Business leader Sir Sam Jonah has warned that Africa risks becoming a mere consumer of artificial intelligence and other digital technologies unless it invests in the skills and capacity needed to develop its own solutions.
He said the continent must avoid a situation in which it imports technology, exports its data and pays foreign companies to access the resulting products and services.
Delivering the keynote address at Methodist University Ghana’s international conference in Accra on Thursday, October 15, Sir Sam said Africa must learn from its history of exporting raw materials while buying back finished products.
“We must not do it again with data,” he said, referring to the risk of repeating that pattern in the digital economy.
The conference was held as the university marked its 25th anniversary under the theme “Excellence, Morality, and Service at 25: Advancing Digital Innovation, Equity, and Sustainability in a Transforming World”.
Sir Sam called on African universities to produce graduates who can develop digital technologies, rather than only use applications created elsewhere.
“Our universities must produce people who can write the code, not just use the app,” he said.
He argued that countries that had made significant progress had invested in building their own technical workforce.
He also urged entrepreneurs to focus on solving problems in African sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, logistics, energy and finance, particularly for people who remain underserved by formal systems.
According to him, Africa’s opportunities lie not simply in replicating products developed in places such as London and San Francisco, but in creating solutions suited to the continent’s needs.
Sir Sam cited mobile money as an example of innovation that emerged from a practical problem: millions of Africans had mobile phones but lacked access to bank accounts.
He said the development of mobile money demonstrated Africa’s capacity to create solutions that respond to local conditions.
He warned, however, that the next wave of technologies—including artificial intelligence, data and automation—could deepen the continent’s dependence on external providers if it failed to build local expertise.
Sir Sam also called for enterprise to be treated as a respected career path, arguing that Africa needed more young people who created businesses and jobs rather than focusing only on securing government employment.
He said the continent had the people, resources, and ideas needed to advance, but required the habits and investments that would turn its potential into prosperity.