African governments must focus on implementing policies to help lay a solid foundation for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), First Deputy Governor, Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, has said.
That, he said, would help countries in the African region to harness the full potential of AI while mitigating its risks.
Speaking last week at the Second Emerging Countries International Conference on Business, Finance and Economics, Dr Opoku-Afari said the past decade had witnessed significant shifts in the technological space driven by rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence.
He said as a result, the global economy is slowly being transformed and opportunities are being created in the process through revolutionising productivity and driving growth.
The programme organised by the Faculty of Law and Management at the University of Mauritius, The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, at Stellenbosch University, and the University of Ghana Business School, was on the theme “The Intersection Between AI, Productivity and Growth in Emerging Countries.”
He said Artificial Intelligence (AI) was transforming the global economy, revolutionising productivity, and driving growth.
Dr Opoku-Afari said from 2022 to 2024, AI had significantly influenced various sectors, driving innovation and prompting critical discussions on its societal impact.
“AI has come to stay and so let us embrace its positive impact on the economy and allow it to shape our future. There are those who harbour the destructive fears of AI on labour dynamics. While many studies have predicted the likelihood that jobs will be replaced by AI, what we do know in fact is that in many of the cases that have examined, AI is likely to complement human work. This complementarity is expected to enhance productivity in the long run,” he stated.
The First Deputy Governor said African governments must invest in digital infrastructure, enhance human capital through the up skilling of the workforce through education and training, fostering local innovation and encouraging home-grown tech start-ups would help build a resilient local ecosystem capable of developing solutions tailored to meet the unique challenge of the African continent.
In Ghana, for example, Dr Opoku-Afari said the introduction of AI-enabled digital banking services was being harnessed to simplify credit scoring, allowing Small and Medium-scale Enterprise to access much-needed financing.
That, he said in turn, boosts entrepreneurial activity, spurs job creation, and strengthens the economy.
Significant proportion of the population, Dr Opoku-Afari said in Ghana Start-ups like Farmerline, used AI-powered platforms to provide farmers with weather forecasts, market prices, and access to funding.
He stressed that policymakers should develop regulations that
promote ethical AI use while protecting workers from potential job losses due to automation and strengthening partnerships between governments, academia, and private sectors could facilitate knowledge sharing and drive innovation.
The First Deputy Governor said by 2030, AI was expected to contribute over $15 trillion to the global economy.
“While much of this growth is predicted to occur in advanced economies, emerging countries have unique opportunities to leapfrog traditional developmental trajectories by embracing AI. They can only do this by reforming, putting in place appropriate policies and institutions and developing capacity. The curricula at the universities must change to reflect these changing times,” Dr Opoku-Afari stated
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
