Amazon Web Services (AWS) is signalling continued investment in Africa, as demand for cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) gains significant momentum across the continent.
The company says since 2018, it has invested over $819 million in infrastructure on the African continent, with over one million Africans trained in cloud and AI skills.
Speaking recently at the AWS Summit Johannesburg, Jyoti Ball, GM for Sub-Saharan Africa at AWS, said the company’s Africa strategy is increasingly focused on enabling local developers and businesses to build solutions for regional markets, rather than simply consuming technology developed elsewhere.
“We've committed a further $1.5 billion until 2029, and we've brought 154 services to our Cape Town cloud region. AWS sees the current AI cycle as another opportunity for Africa to bypass some of the infrastructure and technology stages followed by more developed markets,” Ball said.
The investments come as AWS positions Africa as an important market for the firm – one where businesses can use AI to address challenges specific to the continent, while African developers increasingly build technology for local and international markets.
Ball used the development of mobile connectivity and mobile money to illustrate how African markets have previously adopted technologies without following the same development path as wealthier economies.
She pointed to SA’s transition from relatively limited mobile connectivity in the early 1990s, to more than 100 million mobile connections, as well as the rapid development of mobile financial services across the continent.
“Africa did not wait for conventional banking infrastructure to become widespread before developing large-scale mobile payment systems. Mobile money has subsequently become a significant financial channel across the continent.”
The same pattern could now emerge with AI, particularly as African companies develop applications addressing problems in sectors such as agriculture, financial services and insurance, she noted.
Ball added that Africa's AI market is projected to reach $16.5 billion by 2030, growing at 27%, according to Mastercard. She also referenced the International Monetary Fund’s assessment that AI could add four percentage points to Africa's GDP if the right foundations are established.
SMEs put AI to work
Ball highlighted several examples of African companies using cloud and AI technologies to develop products and expand their operations.
One local fintech firm serving the informal retail economy has used a generative AI-based know-your-customer compliance engine to make it economically viable to serve customer segments that had previously been difficult to reach.
In another example, an insurance company in East Africa used an AI agent and Amazon technology to move a product from concept to production in 20 days, according to Ball.
Cape Town-based agritech company Aerobotics was also cited during the presentation. The company uses AI through Amazon SageMaker, combining drone, satellite and mobile imagery to monitor the health of 65 million trees.
Ball said Aerobotics has used AWS's global infrastructure to expand into 18 countries, including the US, where it has become a leading agritech company.
“These examples form part of AWS's broader argument that AI adoption in Africa is moving beyond experimentation, with companies using the technology to tackle operational and commercial problems.”
Targeting AI skills gap
For AWS, expanding infrastructure is only one component of building the African cloud and AI ecosystem, she continued. The company is also putting resources into skills development, with the aim to train millions more people across the continent in cloud and AI capabilities.
Ball said the objective is to increase the ability of African developers to create and control AI-based products, rather than leaving the continent primarily as a consumer of technologies developed elsewhere.
“The most important way of innovation, I believe, is going to come from all of you, from the builders in this room solving real problems for real communities with tools that finally match your ambitions. And it's our job at AWS to make sure nothing stands between you and what you're trying to build.”
Ball said AWS intends to continue expanding infrastructure and capacity across Africa, while bringing more cloud services closer to developers and customers.
Its longer-term ambition is tied to the emergence of African companies that develop AI applications for the continent and then take those solutions into international markets.
“When I look forward, what excites me most is Africans on the continent not just consuming AI, but building AI and owning AI.”
Share
