AUDA – NEPAD leads the continental charge to forging AI Sovereignty from Minerals to Microchips
PRETORIA, 15 April 2026. The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (CAISD), represented by Dr William Makwinja, will be attending the Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, from 20 to 22 April 2026. The organisation is attending to place AI-driven sustainable development at the very heart of Africa’s push to convert its vast critical mineral resources into locally manufactured microchips securing technological sovereignty, creating high-value jobs, and accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals across the continent.
CAISD will join leading policymakers, investors, technologists, and industry leaders at the Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum organised under the theme From the Ground Up: Africa’s Minerals-To-Microchips Moment, the event hosted by AUDA-NEPAD, the African Academy of Sciences, and partners including CSIR and NINA JOJER. This marks a pivotal gathering to translate the continent’s vast mineral wealth into a self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem. For CAISD, we are dedicated to harnessing high-fidelity AI for sustainable economic and environmental progress. Our participation will not be merely attendance; it will be a strategic imperative to ensure that Africa’s emerging chip industry powers responsible, context-specific AI solutions that advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063.
Africa’s Minerals-to-Microchips Opportunity
The global semiconductor market is moving ahead. Projections indicate revenues could surpass US$1.3 trillion in 2026, driven largely by artificial intelligence infrastructure, with generative AI chips alone potentially accounting for nearly half of industry revenues. Memory and non-memory segments are surging amid what analysts’ term “memflation,” as demand for data centres, edge computing, and connected devices skyrockets. Yet Africa remains almost entirely dependent on imports. The continent consumes billions of dollars’ worth of chips annually for mobile phones, IoT devices, automotive systems, and emerging digital services but designs, fabricates, and manufactures virtually none. This import reliance exposes economies to supply-chain shocks, currency volatility, and geopolitical risks, while draining foreign exchange that could fund local innovation.
Africa’s opportunity lies in its unparalleled endowment of critical minerals. The continent holds approximately 30% of the world’s reserves of materials essential for AI hardware and semiconductor production including cobalt (largely from the Democratic Republic of Congo), lithium, graphite, tantalum, and rare earth elements. These resources currently fuel global supply chains, yet Africa captures only about 10% of the downstream revenue. Raw exports dominate, with minimal value addition through processing, wafer fabrication, or chip assembly.
The forum’s agenda directly confronts this gap. Day One (20 April) sets the stage with keynote addresses on Africa’s place in the global semiconductor surge, a continental market trend briefing on chip demand in mobile, IoT, and automotive sectors, and Panel 1 on financing industrial transformation from mineral wealth to semiconductor markets. Subsequent sessions map the full value chain, explore demand-side anchors from telecoms and data centres, and launch initiatives like the African Research and Technology Organisations Alliance (ARTOA).
Africa’s Transformative Leap to Jobs, Sovereignty and Sustainable AI
This “minerals-to-microchips” vision is transformative for Africa. First, it promises economic diversification beyond commodity exports. Integrated semiconductor production could generate high-skilled jobs, foster ancillary industries (packaging, testing, design), and create multiplier effects across manufacturing. Under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a unified market of 1.4 billion people offers the scale needed to justify local fabs turning potential anchor customers in telecom, automotive, and government procurement into drivers of domestic supply. Second, it advances technological sovereignty. Reliance on foreign chips limits Africa’s ability to tailor digital infrastructure to local realities, whether for low-power edge devices in rural agriculture or secure data centres respecting data sovereignty. Third, and crucially for sustainable development, local production aligns with green and ethical imperatives.
By embedding circular economy principles recycling e-waste, powering fabs with renewables, and minimising environmental footprints in mineral processing Africa can avoid the pitfalls of extractive models elsewhere. Finally, it supercharges the digital economy. Semiconductors are the bedrock of AI deployment: without affordable, reliable chips, initiatives in precision agriculture, predictive mining maintenance, climate-resilient healthcare, and fintech inclusion remain constrained by latency, cost, and import barriers.
Positioning CAISD work on Sovereign AI as the Heart of Africa’s Semiconductor Strategy
CAISD’s mission positions it uniquely to contribute to and benefit from this moment. Established to empower continental stakeholders through advanced R&D, ethical governance, and context-specific AI models, CAISD envisions Africa as a global leader in high-fidelity artificial intelligence for sustainable development. Our core objectives include harnessing AI for SDGs across high-impact sectors: precision farming using satellite imagery and IoT for yield prediction; computer vision for mining safety and predictive maintenance; alternative-data credit scoring in fintech to serve the unbanked; and climate resilience tools. Yet as CAISD, we recognise a fundamental truth that sophisticated AI cannot thrive on imported hardware alone. Our projects at CAISD rely heavily on IoT sensors, edge devices, and compute infrastructure, all semiconductor dependent.
Mining safety AI, for instance, demands rugged, low-power chips for real-time computer vision in harsh environments. Precision agriculture IoT requires affordable, energy-efficient processors for off-grid deployment. Data sovereignty initiatives call for local data centres powered by home-grown chips rather than foreign cloud dependency. By attending the forum, CAISD will champion the integration of AI requirements into Africa’s semiconductor roadmap. This includes advocating for chip designs optimised for African use cases which is characterised by low-energy, resilient to power fluctuations, and supportive of “Human-in-the-Loop” ethical oversight.
Participation also aligns with CAISD’s policy advocacy pillar by contributing to discussions on local content requirements, preferential procurement, and tax incentives that accelerate local supply. For CAISD, the forum represents more than networking it is an opportunity to embed sustainable, AI-centric principles at the foundation of Africa’s semiconductor journey. Expected outcomes include strengthened alliances for pilot chip applications in CAISD focus sectors, contributions to the proposed Africa Semiconductor Advisory Group, and actionable commitments on talent and policy that accelerate responsible AI scaling. As the continent moves from mineral exporter to microchip innovator, CAISD stands ready to ensure this transition delivers not just economic growth, but equitable, ethical, and environmentally sound progress.
Strategic Engagements
The forum’s programme offers rich entry points for CAISD expertise. On 21 April, the Ministerial Panel “Sovereign by Design” will examine how governments shape innovation ecosystems exactly where CAISD’s work on AI ethics, risk assessment and regulatory frameworks can help shape national strategies. The launch of the African Research and Technology Organisations Alliance (ARTOA) and the Panel on Global Partnerships for Integration will open doors for tech-transfer and joint-venture alliances with multinational chipmakers. CAISD’s talent-development focus aligns closely with the 22 April Roundtable “Building Africa’s Semiconductor Talent Pipeline, from Classroom to Cleanroom.” Drawing on its academic engagements with institutions such as BIUST in Botswana, CUT of Free state and NUST Namibia, CAISD will help map critical workforce gaps in AI-chip co-design, materials science and cleanroom operations while proposing ready-to-launch university-industry compacts. Financing roundtables and investment matchmaking sessions will give CAISD the platform to spotlight blended-finance models that de-risk AI-aligned semiconductor projects.
Dr Thulani Dlamini, CEO of the CSIR, and AUDA-NEPAD leadership already central to the keynote programme represent natural collaborators that CAISD can established ties with. Through active participation in value-chain mapping and demand-side panels, CAISD will demonstrate how organised procurement commitments from AI end-users (governments and enterprises) can anchor investor confidence and accelerate local fabrication.
Expected Outcomes and the Road Ahead
In Nairobi this April, CAISD’s presence will send a clear message that, Africa’s AI future must be built on African silicon. The minerals-to-microchips moment has arrived and through strategic collaboration it will power a sustainable, sovereign digital transformation for generations to come. Participation is expected to deliver concrete results of strengthened alliances for pilot AI-chip applications in precision agriculture and mining safety; direct contributions to the newly announced Africa Semiconductor Advisory Group; and firm commitments on local-content requirements and talent pipelines that will speed up responsible scaling.
As Dr William Makwinja prepares to depart from Pretoria for the forum, CAISD’s message is unambiguous: Africa can leapfrog legacy models and create a sovereign, sustainable digital economy that truly serves its people first. The minerals are already in the ground, the talent is rising, the policy momentum is building. With CAISD’s voice and Dr William Makwinja’s leadership at the table, Africa is ready to turn its minerals-to-microchips moment into a lasting platform for inclusive, AI-powered prosperity.
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