By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
Cassava Technologies
President and CEO Hardy Pemhiwa has called for greater African ownership and
investment in artificial intelligence (AI) compute infrastructure, arguing that
the continent’s ability to capture the economic value of AI will depend on where
the underlying infrastructure is located and who owns it.
Pemhiwa said AI should be
viewed not only as a software revolution but also as an infrastructure
revolution, with implications extending beyond the technology sector into
agriculture, education, healthcare, financial services, retail, mining and
government.
Responding to a question
about why Cassava Technologies is investing significant capital in AI compute
infrastructure, Pemhiwa said the more important question is where the
productive capacity supporting AI will be located, where African data will be
stored, where models will run, who will own and finance compute infrastructure
and where the resulting economic value will accumulate.
He said Africa will adopt AI
across key sectors, including banks, mines, farms, hospitals, schools and
government institutions, but argued that every one of these applications will
require access to compute infrastructure.
In agriculture, Pemhiwa
identified potential applications including yield forecasting, pest and disease
detection and input optimisation for smallholder farmers. In education, AI
could support personalised learning and teachers in areas facing shortages,
while healthcare systems could use AI for diagnostic support and triage where
specialist capacity is limited.
He also highlighted
opportunities in financial services to extend credit to people and businesses
without formal credit histories, as well as demand forecasting and supply-chain
optimisation in retail. In mining, AI could support geological interpretation,
predictive maintenance and safety, while governments could use the technology
to deliver more responsive and accessible public services at lower cost.
Pemhiwa said Africa has
historically demonstrated technological capability, citing examples ranging
from the manuscript traditions of Timbuktu to the work of Egyptian-American
engineer Mohamed Atalla on the MOSFET. However, he said the continent has struggled
to institutionalise and industrialise innovation at sufficient scale and for
sustained periods.
“Talent can be individual.
Technological power is institutional,” Pemhiwa said.
He argued that compute
should therefore be considered alongside energy, ports and broadband as
productive infrastructure and an economic development issue rather than solely
a technology concern.
Pemhiwa called for
cooperation among governments, the African Union, African development finance
institutions (DFIs) and African companies to build the continent’s AI
infrastructure capacity.
He said governments should
provide supportive policies and sensible regulation, while the African Union
should coordinate continental efforts to prevent AI from being approached as 54
separate challenges.
African DFIs, he said,
should provide long-term capital to de-risk AI infrastructure and attract
global investors to African companies, while African businesses should invest,
build, operate and compete in the AI sector.
Pemhiwa said Cassava
Technologies is pursuing the private-sector component of this agenda through
its more than 116,000 kilometres of fibre, continental footprint of open-access
data centres and investments in AI factories.
He said Africa will consume
AI, use models developed elsewhere and partner with leading global technology
companies, but maintained that the continent should own and operate a
meaningful share of the infrastructure supporting its AI economy.
According to Pemhiwa,
Cassava Technologies’ responsibility is to ensure that the next generation of
African innovators and entrepreneurs has access to the infrastructure needed to
build the continent’s digital economy.
