Reinventing Digital Inclusion / DAVOS 2025

Summary

This panel discussion at the World Economic Forum focused on addressing the digital divide and leveraging new technologies like AI to promote inclusive growth, particularly in Africa. The conversation highlighted the Edison Alliance’s success in connecting over 1 billion people to broadband, emphasizing the importance of locally-led initiatives. Panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, with some seeing it as a potential tool for development while others warned it could exacerbate existing inequalities.

A major theme was the lack of venture capital and startup funding in Africa, which panelists identified as a key barrier to fostering digital entrepreneurship and innovation on the continent. They called for more equitable access to capital, including from domestic sources like pension funds. The discussion also touched on the need to build digital infrastructure and compute capacity within Africa to ensure technological sovereignty.

Panelists emphasized the importance of digital literacy programs and device access to enable widespread adoption of new technologies. They debated approaches to motivating digital skills development, with some advocating for targeted use cases that don’t require cutting-edge hardware. The conversation concluded by acknowledging both the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging technologies, with African leaders expressing determination to build homegrown solutions and infrastructure to drive the continent’s digital future.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– Closing the digital divide and expanding access to connectivity, especially in Africa

– The need for more venture capital and funding for African startups and entrepreneurs

– The potential impacts and challenges of AI, including access to compute power and AI chips

– Building digital literacy and skills, particularly among youth and women

– The role of public-private partnerships in advancing digital development

Overall purpose/goal:

The discussion aimed to explore ways to close the digital divide and ensure equitable access to digital technologies, especially AI, in developing regions like Africa. Panelists discussed both challenges and potential solutions to advance digital inclusion and innovation.

Tone:

The tone was largely serious and urgent, with panelists emphasizing the critical importance of addressing digital inequalities. There were moments of optimism about potential solutions, but also frustration about persistent barriers. The tone became more passionate when discussing the need for African-led initiatives and access to cutting-edge technologies like AI chips.

Speakers

– Karen Tso: CNBC anchor of Squawk Box Europe

– Fatoumata Ba: Founder and Executive Chair of Django Capital

– Paula Ingabire: Minister of Innovation, Technology and Innovation of Rwanda

– Strive Masiyiwa: Founder and Executive Chairman, Cassava Technologies

– Robert F. Smith: Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vista Equity Partners

Additional speakers:

– Audience member: Luana Janot from IDBR Brazil, based in Rio de Janeiro

Expanded Summary of World Economic Forum Panel Discussion on Digital Divide and AI

This panel discussion at the World Economic Forum focused on addressing the digital divide and leveraging new technologies like AI to promote inclusive growth, particularly in Africa. The conversation brought together leaders from the private sector, government, and entrepreneurship to explore challenges and opportunities in digital development.

Edison Alliance Success and Digital Divide

The discussion began by highlighting the success of the Edison Alliance, an initiative born out of the realisation that 3.5 to 3.6 billion people lacked access to broadband. Robert F. Smith reported that the Alliance has connected 1.2 billion people to broadband, ahead of schedule. Karen Tso added that the Alliance has launched 300 initiatives globally, impacting one billion lives. This achievement set the stage for discussing the next phase of digital development, particularly in Africa.

Panellists agreed on the critical importance of closing the digital divide but offered different perspectives on how to achieve this goal. Paula Ingabire emphasised the need to democratise access to compute capacity and AI training models, while Strive Masiyiwa insisted that compute infrastructure for Africa must be built within the continent to ensure technological sovereignty. Fatoumata Ba, co-founder of Africa’s first unicorn and current head of Django Capital, highlighted the specific barriers faced by women in digital access, literacy, and access to capital.

Digital Entrepreneurship and Access to Capital in Africa

A major theme of the discussion was the lack of venture capital and startup funding in Africa, which panellists identified as a key barrier to fostering digital entrepreneurship and innovation on the continent. Strive Masiyiwa pointed out the need for equity funding rather than debt for startups and called for more domestic venture capital. Fatoumata Ba noted the inequitable access to funding, with concentration in few countries, and shared that 48% of global mobile money activity is in Africa. Paula Ingabire discussed the potential role of government in providing catalytic financing for startups.

The conversation highlighted a striking statistic shared by Fatoumata Ba: African women have the highest rate of female entrepreneurship globally at 26%, yet face a $42 billion funding gap according to the African Development Bank. This underscored the potential for women-led businesses in Africa and the urgent need to address funding disparities.

Impact of AI on Jobs and Productivity

The discussion then turned to the potential impacts of AI on employment and economic productivity. Robert F. Smith predicted that AI will create massive productivity gains but put knowledge worker jobs at risk. He explained how AI agents in enterprise systems can work continuously, creating significant efficiency improvements. Smith advised businesses, particularly small ones, to invest in software to leverage AI capabilities, noting that not all AI applications require high-end chips like H100s, and many solutions can be implemented with less powerful hardware. He gave a specific example of using AI for property and casualty insurance claims without needing high-end hardware.

Paula Ingabire emphasised the need to identify AI use cases to transform public sector delivery and stressed the importance of building human capital to drive AI adoption. This highlighted a consensus among speakers on the transformative potential of AI, but also the need for careful implementation and skills development.

Geopolitics and Access to AI Technology

The conversation touched on the geopolitical dimensions of AI development, particularly around access to advanced computing infrastructure. Strive Masiyiwa forcefully argued that “compute for Africa will have to be in Africa,” emphasising the importance of technological sovereignty. Paula Ingabire suggested that geopolitical issues may force new partnerships to be forged for AI access and stressed the need for regional and global collaboration in addressing AI risks and putting safeguards in place.

Digital Literacy and Skills Development

Panellists emphasised the importance of digital literacy programmes and device access to enable widespread adoption of new technologies. Paula Ingabire stressed the need to drive both device access and digital literacy training, proposing a ‘vaccine model’ to aggregate demand for digital devices to lower costs for students. An audience member, Luana Janot from Brazil, raised the challenge of shifting culture to embrace AI technology, highlighting that digital adoption issues extend beyond Africa.

Robert F. Smith emphasised the importance of local leadership in digital initiatives, a point that resonated with other panellists’ calls for African-led solutions. Strive Masiyiwa highlighted the success of the Africa Medical Supplies Platform during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was developed with Fatoumata Ba’s help, as an example of effective African-led digital solutions.

Conclusion and Future Directions

The discussion concluded with a recognition of both the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging technologies. African leaders expressed determination to build homegrown solutions and infrastructure to drive the continent’s digital future. Strive Masiyiwa announced a new World Economic Forum initiative to drive AI growth and prosperity in Africa, building on the Edison Alliance work.

Several key questions emerged for future consideration, including how to ensure growth and prosperity in Africa using AI, create more domestic venture capital, democratise access to compute capacity across different African countries, and develop compute infrastructure within Africa to ensure sovereignty over AI development.

Overall, the discussion painted a picture of a continent poised for digital transformation, facing significant challenges but also demonstrating innovative approaches and strong leadership in addressing the digital divide and leveraging AI for development. The conversation underscored the need for equitable global partnerships in AI and digital technologies, with a strong emphasis on African-led initiatives and solutions tailored to local contexts.

Karen Tso: Thank you so much for joining us today. I’m Karen Tso from CNBC, anchor of Squawk Box Europe, and it is my absolute pleasure to be here today. To me the future of the digital landscape is one of the most important conversations we can have this week in the context of the intelligent age. Technology promises to democratise access to just about everything, but it also threatens to drive a wedge through society for those who don’t have access to the same connectivity or possess the skill set to navigate the digital world. Edison Alliance, since its launch in 2021, has been highlighting problems with the digital divide, driving awareness and supporting action. It has over 300 initiatives globally, but there are concerns that huge AI hype and investments will divert resources away from closing the digital divide. Now I remind you to get involved with the panel, we’re going to open this up for discussion on the back of some of the speakers, and also you can get involved on social using hashtag WEF25. Well, let me introduce you to our speakers today. Joining us is Fatoumata Ba, Founder and Executive Chair of Django Capital. We also have joining us on stage Strive Masiyiwa, who is Founder and Executive Chairman, Cassava Technologies, and I’m pleased to introduce Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vista Equity Partners, and you will notice there will be a late addition to the panel too. We’re also waiting on the Honourable Paula Ingabire, who is the Minister of Innovation, Technology and Innovation of Rwanda, so if you see an extra panelist during the conversation, you know who it is. Robert, please, let me start with you and the Edison Alliance, a community of 200 partners with an impact on one billion lives, I’ll just repeat that, one billion lives. So you’ve managed to achieve change at scale. which is exactly what we’re looking for here in Davos. What are the elements behind the success of this initiative and how are those learnings over this Edison Alliance going to help us address the rest of the challenge with the digital divide?

Robert F. Smith: Great, Karen, thank you. And I’m excited today to represent the Edison Alliance. It’s interesting, when we had the challenge of the pandemic occur, we found ourselves wanting for connectivity in all societies. And as we determined what we needed to ensure that our businesses could function and we could actually manage supply chains to deliver products, we realized that there’s a huge gap. At that time, it was about, I think it was 3.5, 3.6 billion people were not online and did not have access to broadband. And so the Edison Alliance was born of that. We had a wonderful group of founding champions. Paula was one, and she’ll be here hopefully shortly. And Hans Vestberg, who was our chairman. We came up with a unique model and it was a model of champions. And as a champion, what you would do is you would identify ways in which you, either the platforms that you managed, controlled, owned, or had influence over, could bring to bear the connectivity and the connectivity state to a set of people or a community. And then we shared knowledge and information and wherewithal. And I think what made it successful, and we are now 1.2 billion people, 15 months ahead of schedule, is because we had a forum to connect. And in this case, it was World Economic Forum, Edison Alliance, and we connected and shared best practices. And we shared wherewithal and resources and how you tapped into those resources. So those 200 partners were able to leverage each other that led to real activities that changed people’s lives. There’s a couple of examples I’ll give you. One of which I think is actually quite, well, there’s a bunch of them, quite exciting. In India in particular, they. actually have a number of towers, you know, power towers, cell phone towers, et cetera, that have space around them, which are the, you know, the platforms on which they sit. And access to health care is always a challenge in most places. And so they started building, I’ll call them kiosks, because they have power, they have, you know, connectivity or communications right there so that people could actually go and use those to engage with the health care system. And it was used quite frequently by women who wouldn’t necessarily want to go, you know, and travel to the health care clinics. And so that became a very effective and useful way to use, you know, an underlying infrastructure to deliver health care into that environment. Another one in Saudi, which I’m quite excited to hear about how they identified and enabled a number of the women who don’t live in the main cities who were artisans and building products, to not only sell those products, but find out where the price of it, and make them available to other merchants. And the ability, and as I said, one of the things we did was we affected a lot of women in that context. So that was one of the goals and aims. But the ability to improve the condition of communities by accessing broadband, accessing technology, and then, of course, the applications, ultimately the things that created the utility associated with it. So we had very large global partners. We had folks like ourselves at Vista who are, you know, private equity firms engaged in various communities. And we were pretty excited, in fact, of meeting and exceeding our goal ahead of schedule. So how do you kick that forward to 2025? How is that relevant today? So I think that the relevancy, and Strive and I and Will and others were talking about is, how do you now think about the new challenges? So there’s still two and a half billion people who aren’t connected. And there’s, you know, folks, I know John Huntsman, I saw him earlier today, is working on part of that with MasterCard, et cetera. But what we’re going to do is continue to make this an extensible program to try to get to the, you know, the remaining two and a half billion. And, oh, by the way, we have a new challenge, this new kid on the block called, you know, Gen AI. And how do we enable communities? access to compute, access to utilize their creativity, and in many cases, also participate in the ecosystem that surrounds what Gen AI will be. So that’s the next challenge, and the next challenge has been offered to the Edison Alliance.

Karen Tso: That new kid on the block, we’re gonna be talking about a lot during this conversation, but Strive, let me turn to you, because Cassava Technologies is a telecoms and technology leader. Now, you’re a mentor as well. You’re a philanthropist. You’re sitting on boards like Netflix, Gates Foundation. I understand you’re working on a new initiative in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, so can you just share with us a little bit more about that and some of these collaborative efforts that help try and close the digital divide?

Strive Masiyiwa: No, thank you, and thank you so much for having me, and it’s great to see so many friends in the audience. Look, what we are announcing today is really to build on the extraordinary work done by the Edison Alliance, and now take that to the next level, which is how do we ensure growth and prosperity in Africa using AI, the opportunities that that will create? Because, of course, these are layers. Without the digital infrastructure, the connectivity, we can’t move to that next level. So see this as a continuation, a sort of Edison 2.0, shall we say, but it’s really to build, to expand this collaboration now to bring in the new partners that are at the center of the early phase of the AI, and also to help create African partners, and to accelerate, develop the entrepreneurial work that goes on in Africa so that they not only benefit as users of AI, but also as entrepreneurs building their own businesses, expanding existing businesses, creating jobs. for young people, expanding education and other opportunities, so it’s a great moment and we are extremely grateful to the World Economic Forum for inviting us to be partners with them in this. This will be very much an African-led initiative, but with global partners, and we hope that some of our partners here will join us in this work. How important is it that it’s African-led, just on that point? It’s very important, because Africans must develop Africa, it’s our continent, so we are the ones charged with the responsibility to develop and we are responsible to our people. Our governments are elected by our people, we talk of elections, 500 million Africans went to elections this year, so we are led in an environment where we are responsible and accountable to our people, therefore we must lead the development of our continent.

Robert F. Smith: If I could add just one point that strived, which was, I think, a fundamental pillar of why we were successful in the ASEAN Alliance, it was each of the initiatives was led by the local people.

Strive Masiyiwa: Correct.

Robert F. Smith: So it wasn’t a, here’s what works here, let’s dictate it there. It was, here’s what works, you can use it or not, but local people actually drove the change that fit their particular need, and I think that’s essential, and I think that’s a key learning that has to be respected, and frankly, and honoured, as you move to 2.0. I think that’s an important aspect of this.

Karen Tso: I want to hear from Fatoumata as well, because your background is so interesting, a mentee of STRIVE, a first unicorn launched from Africa, and of course now we’re talking about your role at Django Capital, you’ve been a huge champion of gender inclusion over the years. You’ve included leading Africa’s largest gender equal tech fund. So just tell us from your perspective, as we talk about some of the barriers here, about advancing gender inclusion in the digital future, what can we think about? about how we collectively accelerate progress for women in particular?

Fatoumata Ba: Thank you, Karen. It’s such an important question and a topic so close to my heart. When we look at the barriers that women are facing in Africa in terms of digital inclusion, I can share at least three of them. I would say the first one is really access. According to studies, roughly half of women still don’t have access to broadband, and that’s why the work of the Edison Alliance, for instance, is so important. As Karen mentioned, I co-founded Africa’s first Unicorn, which is a large e-commerce platform, and across all countries where we are number one, we always have 70% male shoppers and only 30% male shoppers, so the access issue is very critical. The second issue would be digital literacy, and here as well, when there is a will, there is a way. I remember, for instance, my first and largest seller of mobile phones in Cote d’Ivoire was a woman called Madame Diaby, who used to go to Dubai every two weeks or to China to get mobile phones. I went and I was like, you can partner with me and I will get you on the Amazon of Africa, and you can use that to develop your business, and she was like, what is internet? Being a bit provocative. We had to find a way, looping in a local university, Polytechnique Oufé-Boigny, to train young people to be the head of e-commerce for this type of sellers and build capacity for them to be able to leapfrog as well their own businesses. But the elephant in the room, and the third topic, which is very, very important for me to tackle, is really the access to capital. I think in this very audience a few years back, McKinsey released a study called The Power of Parity, showing how bridging gender equality could unlock 26% extra GDP globally. In Africa it’s actually 10% extra GDP globally that we can unlock if we have more female entrepreneurs. An African woman actually has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship globally at 26%. Yet, according to the African Development Bank, they are facing a $42 billion spending gap. And that’s exactly why I decided, after IPO, to really become an investor myself, paid forward, and launched a venture capital fund, committing to invest at least 50% for proceeds to start-ups founded, co-founded and benefiting women. And now we are at FEN2, it’s today’s largest gender-equal tech fund, and FEN1 has been extremely successful, with 13x MOIC, when we were expected to return 3x the capital we were trusted with, and it shows that there is a business case for investing in women entrepreneurs.

Karen Tso: Fatoumata, I have a question here, and I’m not sure it just applies to Africa. I’m going to pitch it to you, but it may be relevant for other countries as well. How do we cultivate more unicorns and digital entrepreneurship across the African continent? I think a lot of countries are thinking about that through their own lens.

Fatoumata Ba: You’re very right, it’s a global question. Actually overall, globally, you have less than 2% of women that have access to VC funding, and even to loans. Last year I was with Melinda Gates advocating for access to loans when the numbers were similar, 2% to 3% access to loans for females globally. And there is a strong paradox, because women-led companies are actually able to deliver, I think, around 63% more return for one dollar invested than their male counterparts. To your question specifically about unicorn, I would like to share a few examples. For instance, in Africa you had roughly 11 companies that have been on unicorn at any point of time. And when you look at what they are doing, they are actually really serving the needs of the people. So one, they are expanding access to essential services. It can be financial services, it can be products. If you take the example of Jumia, it’s not because we were Brian Codders, it’s because you have in the US one retail outlet for every 400 inhabitants, when in Africa it’s one for every 60,000 inhabitants. So people need and have the right to have the same access to quality products than everywhere else in the world. And when you look at Flutter Wave, for instance, and many other African unicorns, they are in fintech. We have 600 million people that are unbanked in Africa, but we don’t see it only as a challenge, we see it as an opportunity. At the same time, if you take a country like Kenya, you have more than half of the GDP going through mobile payments. Actually, 48% of the global mobile money activity globally is in Africa. And that’s explained how you have so many unicorns. So beyond more access to capital overall, beyond female entrepreneurs, we need startups that are really leveraging technology to leapfrog development in terms of access to essential services, fintech, access to market for SMEs, it’s super important as a backbone for economies, and more importantly, access to jobs. I think Strive mentioned how we have, you know, this issue of job creation, which is really haunting us all. We create 3 million jobs per year in Africa, when we need roughly 30 million net jobs to be able to absorb all demographic growth, and there will need to be more entrepreneurs creating jobs for themselves, but also for their peers.

Karen Tso: I want to talk a little bit more about new technologies and what’s coming. And of course, we’re talking about convergence of technologies, your point around layers as well. 5G, something we’ve been talking about for a long time, the Internet of Things, big data, and of course now generative AI and how that threatens to change the landscape again. How do we think about these technologies and how they exacerbate the digital divide? Let me come to you first on that, Robert. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities here? Because something I heard this time last year was that, look, AI is fantastic. It’s going to help countries with lower skill sets level up to more advanced nations. But here in 2025, I’m not as convinced about that story.

Robert F. Smith: I think there can be some of that. It, you know, the use cases, access and availability of compute capabilities, education will all play into the rubric. I think what’s occurring is, you know, as you go through these S curves of adoption of these general purpose technologies, which Gen AI is one, it depends on where you stop. If you’re focused on driving what I’ll call kind of the foundational development, then that’s, you know, billions of dollars, trillions of dollars. dollars ultimately being plowed into that. But I think those who are actually focusing on the application of the current state will capture a vast majority of the productivity that this tool, this technology will yield. And depending upon the current state of your economy and the current state of the business and the infrastructure, you hopefully can, I’ll call it outrun in some respects the productivity that may come from other countries that may eliminate the need for certain job classes to exist in your country. So I think the politicians in all countries will have a unique set of challenges here in the next few years. And the reason I say that is this general purpose technology is massively productive. Our companies, we live in the world of the enterprise, so this is business to business software. It’s not consumer, it’s business to business. So this is highly essential software. We own now 89 companies, and we measure what is the productivity, the products that our companies sell to their customers every year. It’s still over 600% in what I’ll call a non-GEN AI enabled environment. GEN AI actually creates exponential returns relative to that. So I like to say if you’re a small business, your next best purchase is or any business buying more software. Small businesses, the ROI is closer to 900%. You take an entrepreneur and all of a sudden you put a billing system in a scheduling system. All those sorts of things change the dynamic of utilization of capital and resources that improve your ability to access your customers. When you start adding agents, GEN AI agents to your workforce that don’t sleep, it depends upon how you use them in the business environment. If you’re using them for personal, you use them episodically. In essence, if you actually embed them in GEN AI, in enterprise systems, they’re on all the time. So they create massive productivity that the way I like to think about it, there are about a billion knowledge workers on the planet. and there’s about $40 trillion in spend for those knowledge workers, all those become at risk in some way, shape or form to gen AI. In some cases-

Karen Tso: They don’t just get augmented?

Robert F. Smith: It depends. Some will be augmented and enabling, and some there will be no reason for them to exist. And so that’s the delicate balance that we will all face over these next 24, 36, 48 months as the infrastructure gets completed and that access to the compute becomes available. Then it’s a cost question. What’s the cost of the compute to utilize these agents versus what’s the cost to keep a standard system in place utilizing people?

Karen Tso: Strive, I know you want to come in, but I just want to welcome the minister and introduce you again. Thank you so much for joining us, Minister Paula Ingebier. In fact, it was a conversation that we were on stage last year having about digital AI capabilities. And fast forward to 2025, what are you seeing? How is your government preparing for the intelligent age? And are you hopeful that AI may close the digital divide, or is that not really an optimistic scenario that’s going to play out?

Paula Ingabire: Thank you very much. And apologies, I was running late on another session where I was speaking. Am I confident? I think I just came from a session where we’re discussing the potential for AI for small states. And one of the key conversations we’re having was around the fact that if we’re not careful, AI will exacerbate the digital divide. But I think it’s also, we still have an opportunity to think through, what does it mean if we truly want to be intentional and deliberate about closing the gap? Thinking about how we democratize access to compute capacity, how we democratize access to the different training models that are out there, how we build the right human capital and capacity that is required to drive AI adoption across different African countries. And those are some of the things that are central to. to the national AI and policy and strategy that Rwanda has in really thinking about these building blocks that are so critical for us to be able to benefit from the promises that AI presents us, but also at the same time thinking about the risks. And when you think about risks, it’s one of those areas where there’s going to be a need for regional and global collaboration in thinking through how do we mitigate some of these risks, how do we put in place the right safeguards and guardrails to really address these risks. And so for Rwanda, our focus is going to be on really, even for us as a public sector, identifying use cases that are going to transform public sector delivery. We want to be able to lead the way. We can’t only put on a hat of regulations and policymaking. We also want to be able to experiment with the potential of AI across different fields of public sector. And that gives us an advantage point of making sure that when we set the regulations and policies we are coming from a place of understanding how these are being used even in the public sector and how we can use these pieces of legislation to enable innovation within the private sector. And for these partnerships are going to be very crucial to get that done.

Karen Tso: Minister, thank you in strife. Let me just pivot back to you. I know you wanted to respond, but whether compute power is a sovereign issue, I think it’s fascinating from here, who controls access. And we know already there’s a couple of borders that have gone up around access to chips. So just weigh in.

Strive Masiyiwa: If I may, let me come back to the question you asked, Fatoumata, which is how do we develop Africa’s unicorns? It’s simple, the way others have done it. You see, we’ve got to, you know, let’s, and I also want to speak here to African policymakers. You know, you do not fund startups with debt. You provide equity capital, venture capital. There is no domestic venture capital. So where do these young people get the money to fund these businesses? We don’t have a problem of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship in Africa, we have a lot of entrepreneurs, more than in any developed country because our kids leave school knowing that if you don’t start something, you’re not going to be employed. We have entrepreneurs, women. The challenge is simply we have not put in place an ecosystem to support startups. There’s no concept of it, and until we tackle that, Minister, we will disadvantage our own young people. I have a platform where I interact with almost six million young African entrepreneurs. I told them to listen to this show, and I can tell you they’re listening. I told them, and whenever I asked them, what is your challenge? They say capital. We have no access. We can’t borrow. We have no generational assets to go back to our parents to borrow from. So how are we supposed to fund these businesses? So the thing is they start stuff because they can borrow a little bit here, and they go in circles because there’s no capital for that.

Karen Tso: Strav, let me give you a targeted example. Large language models. France has got a great example of this. Industrial AI created almost overnight, thanks to a couple of rounds of funding, and then inked a deal with a massive American company, Microsoft, so it had further access to grow its business, but also access to a revenue model. Are you saying there’s nothing like that that exists in Africa?

Strive Masiyiwa: There’s nothing. You know, the anthropics. All these young people in America that we’re watching building companies, we have them in Africa, too, except that no one’s going to give them $500 million or $100 million. Our continent is receiving less FDI with 1.3 billion people than the wonderful island of Singapore with 4 million people. How are we supposed to develop with those kind? You know, we’ve got to solve this problem. We as African leaders have to come into the room and have a conversation with you as investors and say, what’s missing here? Why can’t we get this going? Okay? Because we will still come back and talk about the same issues. So that’s on the capital side. When it comes to the digital infrastructure that we need to do, you know, those of us who have had the opportunity to be able to at least break out of this, we’ve been building digital infrastructure. In preparation for the requirements of AI, we face similar challenges and bottlenecks as everybody else, compute in particular. But it’s, look, given the, if AI is as important and as significant as we all say it is, and it is, then you have to respect the sovereignty of it. The compute for Africa will have to be in Africa. It’s not negotiable. You know, this idea that we can do compute from elsewhere for Africa to benefit from, that’s not going to work. We need access to chips just like everybody else. And we need to build compute for our educational infrastructure, for our government data systems. And that’s just a fact. So, but we’re going to do it in collaboration with others. We need investors to come in. We need to build the data centers. We need to build the power infrastructure. We’re facing the same bottlenecks that this industry is creating, but perhaps on a more acute basis. But as an entrepreneur, I say, bring it on. It’s opportunity for us. But it’s just the way it’s going to have to go.

Karen Tso: Fatoumata, do you want to weigh in on that too?

Fatoumata Ba: Well, I couldn’t agree more. I think basically we are 17% of the global population in Africa, but we are only 2% of the FDA But also 2% of the global VC funding so there is funding but there is not enough based on the scale and the speed that we need to be able to To tackle on our issues and also this little funding is very inequitably Accessible so I mentioned the gender gap, but you also have issues for instance you have like most Countries that are raising money that are anglophone countries so 80% of the deals are concentrated in Nigeria Egypt Kenya and South Africa When we say that tech is gonna leapfrog development is even more needed in what we call fragile states We also have PE industry that is more mature than the VC and as you know the toughest thing about building a startup is starting up you have a 70% death rate Under year three that’s a death valley which means early stage funds are very very important and and last but not least If you are trying to raise money for FinTech, it’s easier if you are trying to raise money for energy It’s easier if you are trying to raise money for fashion or education or health care. It’s very tough. You don’t have thematic funds I could not agree more and maybe one last thing On this equation because we’ve been talking about that in so many forums So for FDI there is a risk perception that is very strong that is not very equitable because if you look at macros for instance India is raising between 8 and 20 more VC than Africa, but we have the same population. We have the same GDP We actually have more internet users more mobile phone users in Africa than India in excess of hundreds of millions And in terms of unlocking local capital, we really need pension fund asset owners to trust really as a Local VC because there is there are assets So for instance, if you look at how many percentage of the GDP was a share of the GDP from African pension funds insurance Insurers banks that are invested outside of Africa. It’s actually 26% of the GDP So we need to also create trust in that asset class locally as well as internationally

Karen Tso: I want to pick up on Strive’s point around access to AI chips and this It may possibly be the first panel in Davos that has gotten through 20 minutes without mentioning Trump. So…so, here we are. Several years back, Trump set the ball in motion for countries to rip out technology, cheaper Chinese technology, that had been effectively in core networks. The Huawei story, and we were at the front and centre of covering that. This had an impact even on cash-starved European telecommunications companies, let alone further beyond. Think fast-forward to 2024. We had Biden also restricting access to AI chips. Now, as we talk about Trump 2.0, Minister, let me ask you, could he get in the way of planning for a digital future?

Paula Ingabire: I think, yes. And again, coming back to some of the comments that have been made around what is going to be the fastest and quickest way to democratising this access. Again, the conversations are happening at multiple levels and different platforms. But I don’t… My belief is that we haven’t moved away from simply having these conversations and actually having action towards understanding that how much of this capacity can be made available for emerging economies and, you know, low-middle-income countries that really need this and want to be at the forefront of how we can adopt, you know, AI and with the much-needed infrastructure that is required. And so what that leaves is, you know, a scenario or a situation where everyone is going to find a partner who is willing to provide that infrastructure. And so if you can find a partner that is going to enable you and give you that support, then you’re definitely going to go with them. And then there’s all this, you know, global dialogue and the geopolitics around it, which is definitely going to play very heavily around that. I’ve been around in platforms where conversations have been, you know, centred around how can the big countries have excess capacity that can be left out for the small countries. And I don’t think that’s the conversation we should be having. We shouldn’t be talking about how much access capacity does country X have to give country Y. It should be how do we make sure that every country, regardless of your capacity, your financial power, your economic power, how much access can you be, prioritization can you also be given, so that you can also develop really at the same level. And so I think this is going to force for new partnerships to be forged, and obviously the geopolitics will play in, but this is something that is definitely worth looking out for.

Karen Tso: Early, we touched on digital literacy. I think that is a challenge of this age for many countries as we talk about augmenting, working with AI. What is your country doing over the last 12 months that really takes you forward to conquer some of those issues and digital skill sets?

Paula Ingabire: So we’ve had a number of things, of programs that are running in terms of building digital literacy, and one of the things that we’ve done has been to, one, go into the education system, all the way from primary school to tertiary levels, and ensuring that we have digital literacy programs that are coming through, and the reality is that when we start to think about digital literacy training, we cannot unlock that without also thinking about device access, because at the end of the day, how do people get trained on digital literacy? They need the digital tools to actually be trained. And so that’s why there’s been an active effort to drive both device access, whether it’s a smartphone for citizens that are trying to access government services online, or even laptops and tablets for students in schools, so that at least we are driving both the agenda of digital access together with digital literacy. Now, again, the gap is big. I remember we’ve had conversations where we’re looking at, for Rwanda, a population of 14 million people, we have a student population of about three million students. If you look at that sheer number and how much money is required to make sure that every student has a device in their hands, it’s quite a big number. If we then look at this from Nigeria perspective, or Ethiopia, or Kenya, then the number is even much bigger. been discussing with organizations like UNICEF is almost using the vaccine model, where you aggregate demand, you’re able to talk to the companies that are manufacturing these devices, and you can lower the cost, and then create device financing models around an even lower cost for these devices so that we can be able to do that. I want to come to one last thing, which was funding, that both Strive spoke about, which again, some of the challenges that we see, and we first, let’s say, and I’ll take an example for Rwanda, you meet venture capitalists who will tell you, we don’t see investable companies. Then you meet the companies who are saying, we don’t see the funds. So there’s always almost that conflict. And so we’ve had to ask ourselves, even as a government, where do we play to support this synergy? Do we create an early stage financing facility that provides grants and supports these startups to take up? In reality, we probably will not even have sufficient funds as a government to sort of support, but at least we need to start somewhere and sort of like create catalytic financing that can bring in more partners that sort of think about the different growth stages of a startup and the kind of financing that is required to get there. And so it’s a big challenge when we think about scale, but again, I think this is where I come back to the concept of partnerships and understanding what role does government play? How do we provide that catalytic financing and bring in the philanthropists, the big businesses in the economy that can sort of support this kind of innovation happening within the economy? And in reality, there’s no one size fits all on how this can be done, but I think for governments we always try to experiment with different models on how we can support startups.

Karen Tso: Minister, thank you very much for that. And I have promised to take a question or two from the audience, and we do have a terrific audience. So we have a microphone around if anyone would like to pitch a question, please stand up, put your hand up. and we’ll bring the microphone to you. I’ve got a couple of questions here down the front. So if you just want to, if you have a particular person to direct the question at, feel free to.

Audience: Hi, everyone. I’m Luana Janot from IDBR Brazil, based in Rio de Janeiro. And basically, I want to hear from you all your thoughts about how can we actually raise this digital literacy in countries from the global south, especially in Brazil, but in aspects of why. Because, for instance, to provide motivation for professors or students or even employers in companies, we need actually to shift the cultures. In Brazil, there is a huge gap in terms of infrastructure, and we also need to actually motivate people, not only by the lack of infrastructure, but also through culture. So they cannot see AI as a fear, but also as a motivation to use it. So we develop an AI in Brazil to basically try to motivate people. But I want to hear your thoughts on how can we motivate more people to get into that.

Karen Tso: Robert, do you want to tackle that?

Audience: Thank you.

Robert F. Smith: Sure. And I want to also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t hit a couple of points. You know, one thing that’s interesting, I agree that each country should have its own, in essence, sovereignty around the data set for its citizenry. The interesting thing is, for a lot of the use case applications, you don’t need these H100s, H200s to do that. It’s a pretty simple set, often, of engagements with the government. Now, health care data is a whole different thing, but you don’t need that. So it actually doesn’t necessarily fall into some of the constraints that are likely going to be imposed on what chips are available to whom. So there’s a different model that has to be thought about, and a different paradigm that has to be evaluated, that says, how do you use a different set of solutions? sets within constrained environments that actually give you the same outputs and the same capability to lower cost and lower power and lower, lower, you know, call it, you know, total footprint. And I think that’s the model that needs to be thought about for those sort of applications and use cases.

Karen Tso: But is that coming? It’s not there yet, is it?

Robert F. Smith: No, it’s there. We do it now. We do it today, every day, in our businesses. On AI solutions? Oh, absolutely. And they don’t use the utilization of, you know, racks of H100 servers to manage a property and casualty insurance claim.

Karen Tso: Why not? Lack of expertise in technology?

Robert F. Smith: No, it just doesn’t… No, I’m saying that the system does not require that level of power and inference state in order to solve the problem. And so as a result of that, you don’t need to spend, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. Everyone thinks you do, but for certain use cases you do, but in certain use cases you don’t. And managing data around, you know, property data in a country or the use case in a country for, you know, managing parking ticket, you don’t need that. And so I think there needs to be rethought the model about what you actually need. Part of that actually feeds a little bit of your program is, you know, how do you teach and train and develop? You don’t have to teach and train and develop on the latest. Remember that S-curve I was talking about? You don’t have to be, you know, building out, you know, large-scale foundational models to use inference state to solve unique problems for a community. And so I think there has to be a… You have to use it, and you have to think about it, and you have to engage in people who do this for a living to find use cases and solutions for your exact problem, and then decide at what scale do you actually need to utilize current and existing gen AI systems versus some, you know, AGI systems later. So I think you now have to dissect this problem in the solution sets that fit the problem in order to solve some of the, call it the Edison 2.0 issues, right? And I think that’s where we need to really focus our time as a group and say, okay, what do you actually need? And at what size and what scale to solve the problems for the city? citizenry of that country. And at some point, you’re going to want your citizenry to use it for fashion and design. That’s a whole different creative state than solving a property and casualty insurance claim. I mean, there’s defined states of output there that you don’t need H100s for.

Strive Masiyiwa: I want H100s.

Robert F. Smith: You should get them.

Strive Masiyiwa: And I want them now. And I’m going to hold them out in Africa. We’re going to do it. We cannot have 1.3 billion people and others have the infrastructure. This particular infrastructure is non-negotiable. We’re going to get it, and we’re going to build it, and the entrepreneurs are there to do it. And I’m coming to Robert for the money. I just have to persuade him on the return. No, you know, I take on board much of what you say, Robert. But part of our own sense of dignity and sense of progress requires that we must lead with some of our own solutions. But you know, to close off what you talked about vaccines, Fatoumata and I, I was the African COVID czar. And I called out for young people to step forward and help me. And we particularly had a problem, which is how do we aggregate the few? We were in the market struggling to get access to vaccines, to PPE, all these things. And my young mentee here, she came and worked for me full time. And she built the platform. She put the team together that built the platform called the Africa Medical Supplies Platform that enabled Africa to deliver vaccines, therapeutics. We had the lowest death rate per capita. of any region of the world, and she helped do it.

Karen Tso: Now, the problem with 45 minutes is it goes very, very quickly, and we are actually out of time, despite how wonderful this conversation is. And I would so love to take more questions, but I’m going to have to wrap up and say thank you very much to our panellists. We do appreciate your valuable contribution today. So, thank you very much to Robert, to Minister, to Strive and to Fatoumata. We do appreciate your contribution. Thank you. Thank you, Strive. That’s so kind of you. It’s all yours. You’re the world.

Agreement Points

Need to close the digital divide

speakers

– Robert F. Smith
– Paula Ingabire
– Strive Masiyiwa
– Fatoumata Ba

arguments

Edison Alliance has connected 1.2 billion people to broadband, ahead of schedule

Need to democratize access to compute capacity and AI training models

Compute infrastructure for Africa needs to be built in Africa

Women face barriers in digital access, literacy, and access to capital

summary

All speakers emphasized the importance of closing the digital divide by improving access to technology, infrastructure, and digital skills across different demographics and regions.

Importance of local leadership and tailored solutions

speakers

– Robert F. Smith
– Paula Ingabire
– Strive Masiyiwa

arguments

Importance of local leadership in digital initiatives

Need to identify AI use cases to transform public sector delivery

Compute infrastructure for Africa needs to be built in Africa

summary

Speakers agreed on the importance of local leadership and tailored solutions in driving digital initiatives and AI adoption, emphasizing the need for solutions that fit specific regional contexts.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted the challenges of accessing capital for startups and entrepreneurs in Africa, emphasizing the need for more equitable distribution of funding across the continent.

speakers

– Strive Masiyiwa
– Fatoumata Ba

arguments

Lack of domestic venture capital hinders startup growth

Inequitable access to funding, with concentration in few countries

Unexpected Consensus

Not all AI applications require high-end infrastructure

speakers

– Robert F. Smith
– Paula Ingabire

arguments

Not all AI applications require high-end chips like H100s

Need to drive both device access and digital literacy training

explanation

Despite the general emphasis on advanced infrastructure, there was an unexpected consensus that many AI applications can be implemented with simpler, more accessible technology, which could have significant implications for AI adoption in developing countries.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement included the need to close the digital divide, the importance of local leadership in digital initiatives, and the challenges of accessing capital for startups in Africa.

Consensus level

There was a moderate to high level of consensus among the speakers on the main challenges and priorities for digital development in Africa and other developing regions. This consensus suggests a shared understanding of the key issues, which could facilitate coordinated efforts to address these challenges. However, there were some differences in emphasis and approach, particularly regarding the level of infrastructure needed for AI adoption.

Different Viewpoints

Need for high-end AI infrastructure in Africa

speakers

– Robert F. Smith
– Strive Masiyiwa

arguments

Not all AI applications require high-end chips like H100s

Compute infrastructure for Africa needs to be built in Africa

summary

Robert F. Smith argues that many AI applications don’t require advanced chips like H100s, while Strive Masiyiwa insists on building high-end compute infrastructure in Africa for sovereignty and development.

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

The main area of disagreement revolves around the level of AI infrastructure needed in Africa and how to approach AI adoption.

difference_level

The level of disagreement is moderate. While all speakers agree on the importance of AI and closing the digital divide, they have different perspectives on the best approach. This disagreement could impact policy decisions and investment strategies for AI development in Africa.

Partial Agreements

Both agree on the need for AI access, but differ on the approach. Smith suggests using simpler solutions for specific problems, while Ingabire emphasizes democratizing access to high-end compute capacity.

speakers

– Robert F. Smith
– Paula Ingabire

arguments

Not all AI applications require high-end chips like H100s

Need to democratize access to compute capacity and AI training models

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted the challenges of accessing capital for startups and entrepreneurs in Africa, emphasizing the need for more equitable distribution of funding across the continent.

speakers

– Strive Masiyiwa
– Fatoumata Ba

arguments

Lack of domestic venture capital hinders startup growth

Inequitable access to funding, with concentration in few countries

Key Takeaways

The digital divide remains a significant challenge, with efforts like the Edison Alliance making progress but much work still to be done

Africa faces major barriers in digital entrepreneurship, particularly around access to venture capital and equity funding

AI is expected to drive massive productivity gains but also poses risks to knowledge worker jobs

Geopolitical issues around access to AI chips and compute power are a growing concern for developing nations

Digital literacy and skills development are crucial, requiring both infrastructure access and cultural shifts

Resolutions and Action Items

Announcement of a new World Economic Forum initiative to drive AI growth and prosperity in Africa, building on the Edison Alliance work

Call for increased domestic venture capital and equity funding for African startups

Proposal to use a ‘vaccine model’ to aggregate demand for digital devices to lower costs for students

Unresolved Issues

How to effectively democratize access to AI compute capacity and training models for developing nations

Balancing AI productivity gains with potential job losses, especially in knowledge work

How to shift cultural perceptions to embrace AI technology in countries like Brazil

Addressing the significant gender gap in access to digital technology and funding

Suggested Compromises

Using simpler AI solutions that don’t require high-end chips for many government and business applications in developing countries

Governments providing catalytic financing to support startup ecosystems, even if unable to fully fund them

At that time, it was about, I think it was 3.5, 3.6 billion people were not online and did not have access to broadband. And so the Edison Alliance was born of that.

speaker

Robert F. Smith

reason

This comment highlighted the massive scale of the digital divide and set the stage for discussing concrete initiatives to address it.

impact

It framed the subsequent discussion around the urgency and importance of expanding digital access globally.

Without the digital infrastructure, the connectivity, we can’t move to that next level. So see this as a continuation, a sort of Edison 2.0, shall we say, but it’s really to build, to expand this collaboration now to bring in the new partners that are at the center of the early phase of the AI, and also to help create African partners, and to accelerate, develop the entrepreneurial work that goes on in Africa so that they not only benefit as users of AI, but also as entrepreneurs building their own businesses, expanding existing businesses, creating jobs.

speaker

Strive Masiyiwa

reason

This comment insightfully linked basic digital infrastructure to more advanced AI capabilities, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach to digital development in Africa.

impact

It shifted the conversation to focus on Africa-specific challenges and opportunities, particularly around entrepreneurship and job creation through AI.

An African woman actually has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship globally at 26%. Yet, according to the African Development Bank, they are facing a $42 billion spending gap.

speaker

Fatoumata Ba

reason

This comment provided a striking statistic that highlighted both the potential and challenges for women entrepreneurs in Africa.

impact

It focused attention on gender-specific issues within the broader digital divide discussion and led to more conversation about access to capital.

GEN AI actually creates exponential returns relative to that. So I like to say if you’re a small business, your next best purchase is or any business buying more software.

speaker

Robert F. Smith

reason

This insight highlighted the transformative potential of AI for businesses of all sizes.

impact

It shifted the discussion towards the practical applications and economic impacts of AI adoption.

The compute for Africa will have to be in Africa. It’s not negotiable. You know, this idea that we can do compute from elsewhere for Africa to benefit from, that’s not going to work. We need access to chips just like everybody else.

speaker

Strive Masiyiwa

reason

This forceful statement emphasized the importance of technological sovereignty for Africa’s development.

impact

It sparked a deeper discussion about the geopolitical aspects of AI and compute infrastructure access.

We shouldn’t be talking about how much access capacity does country X have to give country Y. It should be how do we make sure that every country, regardless of your capacity, your financial power, your economic power, how much access can you be, prioritization can you also be given, so that you can also develop really at the same level.

speaker

Paula Ingabire

reason

This comment reframed the issue of AI access from one of charity to one of equitable development and global cooperation.

impact

It broadened the conversation to consider global policy approaches to ensuring fair AI access.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by progressively expanding its scope from basic digital access to advanced AI capabilities, while consistently emphasizing African perspectives and needs. The conversation evolved from discussing broad global initiatives to examining specific challenges and opportunities in Africa, particularly around entrepreneurship, gender equity, and technological sovereignty. The speakers built on each other’s points to create a multifaceted picture of the digital divide and potential solutions, with a strong emphasis on the need for African-led development and equitable global partnerships in AI and digital technologies.

How can we ensure growth and prosperity in Africa using AI?

speaker

Strive Masiyiwa

explanation

This is important as it represents the next phase of digital development in Africa, building on the work of the Edison Alliance.

How can we create more domestic venture capital in Africa?

speaker

Strive Masiyiwa

explanation

This is crucial for funding startups and fostering entrepreneurship in Africa, as current lack of capital is a major barrier.

How can we democratize access to compute capacity and training models for AI across different African countries?

speaker

Paula Ingabire

explanation

This is essential for ensuring African countries can benefit from AI and not fall further behind in the digital divide.

How can we identify and implement AI use cases to transform public sector delivery in Rwanda?

speaker

Paula Ingabire

explanation

This is important for demonstrating the potential of AI in government services and informing policy-making.

How can we develop compute infrastructure within Africa to ensure sovereignty over AI development?

speaker

Strive Masiyiwa

explanation

This is critical for Africa’s technological independence and ability to fully participate in the AI revolution.

How can we create new partnerships to ensure access to AI chips and infrastructure for developing countries?

speaker

Paula Ingabire

explanation

This is necessary to overcome geopolitical restrictions and ensure equitable access to AI technology.

How can we implement the ‘vaccine model’ for aggregating demand and lowering costs of digital devices for students?

speaker

Paula Ingabire

explanation

This approach could help overcome the challenge of providing digital access to large student populations in Africa.

How can governments create early-stage financing facilities to support startups and bridge the gap between investors and companies?

speaker

Paula Ingabire

explanation

This is important for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in developing economies.

How can we motivate people in countries like Brazil to embrace AI and digital literacy, overcoming cultural barriers?

speaker

Audience member (Luana Janot)

explanation

This is crucial for increasing digital adoption and skills in developing countries.