The African Center for Economic Transformation says it will deepen its digital policy work in 2025, with a particular push on artificial intelligence, data use, and digital public infrastructure to help governments plan for the technology’s risks and opportunities.
The move follows a string of 2024 initiatives and a pledge in its 2024 annual report to launch a program helping African governments design forward-looking AI policy.
ACET plans to run AI simulations in selected countries and deliver tailored policy insights that officials can use in budgeting, regulation, and public service delivery. The think tank says this technical work will sit alongside efforts to strengthen digital public infrastructure so that countries can scale AI tools responsibly and inclusively.
The program builds on ACET’s 2024 partnerships in several countries, where it worked with governments and central banks to embed AI into economic policymaking and to test new data sources for tracking activity. Those projects, ACET says, helped shape its approach to combining analytics, policy design, and capacity building across the continent.
Beyond country work, ACET has been active convening policymakers, researchers, and civil society to foster peer learning on AI in economic policy. Its Community of Practice and public dialogues are intended to spread best practice and ensure that Africa’s adoption of AI supports better data driven governance rather than widening inequalities.
