Africa Pushes for Seat at AI Governance Table as Global Commission Takes Shape
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame will co-chair a new international body tasked with steering the next phase of artificial intelligence development, in a move that signals growing continental ambition to shape, rather than simply adapt to, global technology policy.
The AI for Good Global Commission, launched this week by international leaders, brings together governments, corporations and multilateral institutions to drive equitable access to AI and narrow the global digital divide. Kagame will share the chair with Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff.
The commission’s inaugural sitting is set for 7–10 July at the ITU AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva – part of Digital Week, which also hosts the first UN-mandated Global Dialogue on AI Governance and the WSIS Forum 2026.
SAP’s Africa director of government affairs and CSR, Sunil Geness, who will attend the Geneva talks, said Africa must enter the room with a defined agenda rather than a posture of caution.
“Our agenda should be simple and bold: AI governance that expands prosperity. That means compute access, skills investment, trusted data systems, open standards, local-language innovation, accountable public procurement, and regulation that protects people without suffocating entrepreneurs,” he said.
Geness urged African states to convert the African Union’s Continental AI Strategy from a policy document into concrete national roadmaps and investment pipelines, and called for the continent’s 54 nations to align positions before entering multilateral negotiations.
The ITU estimates that some 2.2 billion people worldwide, roughly one quarter of the global population, remain offline and effectively locked out of AI-driven economic opportunities. Bridging that gap is central to the commission’s mandate.
Kagame framed the technology’s promise in terms of obligation. “Technology is supposed to be a force for good, and we have a responsibility to use it accordingly,” he said.
Benioff linked commercial opportunity to the question of public trust, saying the economic promise of AI depended on a foundation of confidence in the technology.
ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who serves as the commission’s vice-chair, said no single organisation could deliver on AI’s potential alone. “It will take collective leadership and the combined expertise of partners from across sectors to ensure AI benefits all people, everywhere,” she said.
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