African researchers need to develop artificial intelligence systems grounded in the continent’s languages, data and realities if the technology is to deliver meaningful solutions to its most pressing challenges, experts have said.
The call was made during a five-day Artificial Intelligence Summer School held at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) from August 24 to 28, 2026, focusing on strengthening the mathematical and technical foundations needed to develop AI solutions.
The summer school brought together researchers drawn from Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Benin, USA, Uganda, Cameroon, Cote D’ivoire, China and India among others.
Prof. Daniel Burns, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, said the training was part of efforts to strengthen African research capacity and enable scientists on the continent to develop AI suited to local needs.
The push comes as artificial intelligence expands into various sectors of the Kenyan economy, raising a critical question for Africa: whether, as consumers of AI designed elsewhere, Africans can adequately address the continent’s distinct languages, datasets and challenges.
Prof. Anthony Waititu, mathematics and statistics expert from JKUAT, said, the question goes beyond how Africans use AI to whether they understand and have the capacity to develop the technology themselves.
But why should someone who is not a mathematician care about what happens beneath the AI tools they use every day?
Prof. Waititu said, mathematics is at the heart of artificial intelligence, forming the foundation of the algorithms that enable machines to learn from data, identify patterns and make predictions.
This understanding according to him, could determine whether researchers are able to build models that work with local datasets, recognize African languages and respond to challenges that may be poorly represented in systems developed in other parts of the world.
JKUAT Vice Chancellor, Prof. Victoria Ngumi stated that African universities had to develop the expertise needed to create AI applications that respond to the realities of their communities.
Her remarks were delivered by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Administration and Finance, Prof. Bernard Ikua, who represented her during the opening of the academy.
“We must develop the capacity to ask our own questions, build our own models, generate and curate our own datasets, and develop AI applications that respond to African context and priorities,” Prof. Ngumi said.
She said Africa’s challenges in agriculture, food security, climate resilience, healthcare, infrastructure, education, energy, natural resource management and urbanization required researchers who understood both the technology and the environments in which it would be deployed.
“AI can contribute to addressing these challenges but only if our researchers with contextual understanding are equipped to connect the technology with the realities of our communities,” she said.
She said universities had a central role in building that capacity because they were responsible not only for teaching existing knowledge but also for creating new knowledge, developing human capacity and fostering innovation.
The need for locally grounded expertise was also underscored by Dr Omolola Ogbolumani, a Nigerian electrical and electronics engineer and lecturer at the University of Lagos, whose research focuses on applying AI and machine learning to food, energy and water systems.
She said African researchers needed to look beyond the technology itself and focus on how AI could be applied to the continent’s pressing challenges, including food security, energy management, water access and environmental sustainability.
The academy was hosted by JKUAT’s Departments of Pure and Applied Mathematics and Mining, Materials and Petroleum Engineering in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Michigan Center for Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics (MCAIM) and Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society.
