Artificial Intelligence Governance in Africa: Institutional Capacity, Regulation and Policy Implementation

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In Africa, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming part of the economic policy-making process, public administration, service delivery and technological development. Governments are preparing national AI strategies, creating institutional structures and joining in new continental and global governance efforts. The African Union's 2024 adoption of the Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy is an important milestone in the journey toward a coordinated African approach to AI governance (African Union [AU], 2024). But having a strategy or rules does not always mean it is implemented. This article explores the intersection of institutional capacity, regulation and policy implementation in the context of AI governance in Africa. The article presents the evidence from the recent African Union, OECD, UNESCO, World Bank and national AI institutions in Nigeria, and suggests that the reality of the problem is now more about implementation capacity than just about missing policies. African governments are constrained by complex challenges related to digital infrastructure, computing power, data management, technical skills, institutional coordination, finance and regulatory oversight. Infrastructure and compute challenges, lack of funding, and institutional coordination difficulties, as well as a shortage of AI-specific regulatory expertise, are all shared challenges across the countries (OECD, 2026). World Bank also states that connectivity, compute, data and skills are key prerequisites for meaningful AI adoption and governance (World Bank, 2025). The article concludes that the effective governance of AI in Africa demands to build the technical capacity of the public sector, create measurable mechanisms for implementation, foster inter-agency coordination, invest in building capacity to cooperate across the continent, and strengthen existing regulatory institutions. AI governance is thus more than a technology or regulatory matter; it is a governance challenge concerning state capacity and institutional effectiveness. In sum, this paper examines institutional capacity and regulation for AI governance in Africa, focusing on the specific issue of how to implement policy. This paper discusses institutional capacity and regulation for AI governance in Africa, particularly the question of the implementation of policy.