoT solutions monitor coal transport in real time from pit to port to power station. This improves operational efficiency and supports energy security, addressing critical infrastructure challenges that have constrained economic growth.
These are not isolated examples. They represent a broader truth. Technology delivers its greatest value when it solves real problems for real people.
The Infrastructure Imperative: Modernising Regulation
Yet none of this is possible without one fundamental prerequisite: connectivity. Connectivity requires sustained investment in infrastructure, supportive policy environments, and regulatory frameworks that enable innovation.
If Africa is serious about universal access, modern and enabling regulation is essential. Spectrum licensing must be efficient and predictable. Infrastructure sharing must be supported. Universal service funds must be effectively deployed. Administrative barriers to infrastructure rollout must be reduced. Cloud and data platforms, which power AI capabilities, must be supported through enabling policy environments. These are not peripheral issues. They are fundamental to accelerating Africa’s digital and economic transformation.
These challenges represent only a portion of the regulatory barriers that must be addressed to deliver affordable, reliable connectivity to all Africans.
Pan-African Coordination: Our Collective Responsibility
Africa’s greatest advantage is its youth, but demographics alone will not deliver growth. To realise this potential, we must actively skill up young people in our schools and universities so they can take full advantage of an AI-driven future.
That requires modernising education curricula to embed AI literacy, data capability and practical problem-solving at scale. Companies like Vodacom are investing in digital skills development, but unlocking Africa’s potential will require coordinated action across government, academia and industry.
This is why governments and intergovernmental institutions such as the African Development Bank Group, the African Union, SADC, ECOWAS, and other regional bodies play a critical role in harmonising regulatory frameworks across the continent. Greater coordination can accelerate investment, enable scale, and support the development of an integrated digital economy.
Pan-African alignment of telecommunications regulation is not merely a technical objective. It is essential to unlocking inclusive growth and ensuring that Africa can compete effectively in the global digital economy.
Our Moment
Africa has long contributed to global progress. In the AI era, it has the opportunity to define its own future as a creator of innovation, productivity, and inclusive growth. The foundations are already in place. Our young population, expanding connectivity, and accelerating digital adoption position the continent to lead in ways that were not previously possible.
But this outcome is not guaranteed. It depends on the choices we make now. By modernising regulation, investing in connectivity as foundational infrastructure, and ensuring that AI empowers individuals, businesses, and communities, Africa can secure its place as a central force in the global digital economy.
That is the Africa I believe in. That is the Africa we are building at Vodacom, connecting people, enabling opportunity, and ensuring that technology serves the progress of society as a whole.
By: Shameel Joosub, Group Chief Executive Officer, Vodacom Group
