Gambia Seeks Ghana’s Support in Building National AI Capacity
The Gambia has expressed interest in working with Ghana to strengthen its artificial intelligence infrastructure and human capacity, describing Ghana as one of the countries in Africa making significant progress in the development and deployment of AI.
The Gambian Minister, speaking at the ongoing UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during Heads of Africa delegation group regional meeting, called on Ghana’s Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation to share its experiences, systems and expertise with other African countries seeking to develop their own AI ecosystems.
He said The Gambia was ready to learn from countries that had already made progress rather than attempting to develop every component independently.
According to him, Ghana’s experience in developing AI infrastructure, training human capital and implementing digital skills programmes offers valuable lessons for other countries on the continent.
“We plan to learn from those who have already gone beyond and see what they are able to do, what were the logistics put in place and the type of curriculum that you have already, so that we don’t need to make mistakes and we learn from best practice,” he said.
The Gambian Minister particularly appealed to Ghana to support his country in understanding the systems and institutional arrangements Ghana has put in place to advance AI development.
He said The Gambia was willing to welcome Ghanaian expertise and engage with the Ministry to learn from Ghana’s experiences and adapt relevant approaches to its own national circumstances.
The intervention comes after Ghana announced plans to invest US$250 million over the next two years in AI computing infrastructure, with the intention of developing the facility as a regional resource rather than solely for Ghana.
Ghana’s Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation,
Hon. Samuel Nartey George, has argued that African countries do not necessarily need to duplicate expensive computing infrastructure in every country.
Instead, he has proposed regional infrastructure hubs that can provide high-performance computing resources to researchers, universities and technology start-ups across neighbouring countries.
The Gambian Minister’s call reinforces Ghana’s position that such infrastructure can become part of a broader African digital ecosystem, enabling countries to share expertise, technology and resources.
The development also highlights the growing interest among African countries in learning from one another as the continent seeks to build greater technological sovereignty and reduce dependence on computing infrastructure and expertise located outside Africa.
Ghana says it remains open to working with other African countries, UNESCO and international partners to develop a shared approach to AI infrastructure, skills development, responsible data governance and ethical AI deployment.
