The economic transformation driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is projected to surpass the impact of the mobile money revolution, tech leaders have predicted, urging African countries to urgently invest in local data centres and renewable energy.

Africa’s mobile money revolution sets the stage for AI growth

To understand the scale of this prediction, one must look at the current mobile money landscape. According to the latest data from the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), the global lobby for mobile network operators, Sub-Saharan Africa processes roughly $1.4 trillion annually in mobile money transactions, solidifying its place as the definitive global powerhouse for digital wallets.

Kenya remains a critical driver of this volume, with Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data showing that registered mobile money accounts hit 94.2 million by June 2026, moving hundreds of billions of shillings every month.

Speaking on the BBC Africa Enterprise, Hardy Pemhiwa, CEO of Cassava Technologies, noted that while mobile money brought millions of unbanked Africans into the financial ecosystem, AI will break down fundamental barriers like language, unlocking unprecedented human capacity and economic value.

“Where the mobile money revolution was about bringing the previously excluded into the financial ecosystem, AI is about bringing everybody else who was excluded by virtue of language,” Pemhiwa told show host Nancy Kachungira, adding that he believes the technology could have a “100x impact” compared to what mobile money achieved.

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Africa risks missing out without local AI infrastructure

However, Pemhiwa warned that Africa risks missing out on this massive economic windfall if it does not build its own digital infrastructure. Despite boasting a GDP of $3.5 trillion, Africa currently accounts for a mere 1% of the global data centre population, meaning much of the continent’s digital traffic still bounces through Europe.

This push for digital sovereignty mirrors the broader industrialization drive championed by billionaire Aliko Dangote, who has previously urged Africa to refine its own resources to create jobs rather than importing expensive finished goods.

Pemhiwa cautioned that without local AI compute platforms, Africa will repeat its historical cycle of exporting raw materials, this time raw data, only to buy back expensive finished products.

“If we don’t have our own AI compute solutions and our own digital infrastructure on the continent, we are repeating exactly the same pattern that we have seen over the years,” Pemhiwa said. “We’ve done it with cocoa; we’ve done it with minerals. The data sits here with us. It doesn’t have to be exported.”

Cassava Technologies bets on local data to power AI growth

The commercial opportunity lies in localized, proprietary data. While current global AI models have scraped the public internet, they lack deep, regional information such as 30 years of mining data in South Africa or patient records from referral hospitals in Kenya and Uganda.

Cassava Technologies is currently building a 110,000-kilometre fibre optic network from Cairo to Cape Town, with AI data factories in regional hubs like South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and Morocco to harness this data.

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Electricity shortages threaten Africa’s AI ambitions

Yet, the ambition to build massive AI compute platforms faces a formidable physical barrier: electricity. Data centres require massive, uninterrupted power, making energy resilience the bedrock of Africa’s digital economy.

This brings to the fore another glaring paradox. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Africa holds 60% of the world’s solar potential but generates just 1% of global solar power.

Renewable energy investment faces early-stage funding challenges

Linda Mabhena-Olagunju, founder of DLO Energy Resources Group, a local independent power producer that recently helped raise $350 million for a wind farm powering 300,000 homes, explained on BBC Africa Enterprise that the primary bottleneck is a severe deficit in early-stage risk capital.

“Most of the funding we need on this continent is for early-stage development. When there’s a piece of land that has absolutely nothing on it, when it requires permitting, a feasibility study, grid studies… no one is looking at deploying capital to the early-stage risk,” Mabhena-Olagunju noted.

She warned that with the rise of AI, the most critical global infrastructure will be the grid, electricity, and water. Failing to address early-stage funding means failing to build the volume of power projects the continent desperately needs to keep its digital economy online.

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Governments urged to create investor-friendly energy policies

To unlock this, Mabhena-Olagunju called for clear regulatory frameworks and integrated resource plans at the government level, which would give investors the confidence to deploy capital.

Local investment could keep AI and renewable energy wealth in Africa

Crucially, she argued that the energy transition must be driven by local capital to prevent the economic leakage that has historically plagued African infrastructure projects.

“When you have massive foreign participation and shareholding, that’s capital outflows. That money leaves,” she stated. “When you have a local developer, the dividends we make stay on this continent. We should really be thinking about how we invest in local developers and local manufacturers because the job is created here.”