Africa Is the World’s Next Data Gold Mine – Sam George at Pan African AI Summit

The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Hon. Samuel Nartey George (MP), has hailed Africa’s emergence as a global data powerhouse, describing the continent as the world’s next “gold mine” because of its vast data resources.

Speaking at the Pan African AI Summit in Accra yesterday, Hon. George highlighted Africa’s youthful population as the biggest driver of the data economy. He noted that by 2030, one in every four people globally will be African, with the continent’s median age at just 23.

“This youthful population generates massive amounts of data which, if harnessed under strong policies, can be transformed into a powerful global resource,” he said.

The Minister warned against Africa’s continued dependence on foreign data systems, citing studies that show U.S. Homeland Security records only 49 percent accuracy when processing information on black males, due to limited African datasets.

Outlining Ghana’s AI roadmap, Hon. George said the government’s immediate priorities are agriculture, healthcare, and education. These, he explained, would strengthen food security, improve last-mile healthcare delivery, and bridge the digital divide.

As part of Ghana’s contribution to a continental strategy, the Minister announced plans to host an “Africa Tech Davos” in Accra next year. The event is expected to convene ICT ministers, global technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle, alongside African innovators to chart a unified AI agenda.

Language, he added, remains a major barrier in AI adoption. “Many agri-tech tools using drone or satellite imagery are inaccessible to local farmers in Bono or Damongo because they operate only in English,” he explained.

To overcome this, Ghanaian universities have been tasked to build large language models (LLMs) in Twi, Ga, and Nzema, with progress ongoing in Ewe and Dagbani. At the continental level, efforts are also underway to develop models in Hausa, Yoruba, Creole, and Swahili.

Hon. George further stressed the need for data-driven governance, urging policymakers to move away from sentiment-based decisions. He described AI as a critical tool to automate repetitive tasks and free human capacity for higher-level reasoning, while cautioning that AI “must never replace human grey matter.”