Brazzaville, 1 March 2021 (ECA) - The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the International Telecommunications Union, is undertaking final arrangements for the establishment of the very first African Artificial Intelligence Research Centre in Republic of the Congo.
A partnership agreement in this regard will be signed between the Republic of the Congo and ECA during the official opening ceremony of the 7th session of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD2021) on 3 March 2020. Artificial intelligence (AI), which could contribute $ 15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, is expected to double the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, facilitate further scientific advances, and improve the ways through which humans learn.
The ECA communications team asked Mactar Seck, a key player in the design of this project within the Technology, Climate and Natural Resources Division (TCND) at ECA, to shed light on the ECA-Congo partnership on AI.
Question: ECA is accompanying Congo to set up an Artificial Intelligence Centre. Why the choice of Congo?
Answer: We must first be cognisant of the fact that information technologies and innovation play an important role in the socio-economic development of countries, especially those of the African continent.
You can also see that Africa has made enormous progress in these technologies. Artificial intelligence is one of the emerging technologies and according to various studies, it offers more development opportunities to the continent and could significantly contribute to creating more jobs.
And, the world is projected to witness a 33% growth in the artificial intelligence economy over the next five years; not to mention that the sector can generate up to 4.3 billion dollars for the African continent within that time.
The choice of Congo takes into account the special relations that ECA has with the country, in particular the establishment of an information and communication platform for health and economic action in order to combat COVID-19. Congo has shown leadership in addressing the pandemic and has a progressive university environment which presents many opportunities for the development of technologies and the vision of President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
These are the factors which have led us and our partners to work on setting up, in Congo, an Artificial Intelligence Centre which will serve the whole of Africa.
So, what exactly will this centre develop?
It will be the first initiative of this kind on the African continent. This Centre will not only develop artificial intelligence in the country; but also at the level of Africa; due to the opportunities I have stated hitherto but also help to tackle some ethical issues around AI.
We are talking about an African Centre. It will therefore require collaboration between the Congo and other African countries. How do you plan to organise such collaboration?
Of course, this will require very close collaboration between the Congo and the countries of the sub-region, as well as all the other countries of the continent. It will pursue opportunities to partner with the major artificial intelligence research centres around the world.
In collaboration with its partners, ECA intends to support African countries and will do everything in its power to ensure that the Centre can be a vehicle for improving research in artificial intelligence for the benefit of all African countries. We are going to develop a work program and research areas on which the Centre will focus.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org