Experts call for AI skills development in Africa's education sector

[Re-posted from africannews.com ]

By: Jerry Fisayo-Bambi

Experts in emerging technologies have called for upskilling and reskilling in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within academia in Africa. The call comes as the AI revolution is underway, with tremendous potential to transform digital economies, including those in the Global South.

Speaking at the Deep Tech Summit in the university town of Benguerir, Morocco, Khalid Badou, Chief of Staff and Director of Institutional Affairs at UM6P (Mohammed VI Polytechnic University), said that as AI becomes inevitable, it is important to adopt and adapt it to meet the needs of the education sector while establishing the necessary policies and regulations to ensure its ethical use.

According to Badou, UM6P has become the first university on the continent to adopt Openai's ChatGPT and is already seeing the impact of using this transformative tool, once feared by many for its potential to disrupt academia and the education sector.

However, Badou believes that while UM6P is pioneering in this field, the African education sector as a whole has a significant opportunity to seize.

“Across the world, everyone is starting from the same point; everyone is discovering what AI can do, how to manage it, and trying to understand how it will impact our daily lives—in industry, in universities, and beyond.”

“Today, we’re all leapfrogging at the same time. This presents an opportunity not just for us, but for everyone,” he added.

AI innovation can be transformative for Africa

The summit, themed “Redefining Progress: How AI is Transforming Innovation in Deep Tech,” aimed to explore and encourage collaborative AI experiences through brainstorming sessions and the testing of new ideas.

Badou said that with the many benefits of deep tech, spanning health, fintech, and agriculture, AI can become a key driver of socio-economic development in Africa.

“Africa should not wait for others to draft a code of conduct on AI covering various aspects before embracing it; it must create its own,” he emphasised.

Many experts and analysts in the tech sector also pointed out that with the continent’s digitally savvy youth population, AI has the potential to be just as transformative for Africa as infrastructure investments, especially in areas like food security and healthcare.

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