President Dr Julius Maada Bio has warned African countries against repeating historical economic patterns in the emerging artificial intelligence era, urging the continent to play a greater role in developing, governing and benefiting from technologies that will increasingly shape the global economy.
President Bio made the statement on Monday, September 21, 2026, during a high-level roundtable on artificial intelligence convened by Kenyan President William Ruto on the margins of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Addressing Heads of State and Government and other distinguished participants, President Bio raised a fundamental question about Africa’s place in the AI revolution: whether the continent would simply consume technologies developed elsewhere or assume a meaningful role in building and governing them.
He noted that although no African country could build the entire AI ecosystem alone, the continent should not accept a future in which its infrastructure, models, data and AI governance rules are largely determined elsewhere.
“We have another choice. We can build what we can build ourselves, work together where scale is necessary, protect what is sovereign and engage the rest of the world on terms that reflect our interests,” he said.
President Bio described the approach as “shared sovereignty,” arguing that African countries could achieve greater capacity and resilience by cooperating in areas where scale is necessary while retaining control over matters of national interest.
He highlighted Africa’s significant infrastructure gap, noting that although the continent is home to roughly one-fifth of humanity, it accounts for only a fraction of global data-centre capacity.
Turning to Sierra Leone, President Bio disclosed that the country is developing its first national AI strategy with support from the World Bank Group. He acknowledged the realities confronting the country, including limited internet access, particularly outside urban centres.
He stressed that Sierra Leone’s AI solutions must be adapted to local realities by working on mobile devices, functioning in low-bandwidth environments, understanding African languages and contexts, and ultimately improving people’s lives.
“For me, that is the real test. Can a farmer get better information about his crops? Can a health worker make a better-informed decision? Can a teacher use these tools to help a child learn? Can a citizen access a public service more easily?” President Bio asked.
He also called for innovative approaches to digital infrastructure, especially for smaller economies, arguing that countries should consider properly governed regional infrastructure where it could deliver greater security, resilience and capacity.
President Bio disclosed that Sierra Leone had been exploring the concept of regional data embassies, under which a country could host critical public data in another participating state while retaining clearly defined legal jurisdiction and control over that data.
“The principle is simple: sovereignty should travel with the law, not simply with the building,” he stated.
Addressing the economic implications of AI, President Bio warned that Africa must avoid reproducing the extractive patterns associated with previous economic eras.
“For generations, we have exported raw materials and imported much of the value created from them. We should be careful not to do the same thing with data,” he cautioned.
The President observed that Africa’s minerals would help power the infrastructure on which AI depends, while African people would generate the data from which AI systems learn. He therefore called for greater investment in African talent, research institutions, languages, datasets and innovation ecosystems, alongside strong protections for citizens’ privacy and rights.
He described the objective as moving “from mine to model,” ensuring that Africa participates in more stages of the value chain—from the minerals powering digital infrastructure to the models and technologies shaping the global digital economy.
On global AI governance, President Bio urged African countries to participate actively in establishing the rules governing artificial intelligence instead of waiting until major decisions had already been made.
He called for practical cooperation among interested African countries in areas including access to computing capacity, data governance, interoperability, capacity-building, safety and regulatory approaches that African institutions could realistically implement.
“That is why I believe there is merit in beginning work among interested African countries on a practical framework for shared AI sovereignty,” he said.
President Bio also invited Governments, investors and businesses to continue the discussions in Sierra Leone during the inaugural West Africa Integration and Investment Summit, scheduled for November 17 and 18, 2026. Digital transformation will be one of the summit’s four principal pillars.
He said the summit would provide an opportunity for participating countries and partners to move beyond declarations and facilitate concrete projects and partnerships.
“So, what we discuss here in New York as principle, let us begin testing in Freetown as practice,” President Bio stated.
Concluding his remarks, the President reiterated that Africa’s future in the AI era should be defined by cooperation without surrendering its agency.
“Our generation inherited an Africa whose raw materials too often created greater prosperity elsewhere than they did at home. We should not leave the next generation an Africa whose data, knowledge and intelligence do the same,” he said.
President Bio maintained that sovereignty did not mean doing everything alone, but having the capacity to choose, the ability to contribute and the power to determine the terms on which countries work with others.
“That is the kind of shared sovereignty Sierra Leone is ready to pursue with you,” President Bio concluded.
